You might have heard about the Maasai people before coming to Kenya. They are found around popular national parks in Kenya like Maasai Mara and Amboseli. Tourists often maasai villages while on safari in these parks. These might not be authentic experiences as most of these villages receive tourists almost on an hourly basis. Some unseen men have turned this into business as anyone would given such hourly opportunities. They have added more huts, recruited more vulnerable people, placed relevant people at strategic positions to say all that tourists want to hear. Unfortunately this has become a tradeoff of their traditions as they have become used to the modern life introduced in these hourly visits. This has also presented exploitation of the vulnerable and innocent persons.
Our village tour is an authentic experience. Only our company visits this particular village and our visits are limited to client's booking. This ensures that the Maasais from this village do not get hooked on to tourists' way of life. At the end of the day we leave you to judge the authenticity of this experience.
From cooking ugali in a manyatta, beadwork, lighting a fire traditionally, milking a sheep, dancing, singing and jumping, you get to experience the authentic daily life of a Maasai.
We pick you up from your hotel and drive for 2.5 hours to the village. An authentic Maasai village can only be found away from the cities. We offer two optional stopovers which also serve as bathroom breaks as there are no toilets at the village. Along the way, you get to see the change in climate, economic activities and lifestyle among the people.
If you book the tour on either Monday or Friday, we pass by a livestock market which happens to be the second biggest in Kenya with livestock coming from as far as Tanzania. We also go into one of the makeshift kiosks operated by women serving as restaurants for the livestock traders.
We visit the local primary school on request.
Before we get to the village, we brief you on all the activities that you perform while at the village. Your guide will be with you in all the activities. After you are done with the activities, the Maasais display some of the handmade items. Buying any of this items is optional. You also get a chance to donate. This is also optional.
Our stay in the village lasts 2 hours. After saying our goodbyes, we head back to your hotel. We always stop on request for lunch or bathroom break.
While on this tour, feel free to investigate and ask about the exploitation of such vulnerable poor people by tour companies. We show you our payment methodology and tell you our structures to make sure all villagers are remunerated well and equally. We might be the only company that pays the Maasais that turn up individually. While on the visit, our guide fills an online register to indicate presence or absence of individuals then payment is done after the visit via 'M-Pesa' to everyone.
