The Battle for Laikipia: intelligent film-making

THE BATTLE FOR LAIKIPIA
Directed by Daphne Matziaraki and Peter Murimi
Certificate: 12a
☆☆☆☆

THE Samburu are a nomadic group of people who farm cattle and travel across Kenya as they graze their livestock.

When Britain laid down an empire, settlers stole ancestral common lands and enclosed it for agriculture.

Now, four generations on, the simmering tensions between the “newcomers” – though as some of the white farmers interviewed in the film point out they are Kenyan, born and bred – and the families who have lived off the land for that much longer come to the fore in this documentary.
There is plenty to unpack.

The Laikipia plateau is the stage for human conflict, created by the climate crisis mixed with a colonial legacy. Directors Daphne Matziaraki and Peter Murimi spent years working on the film, and it shows in the depth they gain. They have managed to take a highly charged and contentious issue and win the trust of both slides. It’s careful, intelligent film-making and offers a valuable lesson to those creating reportage of the patience and tenacity required to do it properly. In this era of quick clickbait outrage, the film is a beacon of good judgment in storytelling.

The Europeans interviewed have taken to a stockade mentality – huge fences and aggression, backed up by arms.

With stunning photography, the sheer beauty of this land that feels cursed by human behaviour comes over.

The narrative also grabs you and holds as tensions mount. And while it is too often the case that the products of colonialism are immediately seen as the bad guys – after all, these are privileged white farmers whose ancestors behaved despicably – the farmers are given as much opportunity to explain their opinions and the financial and emotional investment they have.

We meet cattle herder Simeon, whose families rely on the beats for milk, broth, occasionally meat and cow hide. His humble life is a stark contrast to those of the ranchers, who live in relative luxury.

The man-made climate crisis has brought traditional, usually low key, clashes to the fore.

Drought has wrecked once lush pastures. It means the indigenous cattle drivers are searching further afield for grassland – and the owners of private ranches are desperate to protect what they believe is theirs.

What comes out of this timely, thoughtful film is a consideration of the issues over land, owner­ship, power, control, human impact on the natural world and the legacy of European Empires.