Isen Kipetu’s voice echoes and carries weight within wildlife conservation boardrooms in and around the Maasai Mara. But her life in advocacy began in the quiet Maasai village of Enkupelia, hemmed in by the hills of Pardamat, where resilience was woven early into her childhood.
From a young age, Isen grew up holding onto the pride of her Maasai heritage, especially the rich cultural practices that have made her community one of the most recognised globally. Still, some customs needed to be discarded, key among them, female genital mutilation, a rite of passage that has persisted despite concerted efforts from the highest offices in the land to eradicate.
“FGM is like a curse,” she says. “Can you believe even some churches announce home celebrations following the cut? FGM is physically and psychologically traumatising. Some girls have been badly infected, sometimes fatally. It is a symbol of the worst form of oppression.”
It is such retrogressive customs that Isen hoped to fight later on in life. Her cheerleader was right at her home. The chief programmes officer at Maa Trust learnt all that she knows about standing up for her people from her mother, who was widowed when she (Isen) was just four years old. Raised alongside two brothers and two sisters, her childhood memories are marked by both the tenderness and struggles of her mother.
In Maasai culture, a widow has little or no say in family property due to unwritten laws and traditions that perpetuate systemic disempowerment. Against this backdrop, Isen’s mother stood firm, refusing to be silenced or dispossessed of the assets she had built alongside her husband, thus becoming a beacon of resilience not only to her daughters but also to all the women and girls in the small Maasai enclave.
“Our home was always filled with women and girls seeking refuge and guidance and I grew up thinking they were my sisters,” says Isen. “In her own way, my mother became a women’s rights activist, especially for those who could not speak for themselves. I am the woman I am today because I had an extraordinary mentor. Many girls and women in the Maasai Mara do not have this opportunity. I want to be that person for them.”
Her mother’s spirit rubbed on her, and at 14, Isen had absorbed key lessons in courage and advocacy, and five years later, co-founded a community-based organisation, Maasai Action for Change, which promoted women’s rights and conservation in the Maasai Mara.
The group, she says, rescued girls from harmful practices such as FGM, supported women in reclaiming land lost through traditional courts, and created programs for persons living with disabilities, experiences that shaped her vision of leadership as a service and generosity as a force for positive change.
Isen’s journey led her to a career with the Maa Trust, an organisation that promotes conservation and sustainable development by empowering local communities in Maasailand. For the last eight years, she has risen from being a women empowerment coordinator to a project officer for gender and later, a social-economic empowerment manager and currently, the chief programmes officer who has helped establish 115 microfinance groups that provide financial inclusion to more than 2000 members.
In addition, Isen introduced the Street Business School Project that has trained over 250 entrepreneurs to build sustainable enterprises. She has also spearheaded the formation of the Women in Leadership Council, which has already reached over 4000 women through human rights training. One of her pet projects, Maa Bees, has helped the local community diversify their economic activities beyond pastoralism.
“Starting from junior positions and growing into senior leadership, I now focus on creating programs that impact communities, drive systemic change, and build platforms where passionate individuals can work effectively. Each of these initiatives reflects the belief that when communities are given opportunities, they gain not only economic stability but also confidence and a voice,” she says.
Such economic empowerment is fitting in a region where much of the land is set aside for wildlife conservation. From a young age, Isen has shared her home range with wild animals and as long as there was ample room for the animals to roam, conflicts between the two were kept to a bare minimum. However, as land continues to shrink due to subdivisions and an increase in both human and livestock populations, the Maasai community has no choice but to incorporate modern conservation methods to reduce human-wildlife conflicts and foster coexistence.
Isen’s organisation adopted the ‘give to gain’ mantra, where education, healthcare and economic empowerment initiatives showed the linkages between wildlife and development and that nature stewardship was not restrictive but a route to human development.
Isen champions a vision where women’s empowerment, community development, and wildlife conservation go hand in hand. Through partnerships with groups like Hemingways, she funds education, healthcare, and economic initiatives, while teaching that empowered women benefit everyone, including men.
Today, Maasai women lead in governance, families thrive, and communities embrace conservation as an opportunity, not a limitation.
