Debra Sanaipei is a 25-year-old law student. She is a Maasai, and lives in a predominantly Maasai region, west of Nairobi. Debra has lived and studied in Britain.

Being a Kenyan, you have to be interested in politics because politics really does run your life. Everybody is a politician in Kenya, and then being brought up in a family where your father is a serious politician, I really did soak up a lot on politics.

	I always used to think Moi had amazing qualities as a leader. He was one of those people that everybody was scared of

When we were being brought up, it was a one-party state. The only party was Kanu led by President Daniel arap Moi. I knew him as a person because I used to give him flowers from the tender age of six.

Did you ever see those little girls in white or yellow dresses, presenting him with flowers? Well that was my younger sister and I for many, many years. We did this until we were about 12, when we became a bit too old.

We used to be taken from school to come and give him flowers and we always used to enjoy it. He always used to ask to see us afterwards, and believe it or not, he always used to give us money. This was absolutely brilliant, but we have no idea what happened to the money because it was taken away from us.

Awesome power

I always used to think he had amazing qualities as a leader. He was one of those people that everybody was scared of. He has this amazing power over people and you could see that when you went to State House.

	I believe the next government will have a place for us… It will mean we will be able to further the education of our people, build our roads

Everybody would be rushing around. They would be nodding their heads at everything he said, and I just thought that was awesome power - I mean the terror involved… people were just terrified of him.

And this went all the way into wider society. You could just say "Moi", and everybody would be like "Oh My God", and start shaking.

And at the same time, people revered him and loved him. There were lots of songs people used to sing about him and the good things he had done, and even the Maasai were loyal, totally loyal to this man.

Unfortunately Maasailand and other marginalised areas really lagged behind in education, in everything. There was no development at all during the Moi era – which was a really sad thing because they voted for him every single election, every time, even when it came to multi-party elections, they always stuck with the president.

New hope

So it is amazing to see the kind of people who supported him the most are the people who lost out the most. He used to come once every five years just before elections and in the last elections, in 1997, he didn't even come at all. And if he did come, he never came by road, because the roads were so bad. He always came by helicopter.

The Maasai have been complaining about the roads – because that's the only way they can get their agricultural produce to the market. We own the most amazing tourism site in the world which is the Maasai Mara Game Reserve. And he never did anything about making the roads easier or education for the Maasai better.

It's such a shame that people like the Turkanas and Rendiles just blindly voted for this man because they were told to do so. They really never benefited.

And now that we have seen a new window of change – it's amazing. The Maasai have become more outspoken. There are more educated Maasai nowadays, and they are willing to speak against the old regime and they want to see some serious change. And this is when we will start seeing the Maasai making a difference and things being different in Maasailand.

I believe the next government will have a place for us, and then we will be able to tell them what we need. It will mean we will be able to further the education of our people, build our roads. We will be able to make the Maasai Mara more accessible, which will mean more tourists and more money for the Maasai.