By Greg Moore, The Kansas City Star

NAIROBI, Kenya | The long rains failed again in East Africa this year. And thanks to El Nino the short rains are heavier than normal.

You might think this would even out, but instead it’s exacerbating a crisis. And staring squarely into the face of calamity are the Maasai people, perhaps the most famous ethnic group in the region.

Planting season, between April and June in this part of the world, is not supposed to be dry. But neither prayer nor hope made the rain fall. The resulting drought has created a disaster on several fronts.

People are dying. And the survivors are desperate.

Relief organizations have been tripping over each other to quantify the disaster.

The United Nations, in May, said it was the worst drought to hit Somalia in a decade and it is crippling the entire Horn of Africa.

National Geographic reported in September that hundreds of wild animals – including nearly 60 endangered African elephants – have died because of the dry conditions.

National Geographic also reported that Kenya has been under drought conditions for three years.

Environmentalists are saying that climate change – the latest buzzword for what we used to call global warming – is making matters worse.

The United Nations Children’s Fund stated on Oct. 15 that 24 million people in Djibouti, Ethopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda are in need of food aid. This, the organization said in its report, is up 4 million people from earlier this year.

UNICEF also stated that 5 million children younger than 5 years old are suffering from malnutrition. That number, the organization said, is up nearly 1 million since May.

And in Kenya, poor people who live in rural areas are suffering the most. Among the hardest-hit groups is the Maasai.

They live off the land. And their land is dead.

In many ways, this community can be compared with American Indians as they essentially constitute a nation within a nation. Also, similar to American Indians, the Maasai live where they do because they have no choice.

This ethnic group lives primarily in a region known as Maasailand, which runs from northern Tanzania to southern Kenya.

They are renowned for trying to live as their ancestors did. Many members of this group maintain traditional dress and a centuries-old lifestyle even as you read this digitally-transferred information on a computer screen and wish it had loaded faster.

The Maasai herd cattle. They frequently live in temporary homes made of sticks, mud and cattle dung. And they, essentially, are nomads. They live where their cattle can graze, then move on.

Maasailand is an arid, dusty, drought-prone stretch of territory, particularly ill-suited to their lifestyle. And it sits just beyond the Great Rift Valley, which – when viewed from the window of a small, crowded bus, called a matatu – is obviously green and flourishing.

Perhaps a land-sharing agreement would help. But there isn’t one. Perhaps an irrigation system would help. But that doesn’t exist here, either.

Nothing about the Maasai could be called Western or modern.

Admirers speak of them with the reverence typically reserved for ancient myths.

“(The young men) are warriors.”

“They can not lie. It is their culture.”

“They are aggressive, fierce.”

“(The young men) walk everywhere. Sometimes long, long distances.”

Men and women alike wear colorful cloths draped over the shoulders and fastened around the waist. These simple garments – and their beaded adornments and jewelry – provide the only color to be seen other than the rust red dirt that dominates the barren landscape of the Narok section of the Rift Valley Province. Many wear plain leather sandals with cut tire treads for soles.

The men carry sticks at all times and use them to control their herd – and to defend it.

When Massai are young, their earlobes are cut and stretched. When it heals a piece of flesh dangles and hangs down, forming a sort of hoop. Sometimes this is adorned with beads.

To be sure, some have adapted to mainstream culture. Members of this community have married people from different ethnic groups and moved to the city. Others have received Western-style educations.

And some among this group are accused of exploiting their heritage for profit – a colleague said he saw a supposed traditional Maasai warrior on a cell phone.

But a huge part of the population resists modernization. And because of this they have about the worst access to food in all of Kenya.

And it’s about to get worse.

El Nino has brought rain storms since mid-October.

This is not bringing relief. (After all, it's not planting season.) It’s bringing floods and mudslides. These disasters haven’t hit Maasailand, and probably won’t. But that doesn’t mean this crisis won’t aggravate their pain.

Consider the toll elsewhere in the nation after only a few weeks of rain:

The Daily Nation reported Oct. 18 that the heavy rain is expected to continue into early 2010.

The Kenya Red Cross said it has provided food to 32,000 people affected by flooding, according to a report in the Nation on Nov. 3. However, the Red Cross said, at least 23,000 more need immediate help.

And then there is the threat of waterborne diseases like cholera. And malaria from mosquitoes attracted to the area.

In Mombassa, five people have died.

The Red Cross said Saturday that thousands are marooned and at risk of being washed away.

Hundreds of families already are displaced. People who are not in imminent danger are being urged to conserve the rainwater for next planting season.

Why do I get the feeling that the Maasai won’t receive this message?

Also, with aid efforts stretched to deal with the new crisis of flooding, will anyone remember that Maasai people are starving?

What happens if food aid that would otherwise reach them is diverted?

More deaths. That’s what happens.

These people need help.

The Kansas City Star has exchanged journalists with Nation Media in Nairobi, Kenya, for the last three years in partnership with the Alfred Friendly Press Fellowships. Greg Moore, who is The Star's wire editor, is traveling and teaching journalism in Kenya and Uganda for the next several weeks.