Mali Ole Kaunga is a laikipia Maasai, the founder and Director of OSILIGI(Organisation for the Survival of IL- Laikipiak Maasai Indigenous Group Initiatives) that translate to HOPE in Maasai. OSILIGI later transformed into IMPACT (Indigenous Movement for Peace Advancement and Conflict Transformation) an organisation that exists to organise, build and strengthen indigenous peoples’ social movements at grassroots in northern Kenya. IMPACT’s key areas of intervention are indigenous and human rights awareness, community self –organising and capacity development, peace building, Business and human rights, Land rights and natural resource governance, Legal and policy advocacy and community development. The organisation is working among different pastoralist communities to address social and policy exclusion faced by indigenous people in Northern Kenya and occasionally in other areas. He is also founder and convener of PARAN(Pastoralists Alliance for Resilience and Adaptation in Northern Kenya Rangelands) a coalition of community leaders and natural resources stewards, grassroots organisations, customary institutions Ole Kaunga, has previously worked and consulted with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) as an indigenous peoples expert for its Africa Program on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples(Convention 169). He has also worked with WIPO on issues of Maasai Cultural Heritage and UNESCO on Indigenous Traditional Knowledge and Climate Change. He has published articles on different journals in the areas of indigenous traditional knowledge, indigenous peoples and urbanisation, indigenous peoples’ education and militarisation of indigenous peoples’ lands. In OSILIGI he pioneered strategic litigation for indigenous peoples when he brought an international case against the British Government for using Maasai and Samburu lands for military training and leaving live ordinances that maimed, killed and injured scores of Maasai and Samburu in the grazing fields. He has been involved in lobbying and advancing the interests of indigenous peoples affected by the Lake Turkana Wind Power and the Isiolo Mega Dam at national and international levels. He is an Advisory Council member for Nia Tero.
PARAN and IMPACT are advising communities on investments with regard to the Community Land acquisition for investments and also monitoring impacts of such investments.