Nadome, Kapedo, Lokori, Lomelo, Todonyang, Loiyangalani,
Lorogon, Kainuk etc. Anyone who’s been to these villages would tell you how
vast, rural, rudimentary and 15th centrury-ish they are. Yet the most striking thing about these places is that they turn into war-zones
often.
At 71598km2, Turkana County is 103 times the size
of Nairobi County with no significant development - no roads (seasonal rivers
or laga have been converted into
roads), few buildings if any. Divide the county amongst all the 41 million
Kenyans and each one gets 2/5 of an acre, enough to put up a maisonette. That
is how vast the county is! However, the population is 4 times less than that of
Nairobi. Inhabitants are dominantly the Turkana community who don’t see eye to
eye with the neighbouring Pokot to the South, the wild Ethiopian Merille
(Daasanach) to the North, Karamojong to the West and Samburu to the South East.
A common practice among all these communities is cattle rustling, often
retaliatory.
But I’ll focus on the Pokot-Turkana conflict. Yester-years
the raiders only collected cattle and goats and shot at anyone who stood in
their way; but increased ethnic rivalry has made things worse. One of my visits
to Kainuk, Turkana South is unforgettable. The Pokot gave notice to the Turkana
of their intention to raid that night and for sure they came as we sought
shelter in a GSU camp in Lorogon village. These fellows sweep every living
thing they find with a bullet, just like Biblical times during Israel’s wars. A
bullet is never wasted, must be on-target. A drive through Kapedo, Lomelo,
Lokori, Ngamia 1 to Lokichar from Marigat sends chills as you meet armed
curious young men firing bullets at birds and wild game. Occasional flash
floods would prolong the 7 hour journey to 1 or 2 days.
Visitors or strangers must be careful as they can trigger instant shooting by Turkana/Pokot young men some barely in their teens who roam the jungles armed with AK 44 automatic rifles. Heheee…guns are toys here. The situation is the same in neighbouring West-Pokot, Samburu North/East/Central and East Pokot (Baringo). Thanks to the fluorine-filled Lake Turkana which separates Marsabit and Turkana Counties to the East, otherwise it could be another conflict zone. A complex mix of issues motivates the Northern Kenya conflict. Competition for resources driven by perennial drought, bad politics and ethnic rivalry. One other phenomenon, increasingly difficult to understand, and which has exacerbated the conflict, is the proliferation of small arms and light weapons (SALW) in the region which has been driven by political shrewdness, regional wars and forced immigration from next-door warring countries.
So how do you expect the government to pacify these communities? First, the area is too vast for the few policemen we have. As at 2012, Kenya had just about 70 to 80,000 officers, 10,000 guard VIPs, 45,000 are APs assigned to County/District Offices, others are in prisons, leaving about 20,000 to do daily policing in the whole country, some of whom control traffic. You will need between 10 and 15,000 police, heavily armed (not with AK47s or G3 rifles) to contain wild fellows with automatic rifles. Second, raiders understand their terrain more than an ordinary Kiganjo-trained officer. Suguta valley, Baragoi, arguably the hottest place in the country is a good case study. Third, media reports indicate that political leaders finance raiders. Some of these cattle are stolen, slaughtered and packaged for sale to Nairobi and other towns. You probably had stolen beef for dinner last night. Fourth, poorly paid officers in this region sell bullets at as low as kes.200. Sad situation.
I do think there’s hope though. The Marakwet-Pokot conflict of the 80s and 90s came to an end. Even with a complex mix of culture, bad politics, SALW and competition for resources, the conflict ended, thanks to peace and dialogue meetings promoted by local political and religious leaders as well as the national government. Some would say Elgeyo-Marakwet is a tinier county than Turkana and Pokot, but I think conflict in the Turkana and Pokot region is concentrated at the border points and so is controllable despite the vastness. The national security organs have valuable lessons to learn from the process that ended the Marakwet-Pokot conflict. I think Gedion Moi’s drone technology should also work well in this area for surveillance. Phillip #NadomeIsKenya #Nadome
Visitors or strangers must be careful as they can trigger instant shooting by Turkana/Pokot young men some barely in their teens who roam the jungles armed with AK 44 automatic rifles. Heheee…guns are toys here. The situation is the same in neighbouring West-Pokot, Samburu North/East/Central and East Pokot (Baringo). Thanks to the fluorine-filled Lake Turkana which separates Marsabit and Turkana Counties to the East, otherwise it could be another conflict zone. A complex mix of issues motivates the Northern Kenya conflict. Competition for resources driven by perennial drought, bad politics and ethnic rivalry. One other phenomenon, increasingly difficult to understand, and which has exacerbated the conflict, is the proliferation of small arms and light weapons (SALW) in the region which has been driven by political shrewdness, regional wars and forced immigration from next-door warring countries.
So how do you expect the government to pacify these communities? First, the area is too vast for the few policemen we have. As at 2012, Kenya had just about 70 to 80,000 officers, 10,000 guard VIPs, 45,000 are APs assigned to County/District Offices, others are in prisons, leaving about 20,000 to do daily policing in the whole country, some of whom control traffic. You will need between 10 and 15,000 police, heavily armed (not with AK47s or G3 rifles) to contain wild fellows with automatic rifles. Second, raiders understand their terrain more than an ordinary Kiganjo-trained officer. Suguta valley, Baragoi, arguably the hottest place in the country is a good case study. Third, media reports indicate that political leaders finance raiders. Some of these cattle are stolen, slaughtered and packaged for sale to Nairobi and other towns. You probably had stolen beef for dinner last night. Fourth, poorly paid officers in this region sell bullets at as low as kes.200. Sad situation.
I do think there’s hope though. The Marakwet-Pokot conflict of the 80s and 90s came to an end. Even with a complex mix of culture, bad politics, SALW and competition for resources, the conflict ended, thanks to peace and dialogue meetings promoted by local political and religious leaders as well as the national government. Some would say Elgeyo-Marakwet is a tinier county than Turkana and Pokot, but I think conflict in the Turkana and Pokot region is concentrated at the border points and so is controllable despite the vastness. The national security organs have valuable lessons to learn from the process that ended the Marakwet-Pokot conflict. I think Gedion Moi’s drone technology should also work well in this area for surveillance. Phillip #NadomeIsKenya #Nadome
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