During the Second World War, the British colonial government got so concerned about the continued incursions by the Abyssinian (now Ethiopian) forces into northern parts of Kenya that it decided to devise an innovative way of fighting off the insurgents.
They recruited locals as police officers. This was a clever move considering the rough terrain and lack of all-weather roads.
A camel cavalry unit within the police was set up and stationed in Wajir.
That was as early as the 1930s.
The camel cavalry was exclusively manned by local Somali police officers and literally did the donkey work first by “being on the ground” and most importantly by convincing their fellow natives from across the border that there was nothing worth fighting for in Kenya. The area was pacified.
Today, Northern Kenya is going through a similar experience. It seems the fellows up North have forgotten the lessons of peace. Bandits from Ethiopia and Somalia and sometimes even Uganda, slip across the border.
Nobody knows why they do that. But legend has it that many of these view Kenyan security as weak, disjointed, unco-ordinated and unable to fight on the battle field.
This is a perception, which is not entirely true, but to some extent makes sense given the number of times the bandits have thumbed their noses at them.
From the frequent reports of attacks, some experts believe that our security strategy, not just for the Northern Frontier, but across the country has lacked one key component.
Forget the claims of corruption, highhandedness and the canteen culture of the police, the deployment of our security forces to various parts of the country is basically one based on de-indigenisation.
In the police service for example, officers are usually sent to far-flung areas to apparently avoid a conflict of interest.
Lest I am mistaken; in enforcing the law for ordinary crimes, that could be true, but when fighting foreign or even local criminal agents willing to kill, this policy never works really.
The fear in the service now is that most police officers have proven not willing to die for a cause that either does not benefit them directly or affects “another community”. When you consider the low levels of patriotism, you will see what I mean.
There has been a noticeable change, though, in the last few months.
Since the arrival of Joseph Nkaissery at the Interior ministry, there is an apparent relaxing of the de-indigenisation policy.
True to his word of getting solutions from within, he promised to post local officers to Northern Kenya and the trick, just like what the British did in the 1930s, seems to be working.
It is akin to an old boy’s network. But trust me, it is revolutionising security in the former hotbed of violence and banditry.
Mohamed Swale, the former Provincial Commissioner for North Eastern Province (NEP) who pacified the area in the 1990s when armed bandits made the lives of the local people a living hell, is championing this new approach.
The Government has fully ‘localised’ top security officers in the former NEP. All the county police commanders are people of local extraction and are doing a marvellous job.
The attacks from the Al Shabaab militia have significantly declined and we are witnessing a return to peace.
Back to the camel cavalry, I think police authorities can reintroduce the use of camels. One, the camel is sacred; two, the camel is a resilient animal that can move for long distances without water or food.
They are also cheaper to maintain than horses or even motor vehicles. One unit can turn the NEP region into an oasis of peace and tranquillity.
The camel cavalry was a common element in desert warfare throughout history, due in part to the animal’s high level of adaptability.
It provided a mobile element better suited for arid and 'waterless' environments than horses or even dogs in a conventional cavalry.
According to folklore, the smell of camels alarms and disorients horses, making camels an effective anti-horse cavalry weapon.
Emperor Claudius of the Roman Empire is said to have brought an camel cavalry as part of his invasion force to conquer Britain.
Today, considering that nothing much has changed in Northern Kenyan in terms of infrastructure, what about a camel cavalry? Even the use of local Police Reservists could be of great help.
In some parts of northern Kenya, the introduction of conservancies, which came into existence when Julius Kipng’etich was head of the Kenya Wildlife Service, has immensely helped in curbing cattle rustling and in the control of movement on community land where security officers are often absent.
The Government can use the same model to increase the presence of security officers in this vast, dry and semi-arid area.
