Keeping barter trade alive

By Lucas Ng’asike

Asike Aleper rests his walking stick on his shoulders and exhaustively hangs his arms on it.

He has taken this journey with his livestock as long as he remembers. However, these days the journey to watering points is more depressing. For every trip he makes in search of water for his livestock, he loses an animal.

Not to disease or killer animals, but he has to give it to those manning the water points. It is barter trade –– an animal for water. This is the only way Asike and other herders can keep their animals alive. Though it is an age-old tradition to use animals in exchange for services, Asike says herders are now being exploited.

The herder is worried that soon, he will have no livestock left. Although the pounding rains that have left a trail of death and destruction in Turkana should give Asike and other herders a relief, they are not happy because there is no harvesting point for the rainwater.

When the rains disappear, they will go back to the same old water problem.

Acceptable custom

In Loima District and other parts of western of Turkana, the barter trade is acceptable and the herders and their animals are at the mercy of owners of watering points.

"I can’t believe it, walking there (to water points) is just like visiting a Government revenue collection point," says Asike.

The other option is to migrate with the animals to areas with water and pasture where demand is limited. This involves crossing the border to neighbouring countries like Uganda, Sudan or Ethiopia.

"But even this is a risky venture because, some communities do not take it kindly when intruders start to scramble for their resources. They fights us," says Asike.

Last year, more than 10,000 pastoralists from Ng’imonia, Ng’ikamatak, Ng’iwoyakwara, Ng’ilikumong and Ng’ikwatele clans in Loima and Turkana West districts crossed to Uganda in search of water and pasture for their animals.

This was after the Kenyan Government negotiated the movement with Ugandan authorities to forestall clashes between the Turkana community and the Karamoja. The Uganda Government allowed the herdsmen to graze their animals on condition that the Kenyan pastoralists do not cross the border with guns.

Back home, the scarcity of water and pasture has ignited new clan feuds where some Turkana residents are not allowed to fetch water at points that belong to other clans.

Owners of land with water sources are benefiting from the adverse effects of climate change that has not spared Turkana.

Prominent people and clan elders have taken the advantage of the drought situation and moved to secure water points in their areas.

"They have secured water points in the areas considered their ancestral land to prevent intrusion by ‘outsiders’ who are then charged an animal to access water and available pasture for their animals," says Echarait Amoit, another herder.

In Loima District, one has to identify with either the Ng’ikamatak or Ng’imonia clans to access water points on land inhabited by the two clans.

The heavens, according to locals, have had a way of balancing the availability of the scarce commodity as rains alternate between the two regions where the clans live.

"When one clan does not have water, they have to part with their animals in exchange," says Amoit.

Recipe for chaos

The Ng’imonia clan is the largest in western Turkana comprising about 1,200 pastoralists families and migrated to Naipa, Kotaruk and Lokiriama areas of Loima District where they now occupy, five years ago.

The Ng’ikamatak on the other hand occupy Lorengippi and Kaapus areas, which borders Uganda.

Even though the barter trade has taken root, sometimes the search for pasture and water has remained a recipe for conflicts in the regions occupied by the two clans.

Recently, a clash broke out when an elder from Ng’imonia clan led fellow villagers to graze the animals into the protected grassland of the Ng’ikamatak clan.

Although the elder had paid sheep to the Ng’ikamatak elders to allow him graze the animals, the offer was denounced later and a quarrel ensued.

The Ng’ikamatak elders claimed a clansman who allowed the Ng’imonia clan members to graze in the grassland contravened a clan agreement.

According to them, the area was out of bounds for anyone including their own, as it had been resolved the area be preserved for the dry spell.

A meeting convened by Lorengipi location chief, Nathan Ekal and attended by councillors from both clans to resolve the matter ended in disarray after the rival clan members fought.

Appeal to government

A local Community Based Organisation working for peace in the area, the Loima Peace and Development Organisation, and the Arid land Resource Management Programme are working to resolve the conflicts.

Lopedo co-ordinator, Mr Paul Emuria, appealed to the Government to move fast to contain the clan feuds before they get out of control.

Emuria fears the problem, if not resolved, could spill into inter community conflicts that could divide the Turkana people.

"We want the Government to act very fast so that the water and pasture disputes between the two clans are resolved once and for all," says Emuria.

Loima DC Morris Ivuto says a district peace committee would tackle the conflicts after they are verified.

"I cannot comment on the matter. I need to move to the ground to verify the facts. I have also sent my DO1 to the areas claimed to have been affected by the conflicts to check the facts," he says.

The Loima DO1 Peter Majiwa confirmed that the two clans had clashed over pasture and water in their areas.

He says some clansmen had been unfairly robbing some others of more animals in barter trade. The administrator vowed to deal with the culprits decisively.

Majiwa however says it is normal for a herder to offer an animal as a token of appreciation after getting water for their herds.

"It’s a tradition for the clansman to offer a clan elder a goat as appreciation in exchange of a watering point services. Digging a well for instance is tedious work and you do not expect somebody to access the water point free of charge," says the DO.

Majiwa says the clan differences are being addressed.