Disarm, then find other ways to keep the peace

There can be no denying that huge sections of the North Rift region constitute some of the most marginalized parts of Kenya and also the least developed. For ages, the region has been home to cattle-herding nomads trapped in a cycle of conflict and neglect where clans of gun-wielding warriors have battled both the government and each other for livestock and a living.
Today, the long awaited and much desired realization is hitting home.

It is becoming abundantly clear that banditry and cattle rustling are no longer viable ways and means to sustain any population, let alone that of the volatile North Rift.

Stark realisation

As MP for Tiaty, if I were asked to choose between rustling powered by the gun and the hoe and modern education and economy, I would choose the latter. And this is what I want to vouch for here.

Nomadic pastoralism and formal education are strange bedfellows. They are incompatible. They are mutually exclusive. One must die for the other to survive. I want to vouch strongly for our government and our people to help nomadic pastoralism and cattle rustling die and be replaced by modern economy through modern education.

In recent weeks, the government has embarked on a programme of taking away the guns in the hands of National Police Reserves in this region in a bid to return peace to this section of the country that has lived with war for generations.

This disarmament programme needs the support of all who mean well for the long fighting communities and who want to see genuine peace and development instead of endless slaughter. I am in total agreement with the State: The arming of communities to fight each other was a wrong strategy to fight cattle rustling from the start. There are many ways and means to create understanding and bring peace and development to communities. The gun is not one of them.

Wrong approach

The gun is not the panacea to the problems of the North Rift region. The solution to the problems lies in Development and opening up of the place. The frequent gun and arrow fights over water, pastures and livestock that has gone on for generations while fortunes of the warriors continue to dwindle is proof that the people urgently need to be provided with alternative economic livelihoods.

The economy of the cow, goat, sheep and camel that has sustained this region for ages is no longer tenable and has become unsustainable due to increasing desertification as a result of climate change and the growing pressure on land as human population rises.

Over the years, as residents waged deadly wars over diminishing resources, the government responded by arming them in the hope that the guns could keep them off each other’s necks or, in a cynical policy, that the communities could fight each other to extinction.

The arming of communities was also an admission of failure by the government to secure and protect livelihoods through meaningful development. It was more or less a surrender of the monopoly of legitimate violence to civilians. It ought to come to an end. It looks strange that today, as the government embarks on taking away the guns, which have caused more harm than good, there are leaders opposing the disarmament.

Bad habits dying hard?

In my view, noises coming from politicians representing the pastoralists after the withdrawal of the guns point to an in- built inability and unwillingness by communities to take up their role in bringing security and instead sticking to the long-held and long-failed view that they have to live by the gun.

It is also possible that some politicians harbour ulterior motives given the political way in which the guns have been distributed. Gun ownership has long been a tool for political control and power in the north rift. Those who wield the guns also wield political power.

Guns have been used to threaten women and settle personal scores including those of marital nature. The disarmament is a threat to that cynical arrangement. We are told that the withdrawal of the guns is to allow the State to do stocktaking, branding and ballistic testing. Nobody should have a problem with that. As we ponder what to do next, I want to suggest that Kenya could borrow a leaf from President Yoweri Museveni who has successfully managed to eradicate cattle rustling and banditry in Northern Uganda - without the gun.

Museveni realized that northern Uganda, just like the North Rift, has unique problems due to decades of marginalization that shaped lifestyles of residents and attitudes towards the State.

Museveni therefore created a Ministry to deal specifically with matters of that region-Ministry of State for Karamoja Affairs. This is a bit similar to the Ministry of Northern Kenya that existed under the Grand Coalition Government.

Minister of North Rift?

The ministry never quite got the requisite resources due to the wrangling in the coalition and the feeling that it would give one coalition party advantage in the region in future political contests. Museveni on the other hand appears to have kept the Karamoja Affairs ministry close to his heart. He appointed his wife as Minister of State of Karamoja Affairs. I am not asking President Kenyatta to bring back the Northern Kenya ministry and appoint First Lady Margaret its minister. No, Kenya is different. But the President, like Uganda’s Museveni, needs a mechanism in the hands of a trusted associate, to secure and uplift the North Rift.

The Ministry for Karamoja Affairs came up with myriad solutions drawn from the locals. 

As soon as pacification was achieved, the Government of Uganda pumped resources to the region. It began by addressing the issues that would cause conflict. Huge water pans were done in their thousands, grazing zones were mapped, schools were built, access roads were opened. Every part of Karamoja became accessible. I believe we can replicate the same here in Kenya. The government needs to secure the North Rift then give priority to stemming incidences of insecurity associated with regional grievances caused by glaring disparities in economic well-being.

Mr Kapket is the Member of Parliament for Tiaty, Baringo County