An Analysis of the Protracted Nature of Pastoral Conflicts in East Africa: a Case Study of Northern Kenya

Abstract

The main objective is to analyze the protracted nature of pastoral conflicts in East Africa. The Specific Objectives of the study were; to assess the prevalence of the protracted nature of pastoral conflicts in Northern Kenya; to establish the effects of political actors and institutions of governance in the development of protracted pastoral conflict in East Africa particularly Northern Kenya and to establish the challenges influencing pastoral conflicts in Northern Kenya. This study is focused on contributing to the theoretical body of knowledge aligned to the protracted pastoral conflicts in East Africa that have gone on for many years. Although there has been focus on past pastoral conflicts, the findings of this research which is influenced by never ending conflicts in the region will help build upon and support the outcomes of previous researchers on the Northern Kenya conflict and causes of protracted conflicts in the region. The research was studied through the use mixed methods whereby both quantitative and qualitative data was collected and analyzed. The target population for the study comprised of the members of local communities including elders and opinion leaders, county government officials, police and experts on conflict management. The researcher used questionnaire, interview guides and focus group discussions to collect the data among the Pokot’s and Turkana’s. Data analysis of the information gathered from the questionnaires was done through excel and SPSS. The technique that was used to analyze the qualitative approach is breaking down the information in the form of themes. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher concludes that pastoral conflicts have been commercialized overtime and other actors including the politicians and unscrupulous business men usually act as triggers to the conflict. Moreover, the pastoral conflicts have forced the inhabitants of both Turkana and Pokot to be deprived of basic services as conflict frustrate the county government effort to build and develop basic and social amenities for them. Most of the respondents also indicated that high dependency on cattle’s influence pastoral conflicts which are still common and destructive. This dependency on cattle is a great impediment to peace among the Turkana’s and Pokot’s especially when the cattle are stolen, being the only source of income, results to high poverty levels among households. The pastoral conflicts affect pastoral community and more often leads to loss of lives and destruction of property and farm produce .The ease of access to modern small arms was cited by the respondents as the major catalytic factors to cattle raiding and banditry among the Turkana’s and Pokot’s. Most of the respondents also indicated that community coping mechanisms and response to these protracted pastoralist conflict remains ineffective and bear small fruits with a significant number indicating the need for community participation and involvement in conflict resolution and especially in their involvement in all conflict mitigation strategies and peace committees. Measures to remedy this include prioritization of peace and security agenda by county governments taking appropriate measures and actions to manage and resolve pastoralist conflicts and insecurity in the area. Second is community involvement in conflict resolution and developing contextualized county policies on conflict resolution. The local administration and community elders should advocate and educate the people on culture of peace, and tolerance. The community leaders should take on the guidance role and impart good morals, report and provide information on attacks, stop and discard harmful customs including cattle rustling.