Borders, Frontiers and Security: a Case Study of Marakwet and Pokot Districts, Kenya

Abstract

The objective of this thesis is to investigate and identify security issues arising from Marakwet and Pokot community interactions across internal boundaries, international borders and into their community frontiers. It analyses the Marakwet and Pokot community interactions in their domicile localities of West Pokot and Marakwet districts in Kenya. The study examines the interactions particularly at the shared borders between the two districts of Marakwet and Pokot, and it is hypothesized that community movements and interactions into their frontiers contribute to insecurity. The thesis acknowledges that insecurity exists within both the Marakwet and Pokot communities living in both the districts. It further acknowledges that the main security issues have not been identified in the past studies. Consequently, this study has identified a number of security issues through a comprehensive literature review and a field study. In the field study, twenty-one security issues emerged and are classified into sectors such as economic, societal, environmental, political and military. Each sector is examined in terms of distinctive patterns of interactions. It is established that sectors in themselves might exhibit distinctive behaviour patterns but they remain inseparable parts of a whole; and the only purpose for separating them is to reduce complexity to facilitate analysis. Using the Marakwet and Pokot communities living in the two districts as referent objects of security analysis, the twenty-one identified security issues are put through a securitization process using the constructivist theoretical framework. After the critical analysis in the securitization matrix, this study concludes that the foremost security issues in Marakwet and Pokot communities living in both districts are conflicts, (Natural resource based conflicts, environmental conflicts, and identity- based conflicts), catde rustling and small arms. The other security issues include poor public service delivery and negative ethnicity. The study has further recommended the possible areas of future studies on matters of security.