Conflict And Cooperation In Southwestern Kenya

Abstract

The twentieth century experienced an intensification of intercommunity relations between agro-pastoral and pastoral communities in East Africa. These relations were influenced by different factors. For instance, community identity, culture and livelihoods of communities considerably informed their relations. This research focused on the Kuria-Maasai relations which were influenced by various factors and characterized by conflict and cooperation. Shared cultural practices, retaliatory cattle raids, conflict over land, which had roots in the pre-colonial era. In the post-colonial era, the binary of conflict and cooperation was characterized by commercialized cattle raids, and land conflicts following the 1979 massive small arms proliferation to the South western Kenya. In the year 2010 the Kuria-Maasai conflict heightened and triggered government interventions. However, more significantly, the acquisition of small arms provided a continuity of the binary of conflict and cooperation without necessarily changing their relations. This study applied the protracted social conflict theory and the bargaining theory of war which brought out the protracted nature of the Kuria-Maasai conflict and mechanisms in which the Kuria and Maasai communities attempted to unite and coexist. The research relied on sources such as books, scholarly articles, archival materials, and oral sources of information.