Marking boundaries and allowing legal ownership of land in the troubled Kerio Valley can help end violent attacks in the region, human rights groups have said.
The groups urged the state to define land boundaries between warring communities and issue title deeds to allow ownership and development of land in the volatile areas of Baringo, Turkana and Elgeyo Marakwet counties.
The Mid-Rift Human Rights Network, which has run peace programmes in the banditry-prone Baringo region for years, has attributed the perennial violence to failure by the government to demarcate clear boundaries between the communities and to allow residents to legally own and develop their land.
Mr Walter Mwania, who is in charge of one such programme, called Re-invent, pointed an accusing finger at the government, blaming it for the perpetual violence in Baringo, Laikipia Turkana, Samburu and West Pokot.
The political class and government administrators, he said, were keen to use a confrontational approach when dealing with bandits while ignoring the underlying issues that have pushed the region to where it is.
“For us to get sustainable peace in these regions, we need to demarcate the land. We have boundaries which have been in contention for over a decade but the government has chosen to ignore this and use force, which has not been effective,” Mr Mwania said.
The borderlines separating the Ilchamus and the Pokot communities at Mukutani, the Pokot and Turkana, and the Pokot and Tugen communities need urgent demarcation.
Much of the land in Baringo, he said, is communal, making it a breeding ground for cattle thefts and banditry.
“Why can’t the government give title deeds to the people so that they can develop their own pieces of land? It is obvious that as long as people are moving with their animals freely, … cattle theft will continue to be perpetrated,” he said.
He also discouraged the use of force and hard power when dealing with the communities and called for concerted efforts to resolve the issue by looking at the underlying problems.
He called for massive investment in education as well as assistance for reformed warriors to initiate sustainable income-generating projects.
The Kerio Valley border that connects Baringo, Elgeyo-Marakwet, and West Pokot counties has seen countless attacks, leaving locals fearful and hopeless.
Government strategies to counter the violence through forcible disarmament, arresting area political leaders and imposing dusk-to-dawn curfews have not borne much fruit as attacks continue.
The human rights lobby has argued that residents are showing growing resentment towards government approaches to the peace process that they feel are biased against one community.
“I think there is some discrepancy to some extent, because when the conflict went to Laikipia, it was easily neutralized, since it was affecting some powerful individuals in the country, while the Pokot are either left to deal with their issues or the government uses a lot of force,” said Mr Calvin Muga, a programme officer at Re-invent.
