The government has advised farmers in northern Kenya to sell some of their livestock in order to avert incessant conflicts.
At least five counties are enduring clashes characterised by livestock theft and competition for natural resources. This has been aggravated by the onset of the dry season.
Conflicts related to livestock theft are a common phenomenon in many pastoralist communities in northern Kenya.
Last week, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i announced that the government will begin buying livestock from pastoralists to cushion them from losses caused by rustling and starvation of animals.
“You must adopt animal offtake to avert losses and these clashes. You would rather get money from the offtake right now to prevent losses and then buy other animals when the conditions are favourable,” Dr Matiang’i said.
With the newly refurbished Kenya Meat Commission and the Nanyuki Railway line, he said, the government was ready to purchase up to 1,000 animals weekly to reduce pressure on scarce resources.
Meanwhile, a programme to share pasture between local pastoralist communities and private ranchers has been suggested, but with a caveat.
Responding to the latest incident reported in Natomen, Illeret ward, where one herder was killed in a retaliatory attack and two others badly injured, Marsabit County Police Commander Martin Kibet has a new strategy in handling such conflicts.
The security boss was speaking in Laikipia North, which has been hit by conflicts over grazing fields and livestock theft.
“I think leaders should help us sensitise local pastoralists to destock their animals by selling them to invest elsewhere or even use the money to buy food for their families instead of losing them to raiders,” he said.
The attack took place on Saturday at around 4am when a group of bandits believed to be from Loiyangalani and North Horr jointly raided herders in Natomen, in Sibiloi National Park, and drove away more than 1,500 cattle.
The attack came hard on the heels of a crisis seen after a peace meeting aimed at reconciling the Gabra and Dasenach communities organised by local administrators and an NGO on July 28 in the same area failed to bear fruit.
One Gabra herder was later killed, sparking the latest retaliatory attacks.
Speaking to Nation.Africa in his office, Mr Kibet held that such attacks would be unheard of if residents borrowed a leaf from their Somali counterparts in Garissa County.
The commander, who also met the Illeret ward MCA in his office, asked him and other elected leaders to begin sensitising their people on the benefits of destocking animals by culling especially older ones.
He wondered why pastoralists would do anything to keep large numbers of livestock often for prestige only to lose them to cattle rustlers.
A majority of herders who would be millionaires, he said, preferred keeping large numbers of livestock to selling them to buy food even during droughts only to end up losing them to thieves.
Various pastoral communities use raiding as a cultural practice for to restock their herds, especially after periods of drought or disease outbreaks.
Livestock thefts become frequent, violent and destructive as they breed mistrust and retaliatory attacks.
Violent conflicts also create a strong and ever-present perception of insecurity, resulting in ineffective resource utilisation, reduced mobility, food insecurity and closure of markets and schools.
The most direct effect of raiding on residents’ well-being is the loss of lives and injuries during attacks.
Mr Kibet also appealed to residents to value peace for the sake of their children’s education, saying the region will continue to remain behind in education.
A recent report by the Ministry of Education indicated that ethnic conflicts in Marsabit since 2019 had interrupted learning in more than 17 ECD centres with 1,214 learners, 15 primary schools with 4,411 pupils and four secondary schools with more than 792 students.
