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How to End Border Carnage
- Details
- Published on Sunday, 08 July 2007 23:04
The causes have almost always been the same, but sometimes new circumstances, such as change of political leadership at the local and national level, have altered the character of the clashes.In this article I try to trace the genesis of the conflict. It is important that a lasting solution is found. This is because the problem engenders senseless carnage and economic misery on the people on both sides.
As I write, the death toll is said to be no less than 20, with many more fighting for life from police gunshot wounds. If these people had all been killed at a go, it would have been described as a massacre. But because the deaths have not occurred that way, the whole matter is not treated with the seriousness it deserves. All of us - leaders, the government and the Press - ought to ask ourselves whether we have done everything possible to halt the killings.
The Maasai are pastoralists as opposed to the Kisii who are agriculturalists - in that limited sense. It follows that the Masaai attach a lot of importance to cattle. A typical Maasai herd is in excess of 200 cattle. The Masaai traditionally believe that all cattle belong to them.
In that cultural belief is to be found a cause of conflict. Although the Kisii are not pastoralists, they value cattle almost as much as the Maasai do. There are people who are out to exploit the Maasai appetite for cattle, which are systematically stolen from the Kisii side.
Contrary to the popular belief that the two communities go to war over grazing rights, this is rarely the case. Grazing rights have never been a problem except when the security situation is volatile. The Maasai have never really minded the Kisii grazing cattle in their fields.
During one incident recently, police shot four Kisiis dead and wounded several others. Then they rounded up Kisii herds of cattle and appeared to drive them into Maasai land. They were imprudently provoking the Kisii, who had to defend their rights and property, resulting in the fatal confrontation.
In such circumstances, if there is revenge, it will not be against the police. Rather, it will be against the Maasai on whose side the police are perceived to be.
The Masaai should stop cheap purchase of cattle stolen from the Kisii. The Kisii must see to it that accomplices in their midst are exposed. If a member of either community has stolen, it matters not that he is Maasai or Kisii. The law should take its course. As it is, you will find members of the two communities taking collective punishment, which should be directed at the individual culprit.
Indeed, much suffering is precipitated on both communities on account of the greed of a few individuals. Once animals have been stolen, the Maasai or the Kisii should allow unconditional tracking to recover them. Such cooperation has in the past been put to good use.
Until recently, the Maasai had no need for maize meal and beans, the staple food of the Kisii. There have been gradual changes, with the Maasai now eating ugali and beans. It is no longer in vogue to rely only on meat and milk, the Maasai traditional food. The significance of the soil has, therefore, taken on a new dimension.
The Kisii have always cherished the soil. The Maasai inhabit expansive and fertile tracts of land across the border. The tracts of land are largely idle and this is the reason the Kisii cultivate a lot of food across in Maasai land.
The Kisii are very industrious people. Population pressure on their own land forces them to seek working space in Maasai land. But this land is neither taken by force nor for free. In fact, the Kisii lease one acre of land to plant maize at Sh3,000- 4,000 per season, the same rates that apply in Trans Nzoia.
The timing of the clashes is puzzling. They coincide with the maize harvesting season, with the result that the Maasai landowners either harvest the crop themselves or it is left to rot - unless the provincial administration intervenes to supervise the harvesting, as happened recently.
Obviously, the Kisii are unlikely to provoke the Maasai at such a critical time. The current flare-up began when two young Kisii workers harvesting their crop were attacked and killed. They may have been killed for any number of reasons but there is apparently no evidence of provocation.
What needs to be said is that the two economies are dependent upon each other. While the Kisii lose a great deal from the violence, the Maasai lose even more. The 1992 clashes, for example, reduced Kilgoris to a ghost town. Business has never recovered, and there are decaying buildings abandoned by the Kisii. There are also no banking services within the town.
To go to Kisii town for essential services, the Maasai now have to use the Awendo detour as opposed to the more direct Kilgoris-Ogembo-Kisii road. It cannot be easy for them since Kenya is largely a cash economy. The Maasai need money to pay school fees, purchase drugs and other needs that cannot be obtained through barter.
Due to the nature of their almost symbiotic co-existence, the Maasai and the Kisii at the border need to realise they have more in common than what separates them.
If a Kisii has leased land from a Maasai, this is a legal relationship governed by the contractual terms between them. And it is a relationship that should not be interfered with by third parties. In the event of a misunderstanding, the dispute should be litigated upon before the courts. This is one way of avoiding involvement of the two communities in conflicts that should only involve a few individuals. Here, the government has failed in its role to mediate differences.
There are cultural practices that encourage enmity and hostility between the two communities. To the Maasai, a successful cattle raid on the Kisii by morans undergoing initiation rites, or the killing of a Kisii male, are ranked in importance with the killing of a lion as a rite of passage.
Ironically, intermarriage seems to aggravate the problem. Maasai men now do marry Kisii women, which never happened until about two decades ago.
Ideally, this interaction should bring the two communities closer. Sons born to the Maasai from such marriages usually go to the Kisii side to see their relatives. But some of them use the opportunity to spy on the Kisii and facilitate cattle theft. During peace times, their access to the Kisii side is uninhibited. On the positive side, it needs to be stated that intermarriage should be encouraged as it has gone a long way to bridge the cultural gap between the two communities, thus lessening the potential for conflict.
Other social interactions have not always worked well. When Kisii warriors known as chinkororo came on the scene in the 1980s, they adopted the Maasai lifestyle, speaking the language, sticking together, applying red ochre on their bodies, donning shukas.
Although this was basically a war tactic applied with devastating consequences, it was a survival measure by a community that felt it was under siege and its warriors took advantage of the knowledge of the Maasai language.
Even a Kisii who kills a Maasai in a fight is culturally regarded as a hero.
But some of these cultural practices encourage crime - murder and stock theft. The culprits are felons who must be treated as such.
It is said that the Masaai are rarely arrested for such offences on the ground that these are demands of their culture.
The government, through the police, seems to buttress that impression by failing to bring to book Maasai culprits and instead using excessive force to deal with Kisii culprits. This only infuriates the Kisii who feel that they are being persecuted.
When the law appears not to address criminal conduct on the part of the Maasai, the Kisii are encouraged to take the law into their own hands, resulting in arson and killings. The police are clearly abetting crime.
The security personnel on the ground must send an unmistakable message that they will spare no one and that perpetrators of violence will be dealt with firmly and impartially. That way they can be assured of public support.
The problem with the police, though, is that they care little what the public thinks of them. Like most public servants, all they want to be is politically correct. This is evident from the manner in which they deal with the Opposition.
Kanu hawks are known to incite violence but the police will not touch them. Let any member of the Opposition try to make a statement perceived as incitement; he is hunted down like a robber.
The late Francis Lotodo's incitement of the Pokot against other Kenyans is well documented. Kenyans have been killed following such statements. But he was a sacred cow. And there are others who nobody is prepared to try to restrain.
The police have been soft on the Maasai when quelling the Gucha-Trans Mara clashes and I suspect it is because the Maasai are believed to be supporters of the government more than the Kisii are.
In the ongoing skirmishes, police have taken to arraigning Kisii suspects before the Kilgoris resident magistrate's court. This, in itself, is provocative. It does nothing to improve the image of the police.
One can see why the police are ill-prepared to suppress the clashes. Could the government please give the police back their free hand in applying the law?
A pattern is emerging whereby these ethnic clashes tend to occur when a General Election is around the corner. Politics being what it is, some politicians device self-serving schemes for political advantage.
One result of these clashes is that the numerous Kisii people who live in Masaai land are being forced to leave. Therefore, they cannot vote. On the other hand, there are not many Maasai living in Kisii land. Who benefits when the Kisii living in Maasai land are denied their right to vote? The people in the conflict area are suffering immensely. Apart from those who have been killed, others have been displaced, with their houses and property destroyed.
Displaced families deserve help. The Red Cross and other NGOs should come out and assist those who are affected. Those admitted to hospital are running up bills, which they have no way of paying since they have also be left without any belongings or property. They need help.
Leaders must stop inciting the people to kill each other. The elite have a special role to play in this by educating the people to respect the law.
One way to educate the people to walk away from conflict is to conduct joint rallies. These should not be held for posturing, they should be held to address the grievances of the people and seek solutions.
The people can close the bitter chapter and start to live together as Kenyans. How do they go about it? Public barazas! Elders from both communities should publicly acknowledge past wrongs and resolve to start a fresh chapter of peace and reconciliation. The two communities should consider launching a joint Masaai-Kisii cultural festival to be held annually. It will be a suitable forum to exchange ideas and resolve areas of potential conflict.
The writer practises law, as an advocate of the High Court of Kenya, in Bungoma and Nakuru.
