orma-pokomo conflict in tana river - an mphil thesis by pilly martin [1]
TRANSCRIPT
CONFLICT AND ITS SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT IN GARSEN
DIVISION, TANA-RIVER DISTRICT
BY
MARTIN PILLY
A Thesis submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Award of the Degree of
Master of Philosophy in Environmental Studies
(Human Ecology) Moi University
October, 2007
ii
DECLARATIONS
DECLARATION BY THE CANDIDATE
This thesis is my original work and has not been presented for a degree in any other
university. No part of this thesis may be reproduced without the prior permission of the
author and/or Moi University.
Sign_______________________ Date _____________________
Martin Pilly
(SES/PGM/05/2001)
DECLARATION BY THE SUPERVISORS
This thesis has been submitted for examination with our approval as university
supervisors
Sign________________________ Date _____________________
Prof. J.J. Akong’a
Department of Anthropology
Moi University, Eldoret, KENYA.
Sign_________________________ Date_____________________
Prof. J.J. Okumu
Centre for Refugee Studies
Moi University, Eldoret, KENYA.
iii
DEDICATION
To my mama Hajillo and my late grandfather, Buya Martin who was like a father to
me.
iv
ABSTRACT
The study set out to assess the conflict phenomenon in Garsen division, Tana-River
district between pastoralists and peasant farmers. It aimed at finding out the causes of
the conflict, factors which make the Orma and Wardei pastoralists to be perceived as
hostile by their neighbours, the environmental, social, cultural, economic and
psychological impact of the conflict and finally ways of managing the conflict.
The study was guided by the assumption that; one, the conflict is about ownership and
use of land, pasture and water resources. Two, environmental factors and the distance
between the Orma/Wardei and Pokomo cultures, leading to different perceptions
towards resources and each other are probably some of the causes of conflict between
the two groups that pursue different kinds of livelihoods. Three, owing to the intensity
of conflict historically it is possible that the impact or consequences are
multidimensional, and as long as environmental and cultural factors do not change, the
conflict will continue.
The study targeted members of the two conflicting ethnic groups in the district, the
Orma and Wardei pastoralists on the one hand and the Pokomo peasant farmers on the
other. Five locations were purposively selected; this was because some locations were
mainly inhabited by farmers and others by pastoralists. One hundred and fifty (150)
households were interviewed randomly from three locations, fifty (50) households in
each location. Five focus group discussions were conducted one, from the farmers’
side and four from the Pastoralists’ side, because the pastoralists were scattered and
could not easily be available for informal interviews. In addition 100 students were
interviewed randomly from two secondary schools (Tarasaa and Ngao Secondary
schools) in the division.
Both field methods and secondary sources of data were utilized. The field methods
combined various types of survey techniques such as questionnaires, participant
observation, key informant interviews, informal interviews, focus group discussions
and also extended residence in the community under study for five months. Secondary
data comprised of textbooks, newspapers, archival research of written materials,
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workshop reports et cetera. The data was analyzed both quantitatively and
qualitatively.
The results of the study show that; one, the conflict had multiple causes such as
ownership and use of land, pasture and water resources. Two, the cultural distance
between peasant farmers and pastoralists and difference in perception towards
resources and each other are also causes of the conflict. Three, the factors that compel
pastoralists to be war-like are harsh conditions in their physical and social
environment. Four, the impact of the conflict are multidimensional, that is, physical,
social, economic, cultural and psychological.
From the research findings, it is felt that there is need for proper policies on land in
Garsen, Tana River. Taking into consideration the traditional ways of land use and
ownership, the pastoralists need to be educated on the issue of land adjudication in the
district. This is to be done in order to attain acceptable alternatives for peace hence
development.
vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATIONS ....................................................................................................................................... II
DEDICATION ........................................................................................................................................... III
ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................................. IV
TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................................................... VI
LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................................... X
LIST OF PLATES .................................................................................................................................... XII
LIST OF APPENDICES .......................................................................................................................... XIII
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................................... XIV
CHAPTER ONE .......................................................................................................................................... 1
INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 1
1.0 PROBLEM STATEMENT ............................................................................................. 1
1.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................. 4
1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY ..................................................................................... 4
1.3 SIGNIFICANCE/JUSTIFICATION .................................................................................. 5
CHAPTER TWO ......................................................................................................................................... 7
THE STUDY AREA ................................................................................................................................... 7
2.0 THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT ................................................................................. 7
2.01 Position and Location ...................................................................................... 7
2.02 Topography and soils ..................................................................................... 10
2.03 Climate ............................................................................................................ 10
2.04 Water resources .............................................................................................. 11
2.1 THE HUMAN ENVIRONMENT .................................................................................. 12
2.1.1 Land tenure ................................................................................................... 12
2.1.2 Population ..................................................................................................... 16
2.1.3 Livestock and agricultural production activities ......................................... 16
2.1.4 Droughts ........................................................................................................ 18
2.2 THE PEOPLE OF TANA-RIVER ................................................................................. 18
2.2.1 Orma Mythology of their Settlement in Tana- River ................................... 20
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2.2.2 Pokomo Mythology of their Settlement in Tana-River ................................ 21
2.2.3 Adaptation to the Environment .................................................................... 21
2.2.4 The Pokomo and Orma socio-political organization ................................... 24
2.3 FUNCTIONS OF THE GASA AND MATADHEDA ......................................................... 29
2.3.1 Resource Management and Conservation ................................................... 29
2.3.2 Meetings ........................................................................................................ 30
2.3.3 Penalties ........................................................................................................ 31
2.3.4 Appeals .......................................................................................................... 32
2.3.5 Inter-Ethnic Conflicts ................................................................................... 32
CHAPTER THREE ................................................................................................................................... 35
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK.......................................................... 35
3.0 LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................. 35
3.1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 35
3.2 CAUSES OF CONFLICTS........................................................................................... 37
3.3 ETHNIC CLASHES AND THEIR IMPACT .................................................................... 38
3.4 CONFLICT MANAGEMENT ...................................................................................... 40
3.4.1 Settlement of conflict .................................................................................... 40
3.4.2 Conflict Resolution ....................................................................................... 41
3.5 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .................................................................................. 42
3.5.1 The theory of dialectical materialism ........................................................... 42
3.5.2 Human Ecological theory ............................................................................. 43
3.5.3 Theory of perception ..................................................................................... 46
3.6 ASSUMPTIONS 0F THE STUDY ................................................................................. 47
CHAPTER FOUR ..................................................................................................................................... 48
METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................................... 48
4.0 METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION............................................................................ 48
4.1 FIELD METHODS ..................................................................................................... 48
4.1.1 Participant Observation ................................................................................ 48
4.1.2 Informal Interviews ...................................................................................... 49
4.1.3 Questionnaires .............................................................................................. 49
4.1.4 Key informant method .................................................................................. 50
4.1.5 Focus group discussions ............................................................................... 50
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4.2 SAMPLING METHODS .............................................................................................. 52
4.3 SECONDARY DATA ................................................................................................. 52
4.4 DATA ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................... 52
4.5 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY .................................................................................... 52
CHAPTER FIVE ....................................................................................................................................... 55
RESULTS AND DATA ANALYSIS ........................................................................................................ 55
5.0 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................... 55
5.1 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SURVEY RESPONDENTS ........................................ 55
5.2 CONFLICT SITUATION IN THE STUDY AREA ........................................................... 63
5.2.1 Ethnicity in the study area ............................................................................ 63
5.2.2 Ethnic conflict ............................................................................................... 66
5.2.3 Types of conflicts ........................................................................................... 66
5.2.4 Rules to guide the use of resources .............................................................. 71
5.2.5 Rules of the market ....................................................................................... 72
5.2.6 Factors that make pastoralists to be perceived as hostile ............................ 75
5.2.7 How the Pokomo peasant farmers have been able to build a force to
counter the pastoralists .......................................................................................... 76
5.2.8 The Causes of the conflict ............................................................................ 81
5.3 IMPACT OF THE CONFLICT ...................................................................................... 91
5.3.1 Socio-economic impact ................................................................................. 91
5.3.2 Cultural impact ........................................................................................... 106
5.3.3 Psychological impact .................................................................................. 109
5.4 GENERAL IMPACT AT INDIVIDUAL AND FAMILY LEVELS ....................................... 114
5.5 POSITIVE IMPACT OF THE CONFLICT ..................................................................... 117
CHAPTER SIX ........................................................................................................................................ 119
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT ................................................................................................................ 119
6.0 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 119
6.1 ORGANIZATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS THAT ARE INVOLVED IN MANAGING THE
CONFLICT IN TANA-RIVER ......................................................................................... 120
6.2 DIFFERENT ROLES IN CONFLICT MANAGEMENT ................................................... 122
6.2.1 The role of farmers ..................................................................................... 122
6.2.2 Role of pastoralists ...................................................................................... 124
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6.2.3 The role of the government......................................................................... 125
6.3 SOLUTIONS GIVEN TO THE CONFLICT BY THE TANA RIVER GASA ELDERS ............ 129
6.4 POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS OF THE CONFLICT OBTAINED FROM PARTICIPANTS OF A
WORKSHOP ................................................................................................................. 129
6.5 SOLUTIONS GIVEN BY THE ORMA AND WARDEI PASTORALISTS ........................... 131
6.6 TRADITIONAL METHOD OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION ............................................. 132
CHAPTER SEVEN ................................................................................................................................. 134
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................ 134
7.0 SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS ................................................................................ 134
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................ 141
APPENDICES ......................................................................................................................................... 149
x
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1: Land tenure in Tana River district ................................................................. 15
Table 2.2: Local Terminologies ...................................................................................... 33
Table 2.3: Rituals and ceremonies .................................................................................. 34
Table 3.1: Ethnic Land Disputes in Kenya by 1997 ....................................................... 36
Table 5.0: Summary of general information of the respondents who filled the standard
questionnaire ........................................................................................................... 61
Table 5.1: Approximate ages of students in Garsen Division ........................................ 62
Table 5.2: Ethnic groupings of the students ................................................................... 62
Table 5.3: Distribution of Students in Secondary Schools ............................................. 62
Table 5.4: Gender of the students ................................................................................... 62
Table 5.5: The meaning of ethnicity in the study area .................................................... 67
Table 5.6: Rules to guide the use of resources ............................................................... 74
Table 5.7: Causes of the conflict .................................................................................... 83
Table 5.8: Hospital attendance ........................................................................................ 93
Table 5.9: How necessities were obtained during the conflict period ............................ 95
Table 5.10: Impact of Conflict on students ................................................................... 100
Table 5.11: Impact of conflict on pastoralist students .................................................. 101
Table 5.12: Form of psychological impact ................................................................... 113
Table 5.13: General impact of conflict at individual and family levels ....................... 115
Table 6.1: The role of farmers in conflict management ............................................... 123
Table 6.2: The role of pastoralists in conflict management .......................................... 126
Table 6.3: The role of Government in conflict management ........................................ 127
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2. 1: Location of Tana River District in Kenya ..................................................... 8
Figure 2. 2: Location of Garsen Division in Tana River District ..................................... 9
Figure 5. 1: Distribution of respondents according to ethnic groups .............................. 59
Figure 5. 2: Distribution of respondents according to age .............................................. 60
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LIST OF PLATES
Plate 2.1: Maize crop destroyed by floods ...................................................................... 14
Plate 5.2: A burnt house at Tarasaa village .................................................................. 103
Plate 5.3: An abandoned Manyatta ............................................................................... 104
Plate 5.4: An abandoned farm of banana plants across the River Tana overgrown with
grass ...................................................................................................................... 105
Plate 5.5: A school boy killed at Golbanti village by raiders ....................................... 110
Plate 5.6: A schoolgirl wounded when raiders attacked her village ............................. 111
Plate 5.7: Youths attacked by heavily armed pastoralists in their village .................... 116
Plate 5.8 Pastoralists ferrying themselves across River Tana ....................................... 118
xiii
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix 1: Standard Questionnaire……………………………………………..140
Appendix 2: Student Questionnaire………………………………………………146
Appendix 3: Checklist for focus group discussion……….………………………148
xiv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This section is for those who helped me with this work, without whom it would not
have been possible to complete.
I am greatly indebted to my supervisors Professor J.J. Akong’a and Professor J.J.
Okumu who in spite of their busy schedules patiently guided me in every step. I am
also grateful to all the members of staff at the School of Environmental Studies who
were like a family to me and who helped me in their different capacities.
My friends Jembe Boniface and Wanje Nyiro, my research assistants Komora, Wario,
Jennifer and Gobu deserve special gratitude for their help, encouragement and support.
I acknowledge the assistance accorded to me by Mr. Bombe the coordinator of the
Tana River Arid Lands Resource Management Programme, Mr. Koroso at the Tarasaa
Catholic community centre, the Divisional Officer (Garsen) and the District
Commissioner, in Tana River, Chiefs in the different locations under study and the
people of Tana River (especially the Pokomo, Orma and Wardei).
I wish to express my deep appreciation to my mother Hajillo Rebecca for her
understanding and support. I also owe gratitude to my brothers Arnold Buya and Eric
Mungatana for their unwavering support.
1
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0 Problem Statement
Conflict is inherent in every society as long as there is interaction between people
either of the same culture or different cultures. There are a number of levels at which
conflicts in the world today are experienced. These can be between nations, ethnic
groups or even clans. There can also be interpersonal or intrapersonal conflicts.
Whichever level at which conflict is experienced, it is mainly destructive, and
therefore, a threat to the survival of the individual.
The conflict in Tana-River though highlighted especially in the media as ethnic, is
not about ethnicity per se but it may have other causes such as resource use and land
ownership between the Orma and Wardei pastoralists on one hand and the Pokomo
Peasant farmers on the other hand. This is partly because the district is mainly a
rangeland. The only productive areas are along the riverbanks where most of the
Pokomo live and cultivate.
Throughout history the latter have therefore been termed as the riverine people
(Prins, 1952:1; Bunger, 1970:1; Mollison, 1971:3; Salim, 1973:39) by their pastoral
neighbors. While the pastoral people go for pasture and water resources considered
by them as commons, the Pokomo peasant farmers view the riverine regions as their
individual property containing cultivated and individually owned farms. Among the
Pokomo land is first owned by the community, then portions of land belong to
specific clans, and families within each clan own their own land and finally
individuals within families own land that they consider their birthright. The
pastoralists do not recognize this kind of land ownership and use. The conflict over
land, pasture and water resources, has therefore, partly to do with perception, of what
is a resource, who owns it, who has a right of use under what conditions and when.
Pastoralist groups generally cross borders of nations unrestricted for environmental
and economic reasons (Duffield, 1991:15). The nomadic Orma and Wardei Oromo
2
pastoralists in Tana-River cross the border to Somalia and Ethiopia freely. This is
partly because the District borders Somalia at one end through Garissa district and
mostly because the Oromo inhabit a region that extends from Ethiopia, Kenya and
Somalia (Fukui and Markakis, 1994: 169, 230-231; Kassam and Megerssa, 2002:11).
They can therefore move without inhibition among relatives, friends and stock
associates.
The fact that there is no effective central government control in Somalia and
southern Ethiopia (Jalata, 1993:144; El-Hinnawi, 1985) implies that the pastoralists
are better equipped in terms of armory due to their exposure to the war torn country
of Somalia and the Oromo guerrilla (Oromo Liberation Front) in Southern Ethiopia.
This is because they have to trek for long distances in insecure areas within countries
controlled only by Warlords in search of pasture and water.
More often than not the nomadic pastoralists in the Tana region pose a security
problem in the district as the National Assembly of Kenya Report has stated
(Republic of Kenya, 1992). They move in caravans with their camel, donkeys and
other animals over long distances. As they migrate, they pass through locations
where surprisingly the local chiefs feel completely helpless since these caravans are
fully armed. The caravans ultimately find themselves in settled areas and the fully
armed pastoralists guide their animals to the poor peasant farmers’ croplands thus
destroying the crops. Such a scenario will not pass unnoticed by the farmers who
then pick up arms ready to defend their farms in order to guard themselves against
food insecurity. Nevertheless, life has to continue in this district during periods of
relative peace as well as in periods of active violence. In times of relative peace the
farmers have to worry about being waylaid and killed or raped by the so-called
“shifta-bandits” (this terminology emanated from the shifta war experienced in
Kenya immediately after independence, outlaws who are mostly Somali, but later
Orma and Wardei engage in criminal activities such as attacking buses, robbing
passengers and killing them) and in periods of overt conflict where actual large-scale
violence occurs.
In the recent conflict the first victim of the so-called “tribal clashes” was a peasant
farmer attacked and killed on his farm on the 7th
March 2001 by a group of armed
3
pastoralists. This happened as he was marking the boundaries of his farm ready for
the land adjudication and registration exercise, which had begun in the district. This
first incident led to the fully-fledged deadly conflict. Where counter attacks
occurred, houses as well as Manyatta (a Kiswahili word for nomadic village) were
burnt, livestock were slashed and killed, people were killed and wounded, farms and
whole villages were abandoned, as public services such as schools and hospitals
were interrupted.
Pokomo teachers in Pastoralist schools were threatened with death if they did not
leave the schools with immediate effect. The government insisted that if teachers did
not go to teach they would be sacked. Pastoralists who had to go all the way to the
neighboring district of Malindi for treatment no longer attended public hospitals in
Pokomo peasant farmers’ areas. The market structures between the pastoralists and
the farmers broke down because neither of the groups would buy goods from each
other. The neighbours had turned into enemies. The pastoralists had to go all the way
to Malindi town to sell their wares especially milk. As the conflict escalated to great
heights there were suspicions of “an external force” or “third party” in the conflict.
What is disturbing is that in all this the government seemed like a spectator. The
government security officers seemed to have inspected weapons in a biased manner.
The only weapons they would gather are mainly the Panga (machetes), bows and
arrows, while people suffered gun wounds in hospitals (Daily Nation, Tuesday,
December 11, 2001). It was apparently quite easy for the security officers to
confiscate the crude weapons from farmers but not the firearms from pastoralists.
The people in Tana-River need peace and proper human security like any other
Kenyans. As one approaches the district at the border with Malindi district one feels
tense and probably afraid as one is hit by the realization that he/she is in one of the
most insecure places in Kenya. All the vehicles must stop, sometimes for hours on
end as each vehicle is allocated some police escorts. Not to mention that the constant
insecurity hampers participation in development activities. In the educational sector
for instance the district is always performing poorly in national examinations,
because the students go to school in fear, have no secure home environment and are
therefore, economically, socially, physically and psychologically deprived.
4
The main issues in this study therefore, are; causes of the conflict, factors that make
pastoralists seem hostile, how peaceful co-existence can be brought about in the area
so that the farmers can feel secure to cultivate and harvest adequate food for
themselves and for the market among the pastoralists and why the government acts
as a spectator in all these even though the conflict, involve gross violation of human
rights and creates a perpetual human insecurity. While the government of Kenya
seems to be interested in arbitrating for peace in fragile states such as Sudan and
Somali at its own backyard, in districts like Tana River there is little arbitration and
minimal government security presence.
1.1 Research Questions
What are the causes of the conflict?
What makes pastoralists seem hostile?
Why and how have the Pokomo been able to build a force that can counter the
Orma and Wardei?
What are the social, cultural, economic and psychological impacts of conflict on
the conflicting communities?
How can the conflict be managed?
1.2 Objectives Of The Study
Overall objective
To assess the conflict phenomenon in Garsen Division, Tana River District, Kenya.
Specific Objectives
To find out the causes of the conflict.
To find out the environmental and other factors that make pastoralists seem
hostile.
To find out the social, cultural, economic and psychological impact of the
conflict in Garsen division, Tana–River district.
5
To find out ways of managing the conflict that can lead to the two parties
reconciling.
1.3 Significance/Justification
The study will contribute new data to the scarce literature available on the perennial
conflict in Kenya and Tana River district in particular.
It has been argued that conflict has both negative and positive functions (Coser and
Rosenberg, 1969:212), the positive functions in the conflict include the fact that it
unites the in-group against the out-group, while highlighting the physical and
conceptual boundaries between the two groups among other functions. In Tana
River, there is need to find out whether there are both negative and positive impacts
of the conflict. The world however, needs peace in general and this calls for the
studies in conflict management and resolution.
The conflict situation in the district has never preceded ‘real peace’. Some scholars
have even been led to believe that the farmers and pastoralists at some point have
been living together in peace. To quote Prins (1952);
By 1952, the Galla (Orma) were reported to be living peacefully side by side with
Pokomo in perfect friendliness.
The relationship between the two groups however, seems to be strong only at the
market place, otherwise their lives are full of tensions and suspicions.
The farmers always suspect their neighbours of “being up to something”. For
instance, when a group of pastoralists is seen, word spreads out very fast in Pokomo
villages, and the youths are organized to guard the village in case of an attack (a
group of pastoralists walking together is always taken to mean that they are bandits).
Besides they seem to blame the pastoralists for the cause of general insecurity in the
district. The farmers seem also to have a resigned mood of ever achieving
sustainable peace in the district, expecting the government to help them have this
craved peace; unfortunately the government seems to stand by as people slaughter
each other.
6
All the vehicles passing through the district must have an “escort” from the Kenya
police, even in times of relative peace. From the point of view of the researcher, this
is not very helpful in that when the bandits attack these vehicles; the so-called
security (only two per bus) will be the first to be attacked hence exposing the
unarmed citizens to great insecurity. In addition the security personnel or the escorts
usually cannot effectively deal with the bandits who have sophisticated weapons and
attack as a group such that the two escorts in a bus cannot handle them. Therefore
the escorts are at risk like all the other passengers in a bus.
The conflict in the Tana-River district must be studied at this time, especially,
because, the recent conflict might be of greatest magnitude in the history of conflict
in the district occurring in the year, 2001. There was the involvement of
sophisticated machine guns, superior to those owned by the government security
forces in the district. This is a serious problem if some members of the Kenyan
“nation” can be allowed to have or to form their own “armies” at the expense of poor
citizens elsewhere.
The conflict has led to social and cultural disruption such that even pregnant women
and children were not spared death. This brings about a number of issues; what is
happening to cultural rules of war is culture being degraded in regard to conflict?
What about the psychological impact suffered on survivors who have watched
relatives being killed? Peace is a necessary pre-condition for any kind of development
to take-off, thus, the need to have a clear understanding of the causes and dynamics of
the conflict.
7
CHAPTER TWO
THE STUDY AREA
2.0 The Natural Environment
Tana River can be divided into upper Tana and lower Tana. Upper Tana is mostly an
Arid and Semi Arid area. The lower Tana is the delta region. In dry seasons there is
movement of pastoralists from the Upper to lower Tana. This movement is often
associated with conflicts.
2.01 Position and Location
The research project was conducted in Garsen division, Tana River District during
the period, September 2002 to January 2003.
According to the Tana-River District development Plan (1997-2001), Tana River
District is one of the six districts that constitute the Coast Province. It borders Kitui
District to the west, Mwingi to the northwest, Garissa to the east, Tharaka Nithi and
Isiolo to the north, Lamu to the southeast, Kilifi and the Indian Ocean to the south.
The District lies between latitudes 0o (equator) and 3
o south, and longitudes 38
o 30´
east and 40o 15´ east and it has an area of about 38 782 sq.km.
The district is divided into five divisions Garsen is the largest (15 624 km2) Galole is
the second largest, it hosts the district headquarters. The other divisions are Bura,
Madogo and Bangale. There are 31 locations and 63 sub-locations in the District.
Figure 2.1 shows the location of Tana River district in Kenya, while figure 2.2 shows
the location of Garsen division in Tana River district.
8
SUDAN
UG
AN
DA
TANZANIA
SO
MA
LIA
ETHIOPIA
Indian Ocean
Nyambene
Moyale
Mandera
Wajir
Tana River
Kwale
Taita Taveta
Suba
Keiyo
Lake Turkana
Makueni
Mwingi
Garissa
Isiolo
Samburu
Meru
Tharaka Nithi
EmbuKirinyaga
Mbere
Machakos
Kajiado
Nairobi
ThikaKiambu
Muranga
NyeriNyandarua
LaikipiaKoibatek
Narok
NakuruKericho
NyamiraBomet
Kuria
Kisii
Trans NzoiaMigori
Homa Bay
Lake Victoria
Kisumu
SiayaVihiga
KakamegaNandi
Uasin Gishu
Marakwet
Baringo
West Pokot
Trans NzoiaMount Elgon
BungomaBusia
Teso
Kitui
Kilifi
Lamu
Turkana Moyale
Mombasa
N
EW
S
Legend
Study Area
District BoundaryProvincial Boundary
International Boundary
Figure 2. 1: Location of Tana River District in Kenya Source: Republic of Kenya, Tana River District Development Plan, 1997-2001: p.3
1:5 000 000
9
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
MERU
Mbalambala
Bangale
BANGALE
Saka
Nanighi
BURA
Chwewele
WAYU
GARSEN
Bilisa
GARISSA
LAMU
KILIFI
TAITA TAVETA
KITUIMadogo
MADOGO
Ndera
Salama
Idsowe
Ngao Chara
Kipini
GALOLE
Bura
Hola
1
2
3
4
5
6
Garsen Division
# Town and Market Centers
Locational Boundaries
Divisional Boundary
District Boundary
N
EW
S
1 Bura2 Milalulu3 Zubaku4 Ndura5 Kinakomba6 Gwano
Legend
0 50
Kilometers
Figure 2. 2: Location of Garsen Division in Tana River District Source: Republic of Kenya, Tana River District Development Plan, 1997-2001: p.8
.
10
2.02 Topography and soils
Tana-River district is generally flat, with low hills in few areas. The main hills are
Minjilla in Garsen Division, Bilbil in Bura and Madogo making these areas the
highest points in the district.
The River Tana creates an extensive delta, which is characterized by wetlands. The
delta provides a grazing area during the dry seasons and its waters are used for
agriculture. According to the National Environmental Secretariat (NES) the District
has a short coastline about 71 km long (NES, Lower Tana, 1985:35) Characterized
by sandy beaches and sand dunes. The river flows into the ocean through a marshy
delta.
The soils in the district are generally black cotton soils with clay, loam and alluvial
deposits. They have low or moderate fertility in the hinterland, where there is no
influence of flooding therefore unattractive to farmers. High fertility soils are found
along the natural depressions and along the flood plains of River Tana. Their fertility
is due to the accumulation of silt or clay brought about by flooding.
The soils in the hinterland are excessively drained while those in the flood plain of
River Tana are imperfectly drained, making the flood plains good rice fields.
Ranching is mainly practiced in the hinterland where the large expanse of grasslands
provides ample forage for livestock. The soils are developed on flood plains and
swamps, sandunes, plains, mangrove swamps and coastal ridges (Ibid. p3).
The presence of swamps, waterlogged and flood prone areas of the flood plain
provide breeding grounds for mosquitoes. Also, the sandy soils lower the
effectiveness of rainfall due to their high infiltration rates.
2.03 Climate
The mean annual rainfall range between 300mm and 500mm. Long rains are
between April and May while short rains are between October and November.
November is the wettest month. With the little erratic rainfall especially in the
11
hinterland, the district experiences drought almost every year. Drought brings with it
movement of pastoralists towards the lower Tana.
The Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) influences the wind pattern and the
non-seasonal air currents of the Indian Ocean and determines the pattern and amount
of rainfall recovered in the district. It therefore follows that the coastline is wetter
than the hinterland. The coastal region receives rainfall of up to 1250mm annually
though the rainfall varies and is unreliable. The dry climate in the hinterland can
only support nomadic pastoralism. The area is generally hot and dry.
2.04 Water resources
The main water resources in the district are the Tana River, seasonal rivers (lagas),
groundwater, water pans and water holes in the interlaga areas. Tana River is
Kenya's major river and the only river flowing through the district. There is abundant
water flowing along the river into the Indian Ocean particularly after heavy rains
upcountry, this water may be dammed for future use instead of being wasted into the
ocean. A number of dams have been built in the upper catchment area of the Tana
River for production of hydroelectric power, and to regulate the flow of the river for
power generation and irrigation schemes downstream (NES, Lower Tana, 1985:9).
As more dams are built, they will have considerable effect on the discharge
downstream, virtually suppressing the usual annual floods and may substantially
reduce the flood intervals. Currently, most farmers cannot farm rice because of the
decrease in floodwaters. They have opted to farm maize, which does not do well in
the area, leading to an increase in food shortages.
There are two major water schemes in the lower Tana area – the Garsen water supply
and the Ngao-Tarasaa water supply, these draw water from the river but the quantity
is inadequate. In areas further away from the river underground water from the wells
is the major source of water. However, most of the groundwater is saline (Ibid.).
This implies that; one, the lagas have a disadvantage in that they are a major
bottleneck to road transport as they cut off roads making the district virtually land
locked during the rainy seasons. Two, the heavy rains experienced in the area
12
coupled with a flat topography, cause prolonged wetness and render roads
impassable. Floods occur regularly and, although they replenish soil fertility through
deposition of silt, they cause destruction of crops. Three, high agricultural potential
is limited to areas along the river basin and to the wetter eastern side adjoining Lamu
district. Also, Tana River is the main source of water for domestic and livestock use,
especially during the dry seasons when other sources dry up. Plate 2.1 shows maize
crops destroyed by floods.
2.1 The Human Environment
This section covers the interactions of the people of Tana River with their
environment.
2.1.1 Land tenure
The land tenure or system of land ownership perceived by the indigenous people
living in the Tana area is two fold. Land according to the pastoralists is seen as a
resource given by God and should be shared by all. According to the Pokomo
farmers, to be Pokomo means you own the land inhabited by the Pokomo. In the
Pokomo community there are Vyeti (sing. Kyeti) or lineages, each lineage has its
own land, under the lineage there are clans and it is clear that each clan has its own
land. Further, families under each clan are given land by their clans. Each individual
wanting to use land has to see elders in his clan, who will sit together, after the
individual pays for the elder’s sitting (barhe) and allocate him land for his family’s
use. These lands are not for sale.
People owning land in Kipini (the Tana River mouth – joining the Indian Ocean) are
most likely to conflict with new land owners in future as land is being advertised to
other Kenyans and sold at the district headquarters without the knowledge of peasant
farmers according to a key informant. The future scenario is that indigenous farmers
will be called squatters and will be forced out of their land as private developers
move in to own “their land”. Settled people in many communities have elaborate
systems of land tenure than nomadic or semi-nomadic people.
13
The coastal region has for a long time, been used as a place where loyal politicians to
an incumbent regime will be given rewards in form of beach plots and land where
they can invest. This system has led to further marginalization of the coastal people,
and a further delay of land demarcation and adjudication, where people living in the
coast, including the Tana area can have their land registered and issued with title
deeds.
The government of Kenya sees the Tana land as mostly Government Land. The land
has not been demarcated and the system of land tenure is largely communal (Table
2.1). The indigenous farmers in the district live in clustered villages for security
reasons (NES, Lower Tana, 1985:14). The riverine land, where most of the Pokomo
farmers live is mostly under Trust.
According to the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), under the constitution, trust land is
vested in local authorities that are required to hold it for the benefit of the local
residents; therefore it can neither be sold, transferred nor leased (LSK, July, 2002).
However, the concept of trusteeship has generally been interpreted as granting
powers to such authorities to alienate land without regard to local interests (Ibid.).
Trends of this nature can be observed in Tana River, where large parts of the
hinterland have been alienated to public corporations thus reducing the amount of
land available for the use of local residents. This in turn has put pressure on local
land-use and aggravated the conflict between pastoralists and peasant farmers (Ibid.
p8).
Further, local authorities have sold most of the land in the Tana delta to other
Kenyans who are not Tana River people, without thinking of the indigenous people,
if this will not be corrected then a land use conflict is in store waiting to happen.
When the Pokomo farmers and the Orma and Wardei pastoralists resolve their
conflict they will realize that the conflict over land would have just begun.
14
Plate 2.1: Maize crop destroyed by floods
Source: Fieldwork, 2002
15
Table 2.1: Land tenure in Tana River district
Land
Description of type km2
Government land
Land owned by the government of Kenya 24, 179
Freehold land
Legal ownership of a piece of land for an
unlimited period of time.
8
Trust land
A legal arrangement where land is vested in
local authorities that are required to hold it for
the benefit of the local people; therefore it can
neither be sold, transferred nor leased.
1, 645
Available for small
holder registration
An area of land that is usually used for
farming, but which is much smaller than a
typical farm.
12, 862
Already registered
Land registered for private ownership by the
local people. The process is awaiting the land
adjudication that had triggered conflict in
Tana River.
Nil
Source: Government of Kenya, 1983, cited by NES (1985:14) – the section on
description of type of land is an additional.
16
2.1.2 Population
The 1999 national population census reported the total population of the Tana River
people to be 180, 901 while the population of Garsen division was reported to be a
total of 51, 592 (Republic of Kenya, 1999). The estimated population for 2001 was
projected to be 190, 433 (Tana River District Development Plan 1997–2001). In
1989, the Pokomo population in the district was 47, 447, the highest, followed
closely by the Orma who were a total of 42,220 according to the Kenya population
census, in Tana River (Republic of Kenya, 1994: 6-15).
Nomadic pastoralism is common to the Orma and Wardei living in the Lower Tana
River. The Orma practice seasonal internal migration in search of better pastures.
Whereas the Wardei are believed to move mostly into the Somali region a lot, the
Pokomo perceive them to be more of Somali than Wakalla (Oromo). There is also
in-migration into the area by the Somali from North-Eastern Province who migrate
during the dry season in search of water and pasture, returning to their home district
when conditions improve (NES, Lower Tana, 1985:16).
2.1.3 Livestock and agricultural production activities
The district, which is mostly a rangeland, has a high potential for livestock
development. Livestock production closely follows the precipitation pattern. The
Orma Boran breed of cattle is common. Sheep and goats are kept in relatively small
numbers. As one gradually moves to the north rainfall diminishes and the area
becomes generally dry. Camel, sheep and goats are found in this area.
Small-scale subsistence agriculture is mostly practiced. The average farm size is 1.5
hectares per household. The crops grown include maize, rice, cowpeas, green grams,
mangoes, bananas among others. Most of the farms are situated next to the River
Tana and along the beds of the seasonal Rivers (lagas) where the farmers use
residual moisture when the rain stops. The sizes of the farms depend on the total area
of flood plain and/or the size of the village or clan. Plate 2.2 shows River Tana and
Pokomo farms lined along its banks, in the middle foreground is a dug-out canoe
used to ferry the farmers to their farms.
17
Plate 2.2 Mango farms lined along River Tana and a dug out canoe in the middle foreground
Source: Fieldwork, 2002
18
2.1.4 Droughts
Most of the Tana River district is susceptible to drought conditions (NES, Lower
Tana, 1985:32). From January to August 1961, most of the inland areas of the Coast
province received less than 57% of the average rainfall. In 1976, high temperatures
and low rainfall characterized weather conditions in the Coast Province. The days
were hot and humid. There were severe drought conditions in 1978-79 in Tana River
district and subsistence had to be sought from outside. During 1984 severe drought
in middle Tana River district forced many pastoralists to move into the Lower Tana
River area (Garsen Division). High livestock deaths and some conflicts with
agriculturalists were reported.
Drought conditions in the district have the implication that, dependence on rice and
maize, as staple foods should be supplemented with other drought resistant crops
such as cassava and other crops. Also, the large dams constructed upstream should
include flood storage reservoirs to regulate water downstream.
2.2 The People of Tana-River
The Pokomo are a Bantu group of people said to have come from the proverbial
Shungwaya, (Prins, 1952; Ogot, 1976:265; Osogo, 1968:54; Bonaya cited in
McIntosh, 1969:150). It is believed that Shungwaya lies within the territory of the
Somali republic. Traditions relate that it was in the vicinity of the present village of
Chiambone or Kiamboni (Prins, op cit.; Ogot and Kierani, 1968).
During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the Galla (Oromo) begun to attack the
Shungwaya peoples thereby setting in motion a long period of migrations towards
the south into the Kenyan coast (Bonaya, op cit.). In the seventeenth century Oromo
pastoralists attacked the Pokomo farmers who settled at Kilimadzi (present Mambrui
village in the Northern Malindi town of Kenya). This was in order to access water
from the Sabaki River and pastureland. The Galla, as they were called then, left their
mark by naming the river Sabaki, river Gallana. In Oromo Gallana means river. As a
result the Pokomo farmers abandoned their villages and farms. The area was not
19
resettled until about 1861, when Arabs from Lamu refounded the town (Bonaya,
Ibid.).
Martin (1973:42) states that by the end of the 17th
Century the war-like Galla were in
control of the mainland coast of Kenya and most of the settled areas were abandoned
during this period. The wave of Galla or Oromo that moved furthest into Kenya were
the Wardeh (Wardei, Warday, Warra Daaya) whose descendants are the Tana Orma
(Kassam and Megerssa, 2002:5, Martin, Ibid.). 'Orma' is a common southern dialect
form of 'Oromo' (Schlee, 1989:35). The Warra Daaya (Wardei) are believed to have
inhabited at one time or another almost all of northern and eastern Kenya and
Jubaland. They originate from the Dirre and Liban areas of Southern Ethiopia, from
where they are said to have been expelled by the Boran (Schlee, 1989; Kassam and
Mergessa, 2002 Op cit.).
After the Daarod Somali expansion of the late 19th
century and early 20th
century
those Warra Daaya who had escaped death or captivity by the Somali were, for
safety, restricted by the British to the right bank of the Tana River. This is the
present group of Orma as noted earlier (Kassam and Mergessa, 2002).
The Oromo people do not call themselves “Galla” others call them by this name
(Ochieng, 1990; Jalata, 1993:3). The “Galla” reclaimed their ethnonym of Oromo in
the 1970s in the course of their nationalist struggle against Abyssinian (Ethiopian)
colonialism and rewriting their own history (Kassam and Megerssa, 2002:9).
Salvadori and Fedders (1984:31) have given the meaning of the word Galla to mean
‘wandering’ or ‘going and coming’. The name ‘Oromo’ on the other hand is said to
mean “men”, “nation”, “race” or “brave men” (Jalata, 1993:16). From their history
we know that the Oromo left their homeland east of Lake Abaya in southern
Ethiopia about 1530 and by the end of the century they had spread far north into
Ethiopia and south and east into Kenya and Somalia, (Ogot, 1976:265; Spear,
1978:24).
The Oromo are made up of a number of named territorial groups that live in
Ethiopia, Kenya and parts of Somalia as highlighted earlier. These are: Orma, Gabra,
Boorana, Guji, Arsi, Ittu, Karrayyu, Qottuu, Wollo, Rayya, Azebo, Macha and
20
Tullama. The majority of these groups live in Ethiopia. They currently Number 25-
30 million (Kassam and Megerssa, 2002: 11).
Movements or migrations of people, attacks and defenses and lack of respect for
ethnic boundaries characterized the pre-colonial and sometimes colonial people.
2.2.1 Orma Mythology of their Settlement in Tana- River
According to a peace building meeting with pastoralist leaders (Caritas Malindi
Diocese, 2002:3), the Orma and Waata (Sanye) communities were the first
communities to settle in Tana-River district. They covered areas from Ndera in
Garsen division upto the Sabaki River where they bordered Mijikenda groups.
Later, the Pokomo community, who originated from Shungwaya near Kismayu,
present Somalia came and were welcomed by the pastoralists. They settled along the
riverbanks where they practiced farming and fishing activities. The Waata were
hunters and gatherers.
The two different communities with different modes of livelihoods respected each
other and the traditional structures that were set by their elders. As farming went on
along the riverine areas some areas were set aside for the Orma to be used as pasture
areas during the dry seasons. Other areas along the river were set aside as watering
points or malka for the pastoralists. The Waata and the Orma are said to speak the
same language – Orma.
It is interesting to note that the Orma in their mythology do not mention the Wardei
people even as they tell them they are closer than the Waata (Sanye), who they
despise because they perceive them as being poor.
21
2.2.2 Pokomo Mythology of their Settlement in Tana-River
According to the Pokomo council of elders the Pokomo were the first inhabitants of
the Tana River valley, (Gasa, 2001:4-5), having arrived from Shungwaya after the
Digo people had already left Shungwaya but before the Giriama and other Mijikenda
ethnic groups. The Orma were chased away during the civil wars with the Somali.
When they reached Tana-River two Pokomo elders namely Wayu and Waldena
crossed them to the western bank and the Pokomo protected them from the Somali.
The first Orma manyatta were named after the above mentioned Pokomo, Wayu and
Waldena and these places exist to date.
Under the colonial rule the Orma and the Pokomo were encouraged to live far from
each other. The Orma pastoralists lived in the hinterland while the Pokomo peasant
farmers continued to live along the flood plain areas. This should explain why Wayu
and Waldena are over 100km away from the river. The colonial government
designated water corridors that were used by the Orma and the Somali from
Garrissa.
Each of the two communities claim the first comer right and hence justifying its right
to ownership of land in Tana River to long and historical occupation. These claims
are not important in present Kenya, where most communities migrated from one area
to the other, what is important is how the farmers and the pastoralists can co-exist in
Tana River peacefully.
2.2.3 Adaptation to the Environment
Organisms, human and nonhuman, respond to structural and functional
characteristics of their environment. Adaptations results from exposure to physical
and chemical factors, from interactions with other species, and from the interactions
of individuals within the same species (Moran, 1982:7). The farmers and the
pastoralists have been able to survive in their environments through adaptation.
Human adaptability stresses the flexibility of human response to any environment.
The people of Tana River have to adapt to an environment of low and uncertain
rainfall or generally a semi-arid environment.
22
According to Steward’s theory of adaptation there is a relationship among certain
variables in adaptation, environmental resources, subsistence technology and the
behavior of the human person to use his technology on the available resources
(Ibid.p43). The most important needs in society are food and shelter, in resource
utilization the type of technology used to exploit these resources matter and aid a
community in adaptation.
Adaptability to humid heat experienced in the coast is seen when the population
remain relatively sedentary at midday and follows a moderate pace in work.
Physiologists have noted that tropical people “move more efficiently” and do not
allow themselves to become overheated (Moran, 1982: 278-9). After thermal midday
most tropical peoples avoid heavy work and engage in relatively unstrenous activity
in shaded areas.
Pokomo peasant farmers
The Pokomo people live along the riverbanks as a way of adaptation to the semi-arid
environment of Tana River. They depend on the moisture from the river to plant their
crops. The farmers also farm in the areas of natural depressions, which store water
when it rains or when the river floods. Flood plains are also used as farming areas
this is because of fertility brought about by silting when the river floods. The Pokomo
farmers therefore cannot envisage a life away from the river into the hinterland where
they will need new adaptive strategies.
Therefore there are permanent farm sets (along the riverbanks and around some ox-
bow lakes) for the farmers and there are other farms that are utilized when the river
floods. This shows that there are two types of farms for the farmers, permanent areas
and fallback areas.
Some few Pokomo people also keep small stock such as goats and sheep. A few
Pokomo who had made friends with the Orma bought cows from the Orma and let
them herd their cows for a fee. The charges are not made in monetary terms but
depending on young ones being reproduced by the cows in the custody of Orma
23
friends. Pokomo farmers who ‘insist’ on rearing especially, large stock by themselves
risk loosing the animals to other Orma and Wardei who would not let non-pastoralist
people keep livestock in the district. This behavior may be motivated by the
conviction that livestock ‘naturally’ belongs to them, and not even all groups of
pastoralists have rights to own stock.
The Orma and Wardei Pastoralists
A reasonable working definition of pastoralism has been given by Cohen (1974:261)
that pastoralism is a system of production devoted to gaining livelihood from the
care of large herds of animals based on transhumance and is an adaptation to a
particular habitat; semi-arid open country or grasslands, in which hoe or digging
stick cultivation apparently cannot be sustained.
Most of the pastoralists practice mobility as an adaptation strategy.
Herding must take into account not only the presence of permanent water and the
availability and nutritional status of grass (when dry perennial grass are nutritionally
deficient), but also the necessity of avoiding sticky, wet clay soils where cows may
fall, tall grasses that may shelter predators, tick-borne East Coast Fever, and the
presence of enemy raiders. For these reasons cattle may be moved frequently over
great distances. (Netting, 1986:47).
The Orma and Wardei pastoralists are ever on the move looking for the best areas to
graze their animals. When it rains heavily they take their animals to higher ground in
order to protect them from diseases such as foot and mouth disease and mosquitoes
in the Tana region. The livestock therefore, in the arid and semi-arid climate have to
be moved to where pasture resources are. The pastoralist must be constantly aware
of the condition of each animal and meet its needs (Moran, 1982: 223). By the dry
season pastoralists are to be found around the main permanent waterholes, where
they will build huts from reeds to allow circulation in the heat of the day (Smith,
1992:12). Among the Orma and Wardei pastoralists of Tana River, there are areas
set for grazing during the dry seasons and others set for the rainy seasons. This
shows that pastoralist utilize land in two different aspects as dictated by nature and
the seasonal calendar.
24
Keeping large herds is also an adaptation strategy. Since Tana River is prone to
drought seasons the large number of cows act as protection against loss of stock
caused by droughts such that even though the herder may loose some animals he
shall still remain with some. A man who loses one-third of his stock is much better
off if he begins with sixty cows than with six (Netting, 1986:51). There is no doubt
however, that overgrazing occurs and large sizes of herds reduce range capacity and
that pastoralists strongly resist herd reduction.
Another form of adaptation practiced by pastoralists is the distribution of their herds
over a vast territory through complex forms of lending and borrowing (Moran,
1982:226). An individual pastoralist may lend his animals to another pastoralist who
temporarily needs a greater number of animals. It is agreed that the owner will be
paid back the equivalent of the animals at a later date.
Some few Orma and Wardei practice agro-pastoralism. This is a coping strategy
against droughts. The practice also serves to compliment the food of the pastoralists.
2.2.4 The Pokomo and Orma socio-political organization
According to a research done by the Arid Lands Resource Management Programme
(ALRMP, 2001a: 3), before the coming of the colonial government the Pokomo and
Orma communities governed themselves through the following structures.
2.2.4.1 THE POKOMO
KIJO
This was the executive arm of the government. It enjoyed the power of making final
decisions. All the reports were finally taken to them for final judgment. They had
power to make judgment concerning all cases that were prevailing in the community.
The Kijo was also a secret organization, which had a lot of power and could even
order for ones execution (capital punishment) in case their orders were defied or if
25
one was seen as a threat to their administration. The Kijo were the cream members of
the witchdoctors in the Pokomo community.
WAGANGANA
These were the immediate followers and successors of the Kijo. They therefore
executed all the duties assigned to them and performed all the witchcraft on behalf of
the Kijo.
SESA/MATABULE
The Sesa also known as Matabule was under the administration of the Wagangana.
They were mainly the chief advisors of both the Gasa and the Kijo.
GASA
This group performed all the administrative duties. It would hear and make judgment
of all types of conflicts and cases. Whenever they got stuck they would seek the
advice of the Sesa.
BISO/WANAMPEBFO
These were subordinates to the Gasa. They executed assignments given to them by
the Gasa and in the process learning the functions of the Gasa. This was the group,
which later was to be promoted to be the Gasa. On the same level some of the
Wanampebfo were students of the Wagangana and would later take-over from the
Wagangana.
2.2.4.2 THE GASA
The Gasa has survived to the present time though with a number of modifications to
its functions. As seen earlier its main function in the community is administrative.
26
COMPOSITION
According to ALRMP (2001a:5) the Pokomo community is characterized by age
cohorts (groups), which are determined by circumcision events. This follows that all
the group members who are circumcised during any given period of time fall under
one age cohort. The Gasa therefore would comprise of a specific age group, which
would take-over from the retiring one.
During the period of take-over or handing-over, the following procedure is followed;
the retiring Gasa is promoted to the status of Sesa, the incoming group who used to
be the Biso takes over the Gasa status and the immediate age group of the Biso is
now promoted to the Biso status. The taking over ceremony is accompanied with
feasting and dancing to mark the exercise.
The traditional political unit among the Pokomo is the Kyeti (pl. Vyeti). This is an
alliance of three to eight patriclans (masindo) living in a common territory (Bunger,
R, 1970:2). Each Kyeti had its own Gasa. It is believed that the Pokomo community
had 12-15 Gasa groupings. Each Gasa had its own head. There was an overall chief
of all the Gasa groupings referred to as the Haye ywa Kumbi or Haju; who was
selected by the elders.
It is believed that there used to be two chiefs; one representing the interests of the
northern communities (upper Tana), and the other representing the interests of the
southern communities (lower Tana).
THE CHAIRMAN
Presently as was also the case in the past the leader of the Gasa is chosen among the
existing group. While choosing the leader certain qualities were (still are)
considered; (1). Integrity - he should be a person of rectitude or moral virtue, (2).
Respect – he should be a highly regarded member of the community, (3). Ability - he
should be competent in terms of being able to make wise decisions and contributing
positively to the community, (4). Age – he should be an elder preferably over 50
27
years of age, (5). Wealth – he must be rich in terms of material and immaterial
resources, (6). He must be knowledgeable about the rules and norms of the people
and finally, (7). He must be experienced for instance, having been a leader of his
clan.
All the members of that age-group are members of the Gasa and can join the
deliberation. However, some of the members perform as an executive committee –
chosen with the same criteria as the leader of the Gasa. Usually all the clans are
represented in the Gasa. Currently the Gasa has an executive committee of between
nine to fifteen members where there is the; Chairman, Vice-chairman, Secretary,
Vice-secretary, Treasurer, and Members.
Term of office
There is no defined tenure of office. Tenure is determined by the ability to perform
and life expectancy. Meaning that the Gasa will hold tenure for as long as they are
physically able and most of the members are alive. They will hand over when age
has made them less productive or most of the members of that age-group have died.
Therefore the chairman will step down only when; a) The tenure of the group has
expired – he retires with the group, b) The community he is chairing and especially
the existing Gasa members loose confidence in him. However such a case has to be
addressed by neighbouring Gasa’s executive committee if it is found that he cannot
be transformed he would be obliged to resign, and c) One opts to resign after giving
satisfactory reasons to the members.
2.2.4.3 THE ORMA
The Orma had the following titles (ALMP, 2001a: 4); Hayu Kollo, Tolbicha-Tolbolle
and Jarsa Warati/Mangudo.
Hayu Kollo
This was the president in the Orma community. He was also considered as the
traditional spiritual leader.
28
Tolbicha (Tolbolle) / Sagalla
These were the representatives of the Hayu Kollo at the village level. They can be
compared to the present village headmen or village leaders.
Jarsa Warati
These are the respected elders at the village who form the village governing council.
They were given the title of Mangudo. This was the organ that would form the
Matadheda or the council of elders.
Matadheda
According to ALMP (2001a: 6) the Matadheda performed similar duties to the Gasa.
It was composed of respected elders at the village level known as the Jarsa Warati
(Mangudo). Each village or community used to have its own Matadheda council and
there used to be the head of the communities known as the Hayu Kollo.
Hayu Kollo
He was chosen from a specific clan. It was a must for the Hayu Kollo to have special
leadership qualities observable from childhood.
2.2.4.4 THE MATADHEDA
Members of the Matadheda were supposed to be; elders of the village preferably
above 50 years of age, respected members of the community, virtuous, wise, wealthy
and willing to assist at any time.
29
Term of office
There was no defined term of office. Like the Gasa, office tenure was determined by
ones ability to perform. This means that one would hold office until he becomes
senile.
2.3 Functions of the Gasa and Matadheda
As mentioned earlier the Gasa and Matadheda were administrative arms of the
Pokomo and the Orma government structures respectively. Their traditional
functions (ALRMP, 2001a: 7) were to settle disputes ranging from civil to criminal
cases which would be referred to them or when they felt necessary to intervene.
They also maintained peace and order in the community and actually saw to it that
the law governing the community was adhered to. They were responsible for all the
resources ranging from land, water, forests et cetera.
They could deliberate issues related to individuals, clans and inter-tribal conflicts.
The decisions arrived at these structures were binding and respected.
2.3.1 Resource Management and Conservation
The Kijo had clear rules on land ownership and conservation of natural resources.
The Gasa and Matadheda had powers over all the available resources in a
community (ALRMP, 2001a: 7) such as land, rivers, lakes, forests, grazing areas et
cetera. They could impose some regulations on the use of certain resources, which
became law to all members of the community. Some of these regulations included;
restrictions to the use of certain resources like grazing areas, the river, lakes, forests
and even food crops.
The Gasa would ban the use of certain methods of catching fish for example, the
spear or the net in some parts of the river. Small fish were returned to the river for
growing and reproduction. Fishing in the lakes was to be done on specified days of
the week. The Gasa could restrict the felling down of certain trees in forests; big
30
trees were cut only with clearance from the council of elders for purposes of making
canoes. Other trees such as “Munguri”, “Mchambaya”, “Mnyambembe”, and
“Mkindu” were important particularly during droughts for their edible fruits. The
fruits were eaten during famines. Wild animals were not killed carelessly, unless
they became too many and started invading villages.
There was the imposition of some kind of curfew for entry into some areas like the
mango tree farms until at given times of the day. When people would be allowed to
go and collect the mangoes that would have fallen down. People were not allowed to
cultivate too close to the riverbank for fear of causing soil erosion.
The Gasa used to have their own soldiers who were there to make sure that rules
were adhered to. Whoever would be seen violating these rules was given the
appropriate penalty. ‘Nkambi’ was imposed – this is restrictive law meant to
conserve natural resources.
2.3.2 Meetings
There was no defined period for meetings to be conducted (this has currently not
changed). According to a research done by the Arid Lands Resource Management
Programme (2001a:Ibid.). It was revealed that meetings could be called under the
following circumstances; when an offended member of the community brought the
subject to the attention of the elders, when there was an emergency – for example
when suspicious-looking people would be sited around the villages, the elders would
also meet to lay strategies on prevailing circumstances for example, droughts,
famine, disease outbreaks et cetera, and where elders felt that it was necessary to
intervene in a case.
When a meeting would be called to settle disputes or conflicts between individuals
or parties, both the offended and the offender were required to pay for the elders
sitting. This allowance or fee is called Barhe, Nyungu ya wayume, among the
Pokomo and Sororo Mangudo – Bisan Mangudo among the Orma and Wardei.
31
Some of the penalties or fines that would be imposed as part of regulation were as
follows; it was an offence to deliberately sharpen the horns on ones bull with the
intent of injuring another during bull fighting (Orma and Wardei). In addition,
among the Pokomo it was a taboo for the opposite sex to learn or perform the rituals
of the other, for instance a man should never be seen near a house where a woman
had just given birth – Nyumba ya Heremani. Likewise, women were restricted access
to areas of newly circumcised boys – rigi. It was highly treacherous to reveal the
secrets of the Ngaji – government. Further, it was an offence to deliberately destroy
the property of another person and an offence to kill or injure another. In addition, it
was an offence to look into your neighbor’s fish trap during the morning and evening
sessions however; during the afternoon session traps were free for all. These
regulations were an endless list for as long as the community was seen to live in
peace and harmony.
2.3.3 Penalties
Each regulation is given its own penalty in accordance with its merit. Fines range
from simple ones to death. When one for instance, was suspected of selling the
secret of the government then he was liable for a death sentence.
If one defied the orders of the Gasa or Matadheda he would be treated as an outcast
– Kuyavigwa Yumeni (Pokomo), Yakka (Orma). The people who became outcasts
were denied the use of all the resources and amenities of the community. They
would not be attended to by anyone including the members of their own families.
One would suffer until he repented and begged for mercy before he was allowed to
perform certain rituals. And be received back to the community.
The council of elders (Gasa and Matadheda) today does not authorize heavy
penalties such as death; instead they can authorize that those who defy cultural
norms become outcasts. When such people die before pleading for forgiveness, the
family members will bury them without the help of other villagers who would also
become outcasts if they would offer to help.
32
2.3.4 Appeals
When one felt discontented with the decision arrived, at his council of elders he
would refer the case to the neighboring councils for hearing. If, thereafter he still felt
dissatisfied he would appeal to the head of all the Gasa/Matadheda who would then
call a meeting of all the community elders to hear the case.
2.3.5 Inter-Ethnic Conflicts
When such conflicts would occur, elders from both communities would involve a
neutral community – Msidhacha. The parties to the conflict would convene, look
into the causes of the conflict and where possible, settle the conflict and then
reconcile. The offender would be identified and fined. Thereafter a ceremony would
be conducted to make peace – Ibisa. Ibisa is an Orma word for a reconciliation
ceremony and it is used by the Pokomo to mean a reconciliation ceremony between
the Pokomo and the Orma. There has been no need to have reconciliation
ceremonies with other neighbours such as the Giriama who are seen as brothers and
sisters of the Pokomo.
Table 2.2 shows the definition of some of the terms, malka, nyungu ya wayume or
sororo mangudo, barhe, Nkambi, msidhacha.
Rituals and ceremonies
There are a number of rituals and ceremonies conducted by the people of Tana River
for instance, ibisa, miri, majambura, biga madzi/bifa maji, ebb naghea, jilfenno,
magassa, balchoma, darmin, hinesse, wale as shown in Table 2.3.
33
Table 2.2: Local Terminologies
Local term English meaning
Malka Point identified and reserved as a livestock
watering point along the river
Nyungu ya Wayume or Sororo
Mangudo
This is a fee paid to the elders as a sitting
allowance. It is also referred to as Barhe
Barhe This is a fee paid when one assembles elders or
members of a clan to seek favors, property or use
of a resource, example, when asking for farming
land, negotiating for a marriage et cetera
Nkambi Quarantine imposed in a certain area to restrict
the community from misuse of a certain resource
Msidhacha
This is a middleman. When two parties are in
conflict, a middleman or a neutral community is
invited in order to make a fair judgment. This
man or community that does not come from any
of the conflicting communities or clans is called
Msidhacha
Source: ALRMP, June 2001
34
Table 2.3: Rituals and ceremonies
Local term English meaning
Ibisa - A blessing ceremony usually conducted during the opening of
a malka. It is also conducted during severe drought to pray for
rain.
- Reconciliation and blessing ceremony usually after conflicts
especially where there was bloodshed.
Miri A dance conducted during circumcision ceremony.
Majambura Funeral ceremony. All the bereaved families in a given period
would assemble at an identified place usually the headquarters
of that community to conduct the ceremony. This would take a
number of days usually a week
Biga madzi/Bifa
maji
- This is a ritual to bless one. Elders from the community or the
clan would assemble the identified people to be blessed. They
would then sip some water and spit it over the body of those
being blessed. It is believed that after this ritual one will
succeed in everything that he/she undertakes.
- It is also performed upon somebody who has repented and
asked for forgiveness.
-It is a ceremony performed when couples divorce; they get
blessings from the elders to start a new life successfully.
Ebb Naghea This is conducted when there is severe predation of livestock by
wild animals. Prayers are conducted to cleanse the calamity. It
is also a funeral ceremony
Jilfenno, Magassa,
Balchoma, Darmin
Hinesse, Wale
These are Orma dances usually played by the youth, also during
wedding ceremonies
Source: ALRMP, June 2001 (and Key Informant Interviews held from September 2002-
January 2003).
35
CHAPTER THREE
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
3.0 Literature Review
3.1 Introduction
Conflict as a concept poses many problems, although its effects can be felt. Some
outsiders may see a conflict in a society but those involved in it may not see it, until
later when they suffer from the unpleasant consequences (Mwagiru, 2000:1).
Mwagiru goes ahead to point out that some cultural gestures may be reconciliatory in
one culture but offensive in another hence there are different cultural perceptions
about conflict (Mwagiru, 2000:1-2).
A conflict arises when two or more parties have incompatible goals (Mitchell, C.R.,
1998:15-25). Some of the effects of conflict, wherever it is located, is to dislocate
valued relationships, and to cause stress on the structure on which relationships are
based (Mwagiru, 2000:4). However, some scholars have argued that conflict can be
beneficial too (Reuck and Banks, 1984:96-111).
Early studies of the interaction between pastoral and agricultural land use in Africa
emphasized the symbiotic, rather than the competitive dimensions. The positive ties
took the form of exchanges of agricultural products for livestock products, and
exchanges of organic fertilizers (manure) for post-harvest fodder (Peter Little, 1987:
195). However, occasional occurrences of conflicts were not adequately reported.
The reason for poor reporting may have been because of ineffective media or remote
geographical location of the sites of conflict.
In Kenya a number of ethnic conflicts have been experienced in recent years. The
table below shows the ethnic groups involved in conflicts and their respective
territories or provinces. As the table below reveals, most of the clashes were in the
Rift Valley, followed by Nyanza provinces.
36
Table 3.1: Ethnic Land Disputes in Kenya by 1997
Clash zone Province Ethnic groups involved
Gucha/Kericho Nyanza/Rift valley Kisii versus. Kalenjin
Gucha/TransMara Nyanza/Rift valley Kisii vs.Nandi/Kakamega
Moi’s Bridge Rift valley Bukusu (Luyia) vs.
Kalenjin
Narok Rift valley Kikuyu vs. Maasai
Nakuru Rift valley Kikuyu vs. Kalenjin
Uasin Gishu Rift valley Kikuyu vs. Kalenjin
Rombo Area Eastern/Rift valley Kamba vs. Maasai
Likoni/Kwale Coast Upcountry groups vs
Mijikenda
Migori/Gucha Nyanza Luo vs. Kisii
Migori /Kuria Nyanza Luo vs. Kuria
Mt Elgon Western Sabaot (Kalenjin) vs.
Bukusu (Luyia)
Transnzoia/ West Pokot Rift valley (Pokot) kalenjin vs. Luo
Source: Kagwanja, 2002:p.13
37
3.2 Causes of Conflicts
Conflicts at whatever level, have, many different causes (Mwagiru, 2000:4). It can
be argued that, the major cause of conflict, be it interpersonal, inter-communal or
interstate is due to lack of fulfillment of needs.
The main reasons for the conflicts that occurred in Western, Rift Valley, Nyanza and
Coastal Provinces of Kenya in the year 1992 have been that ethnic groups fought for
land resources, designated as ethnic territories (Kagwanja, 2002:16). Natural
resources of land form the most basic requirement in any social organization
(Chisholm and Smith, 1990:1). There was delineation of some regions by some
ethnic groups and an increased clamour for the federation of Kenya, which led to
ethnic cleansing (Republic of Kenya, National Assembly, 1992).
The conflict in Tana River and Lamu districts during 1992 were attributed to the
influx of refugees and repudiation of age-old traditional grazing zones set-aside for
specific ethnic groups (Ibid.). The ethnic groups that had kith and kin in the
neighbouring countries were accused of lack of cooperation in assisting to disarm
incoming refugees (Ibid.).
Homer-Dixon (1993:38) states that some skeptics claim that scarcities of renewable
resources are merely a minor variable that sometimes links existing political and
economic factors to subsequent social conflict. This is to say that other factors
usually act as triggers to merely resource limitation, such as inflammatory statements
issued by politicians with the sole reason of mobilizing ethnic groups to fight for a
political gain among other factors.
Okidi (1994:1) has given the causes of conflicts in Africa as a by-product of political
and social tensions, some of which may be aggravated by the widespread poverty
and squalor associated with drought as well as water shortages. Thus droughts and
conflicts often coincide and suggest direct causal relations. In addition to the
argument that poverty begets conflict and vice versa, whether due to droughts or
general human insecurity, which creates, fear and lack of investment. Droughts and
limited resources in an area leads to movement of people which more often than not,
38
leads to clashing as people of different cultures and modes of livelihoods come into
contact.
Maasai leaders said that the 1993 Enoosupukia clashes were caused by Kikuyu
settlers who were suppressing the Maasai, taking their land, and degrading their
environment. The settlers it is argued, had cleared forests, used the trees for charcoal
burning, practiced agricultural activities which degraded the environment and put the
Maasai at great ecological risks (Kagwanja, 2002:15). The Enoosupukia clashes
occurred on a background of drought (1993/94) which threatened the Maasai
pastoral economy and hence leading to conflict with the Kikuyu farmers. The main
issue was that the Maasai could not graze their animals freely on individually owned
plots of land.
Recent land acquisitions for development efforts such as the Bura and the Tana delta
Irrigation Schemes, proposed ranches and grazing block allocations, and proposed
land adjudication, considerably increases the pressure on pastoralists grazing areas
and their lifestyles as a whole according to Baxter (1991:119). Baxter does not
mention that such changes are potential causes of conflict. People are generally wary
of social change, this is because they do not know what to expect, and this can cause
resistance to new ideas, especially at the implementation stage. These land use
changes if they do not offer alternatives to the affected people, can lead to tensions
which can give birth to conflicts.
3.3 Ethnic Clashes and their Impact
Clashes displace people leading to creation of centers, which would be highly
detrimental to the environment because such areas place people with nothing but the
immediate environment to exploit according to the National Council of Churches of
Kenya (NCCK, 1992).
In October 1993, Maasai Morans attacked Kikuyu settlers, killing over twenty (20)
people and displacing more than thirty thousand (30, 000) others, from Enoosupukia
in North Narok. The displaced were forced to stay at camps or centres for example,
the Maela camp near Naivasha town leading to pressure on public services
39
(Kagwanja, 2002:15). Ethnic conflict has led to people abandoning their farms this
has a gross bearing in their domestic economy and lack of adequate security which
usually continually hinders farmers from going back to till the land (NCCK, 1992).
In Endebess, Gituamba and surrounding areas (in Kenya) where it is mainly the
Luyia, Kikuyu, Teso, Luo and Kamba ethnic groups – people believed to be of the
Kalenjin tribes of the Sabaot and Nandi sub-groups attacked them. Houses were
torched, together with maize farms with unharvested corn, animals were stolen,
farms were abandoned, people were displaced who later overpopulated some
neighbouring centres, social services provision were haltered (for instance, water
supply, education et cetera), they could no longer be available with the displacement
of people.
On March 7, 1992, a Daily Nation correspondent reported on the unsettling
revolution;
Scores of displaced men, women and children, their salvaged personal effects on
their heads and shoulders, stream endlessly to makeshift shelters.
This referred to conflict victims, who in the long run, having nothing for survival
would start exploiting the natural resources in an unsustainable way leading to
environmental degradation.
The National Council of Churches of Kenya, which sheltered thousands of displaced
victims, estimated that within six months of the clashes, in 1992 approximately a
hundred thousand (100,000) people had been displaced. An official Kenyan
Parliamentary Committee Report in September 1992 indicated that the clashes had
resulted in 779 dead, 600 injured and 56 000 displaced (Kagwanja, 2002:14-15). In
1997 violence which had erupted in the Coast left 100 people dead, and displacing
over 100 000 others. It can be estimated that between 1991 and 1997, ethnic violence
throughout the country left over 3000 people dead and over half a million others
displaced (Ibid. p15).
With these figures Kenya is not at war, but it seems to be competing with countries
affected by war. There is a great need of enhancing human security in Kenya so that
40
citizens can be free from fear and free from want. The immediate step is to manage
these conflicts so that durable peace can be obtained.
3.4 Conflict Management
There are two major methodologies of conflict management; these are settlement and
resolution (Mwagiru, 2000:38).
3.4.1 Settlement of conflict
Settlement of conflict is based on the knowledge that, given the anarchical nature of
society and the role of power in relationships in situations of conflict, the parties
involved may be forced to live with accommodations that they may not be happy
with. The parties to a conflict it is argued each possess some power, and it depends
on whose power will be dominant. Power and its manipulation are seen as the basis
for relationships. Therefore power determines the process and the outcome of
conflict settlement (Ibid. p40).
The disadvantage with this approach is that, since the outcome of settlement depends
on existing power relationships between the parties as soon as the balance of power
between them changes the bargain once reached will have to be re-evaluated.
Another disadvantage of this method is that the weaker party accepts the outcome
because it has no power to contest it, and may therefore not be happy with the
outcome or bargain. Therefore settlement is generally Zero-sum in nature because;
the gains made by one party represent a loss to the other party. Settlement of
conflicts cannot therefore lead to sustainable peace because of dissatisfaction of one
party.
An advantage with this approach is that it is fast and therefore time is not wasted to
manage the conflict.
41
3.4.2 Conflict Resolution
Resolution of conflict is non-power based, and non-coercive. The outcome is likely
to endure because the parties find the outcome legitimate. Resolution of conflict is
not Zero-sum. The gain made by one party therefore does not entail a corresponding
loss to another party (Ibid. p41).
Resolution is based on the belief that at the bottom of every conflict there are needs
that are not negotiable (Burton, 1990). The non-fulfillment of these needs causes the
conflict in the first place. Conflict management it is argued should aim at identifying
ways in which these needs can be fulfilled for both parties. An advantage with this
approach is that, there is mutual fulfillment of needs to the parties involved.
Therefore peace obtained is likely to be sustainable. One disadvantage is that the
process of resolution of conflicts may take a long time.
On Wednesday 29th
April 1992, the National Assembly in Kenya passed the
following resolution:
THAT, while appreciating the Government efforts to stop tribal clashes in western
and other parts of Kenya, and in view of the continued fighting in the region despite
these efforts, and considering the repercussions this has on our government locally
and internationally; This House resolves to appoint a select committee to probe the
root causes of the fighting and to make recommendations with a view to averting
such incidents in future (Republic of Kenya, The National Assembly, 1992).
The government here is mainly concerned not with the number of people who are
dying, the crippling of their economic activities or even their displacements, but
rather with the image of the government at the local as well as the international
arena.
There are usually early warning mechanisms of potential ethnic violence. For
instance in Kenya, the Weekly Review of May 26th
1995 quotes Mr. Ole Ntimama (a
minister in the Government of Kenya) as having said;
You Kikuyus, if you do not vote for me, I will be elected and if you don’t vote, for
me, you shall be attacked and shall be evicted from Narok.
42
However, the government usually takes a helpless stance in circumstances that
would otherwise be considered incitement and a breach of the peace, which is
punishable before the laws of Kenya.
This is the kind of violence, which Adedeji (1999:9) also describes. He argued that
there is enough evidence to support the view that the elites in African societies,
particularly members of the political class, have shown no restraint in manipulating
the people through feeding them with prejudices about ethnic groups in order to win
their support for achieving their own self-centred objectives. In Africa this is done to
win votes usually and no action is taken against such inciters by the government, as
long as they remain loyal to the government in office.
On March 7, 1992, a Daily Nation correspondent reported that property belonging to
the occupiers of Koguta settlement scheme along Kisumu-Kericho road had been
burned as anarchy prevailed. The policemen were said to have passively stood by as
houses were looted and set alight by Kipsigis tribesmen. If the government takes
such kind of a position then facilitating conflicting groups with an aim of managing
the conflicts is made increasingly difficult to attain positive results.
3.5 Theoretical Framework
3.5.1 The theory of dialectical materialism
According to Karl Marx (Rosenberg and Coser, 1969) the great industry brings
together a crowd of people who are all different. Competition divides their interests.
However, one common interest is the maintenance of their wages, which unite them
against their employer. Thus they are united in the idea of resistance and
combination. This combination or cooperation has double ends, one, of eliminating
competition among themselves and two, enabling them to make a general
competition against the capitalist. The capitalists combine with the aim of repression.
Marx discusses intra-group conflict. He does not, however, discuss anything to do
with inter-group conflict. According to Marx therefore, whenever, there is a conflict
one group tries to dominate the other. In the case of the Tana conflict, both groups
43
claim to be the original inhabitants of the land. The farmers think they have a right to
continue living in their land and the pastoralists think they have a right to return to
their land whenever they want to.
Duffield (1991:14) has suggested that pastoralists, usually, are not interested in
controlling territory, what is at stake for them is free access and use. None of the
groups may want to dominate the other in the Tana. They would nevertheless desire
that ‘the other’ leave the land completely so that freedom to use the natural resources
in the region can be experienced. This brings about conflict because they have
conflicting goals in the use of the same resources – land, pasture and the river water.
The conflict is therefore between two different groups with different ideas of using
the resources of land, pasture and water. Both groups have different interests thus.
The farmers would like to keep farming near the riverbanks and the pastoralists
would like to graze near the riverbanks once in a while. What seems to be the
problem from the point of view of the researcher is how best adaptation should take
place without necessarily encroaching on the other’s right to use the same resources.
3.5.2 Human Ecological theory
According to Julian Steward the principal meaning of ecology is “adaptation to the
environment” (Steward cited in Bohannan and Glazer, 1973: 322). The concept of
adaptive interaction is used to describe the web of life in terms of competition,
succession and other auxiliary concepts. Initially ecology was employed with
reference to biotic assemblages. However, the term has been extended to include
human beings as part of the web of life.
The theory assumes that people respond to environmental factors through their
culture and they keep generating another culture through the process of adaptation.
The theory aims to explain how human beings employ cultural resources to exploit
their physical environment in order to meet their needs. Culture makes possible the
acquisition of new techniques or new use for old techniques, regardless of origin to
any environment for survival. It is assumed that the Tana-River people had adaptive
44
strategies to cope with the fact that they are of different cultures but have interests in
common resources.
The problem with Steward’s theory is that it emphasizes on subsistence. However, it
has been argued that historical and political factors are part of the total environment
to which populations adapt and must not be dismissed as secondary (Moran,
1982:44). Steward had little to say on competition with other groups in a given area.
A small group of the pastoralist Orma is trying (though at a rather slow pace) to live
sedentary lives and practice agro-pastoralism, however the majority depends solely
on livestock for their livelihood, and this is because almost all cultural practices are
centred on livestock. As Smith (1992:15) has argued to be pastoralist or not to be
depends on ones self-definition. The Orma and Wardei communities in Tana-River
prefer to be referred to as pastoralists. The community looks at a person with less
stock as being very poor despite the fact that he may have a lot of money. This may
explain why the pastoralists seem to be “static” with regard to adapting to new ways
of survival.
The farmers on the other hand farm various crops and also keep mainly small stock
such as goats and sheep. It is important for the conflicting groups to adapt to social
as well as ecological changes in the arid and semi-arid district of Tana-River. The
pastoralists adapt to new ways or techniques of ensuring that their herds and the
community as a whole survive during drought periods by being mobile and having
stock associates among other coping strategies. However this movement affects
sedentary communities, because the livestock may pass through farms or graze in
planted farms causing tensions and finally conflicts.
Rosenberg and Coser (1969: 218) have argued that both Coser and Simmel see
conflict within a group as helping in establishing unity or re-establishing unity where
it has been threatened by hostile and antagonistic feelings among members. Yet, not
every type of conflict is likely to benefit group structure. Whether social conflict is
beneficial to internal adaptation or not depends on the types of issues over which it is
fought as well as on the type of social structure within which it occurs. Internal
45
conflicts in which the contending parties no longer share basic values upon which
the legitimacy of the social system rests threaten to disrupt the structure.
Intra-group conflicts may allow for change of norms because they may not be deadly
violent conflicts. Among the Pokomo there is a ban on the use of any weapons other
than fists and sticks in brawls with other Pokomo (Bunger, 1970:3). Further, any
Pokomo pointing a knife or sharp object at another or telling another person that ‘I
will kill you’, is perceived as having killed in his mind. This is strongly discouraged
during the socialization process. However, use of weapons was allowed in fights
with the Orma and Wardei. Our hunch is that intergroup conflict may cement intra-
group cooperation as long as the conflict is still in existence.
Simmel admits that conflict can cause or modify groups. He also agrees with
Gluckman’s view (Gluckman, 1959:2) that conflict is a form of human relationship
and that it leads to the establishment of cohesion. However conflict means more than
the trivial “si vis pacem para bellum” (if you want peace prepare for war); it is
something quite general of which this maxim describes only a part. According to
Simmel therefore, it is not a fair judgment to say that conflict is always negative and
retrogressive (Simmel, 1955). In the Tana conflict the negative effects of the conflict
seem more pronounced than the positive effects. These negative impacts of the
conflict leave nothing to be desired of the conflict phenomenon having significant
positive functions. However, it may be possible that the conflict will be resolved as a
result of modern methods merged with traditional laws of conflict resolution.
However, this does not mean that all types of conflict can be completely resolved
once and for all. This brings us to the unfortunate realization that conflict cannot be
erased completely from the face of the earth (Dahrendorf, 1969: 224).
Dahrendorf (Ibid.) argued that with social change it is important to look at special
causes or circumstances that lead to conflict. To be sure we do not have to assume
that conflict is always violent and uncontrolled. In formulating explanations for
conflict we must never loose sight of the underlying assumption that conflict can be
temporarily suppressed, regulated, channeled, and controlled but that neither a
46
philosopher-king nor a modern dictator can abolish it once and for all Dahrendorf
states (Rosenberg and Coser, 1969:237).
In Tana-River, the conflict between the pastoralist Orma and the Wardei on the one
hand and the peasant Pokomo farmers on the other has a perennial character (as
stated earlier). Initially rules were respected. The pastoralists were allowed
pasturelands and water corridors called “malka” in the dry season by the farmers.
Immediately after the dry season was over they would go back to the hinterland, this
was respected. Today there is no such respect and it may be time for the Government
to actively get involved in making sure that set rules, traditional or a merger of
traditional and modern are followed especially if there is no willingness by both
groups to stop the conflict. This may be due to the fact that hostility has been
institutionalized and that it is partly a problem of perception.
3.5.3 Theory of perception
Children build a “self-image” partly because they are trained by others to do so,
especially adults. For a full sense of “I,” social interaction is required, since the “I”
develops through awareness and acceptance of the evaluations made by others
(Chadwick-Jones et al., 1979:72). While thinking about other persons, we have to
consider our feelings about them, what we think are likely to be their responses, and
what they assume or think about us. Moreover, we may have to guess what others
think that we think about them or even what others believe we think that they think
about us. In this way we touch on the subtle ways in which we think about other
persons even in everyday situations. (Ibid.p73).
An individual or a group of people such as a community will see reality from the
side of their culture. Correspondingly one sees a resource and its uses according to
their culture or community. This depends on their socialization. The pastoralists
perceive certain resources as being pastoral and they may think other people have no
right over their use and the farmers the same way.
47
The Orma pastoralists and the Pokomo peasant farmers share resources and though
they perceive these resources differently they should not fight but should come up
with a solution for these conflicts.
3.6 Assumptions 0f the Study
1. Under normal circumstances, conflict like cooperation is multidimensional
and multifaceted in cause and consequence. Tana River being an arid and
semi-arid District, it is however, expected that conflict between the pastoral
Orma and Wardei and the agricultural Pokomo is about ownership and use of
land, pasture and water resources.
2. Environmental factors and the distance between the Orma, Wardei and
Pokomo cultures leading to different perceptions towards resources and each
other are probably some of the causes of conflict between the two groups that
pursue different kinds of livelihoods.
3. Owing to the intensity of conflict historically it is possible that the impact or
consequences are multidimensional that is, physical, social, economic,
cultural and psychological and as long as there are no environmental and
cultural changes the conflict will continue.
48
CHAPTER FOUR
METHODOLOGY
4.0 Methods of data collection
The study put to use both field methods and secondary sources of data collection,
which were relevant to the study. The collection of data was done during the period
starting from September 2002 to January 2003.
4.1 Field methods
A field methodology was used combining a number of survey techniques such as
interviews with key informants, focus group discussions, informal interviews,
questionnaires, participant observation and also extended residence in the
community under study for five months.
4.1.1 Participant Observation
The researcher attended peace meetings organized by the two conflicting groups and
was requested, in one of the meetings, to give a talk on the conflict situation in the
area and the way forward. This method enabled the researcher to see how the people
behaved in their natural setting when they know they are not being observed.
Therefore the method enabled the researcher to get information that could not be
obtained in the other methods applied for data collection.
The problem with this methodology is that the researcher, at some point got very
terrified and uneasy when the farming community went to a neighboring pastoral
village to make peace and were all confined in one room. The Orma Pastoralists
preferred to stay out, as the Pokomo felt surrounded. A sudden feeling of suspicion
engulfed the researcher. While the rest of the participants, indoors, kept watching out
for danger. The researcher then requested the Pokomo headman to talk to the Orma
headman that an open-air meeting would be better since it was too hot to conduct the
49
meeting indoors. Following the request an open-air peace meeting was held and
many people looked more comfortable, it was observed.
The meeting went on well and people ate and danced after the peace talks. However,
the researcher became expressively involved when after all went well, and the
Pokomo crossed the river to their village, everybody had crossed the river well
except one canoe which was hit by a hippopotamus and capsized. All swam except
one person who was attacked by the beast. Everybody in the village was grief-
stricken, the researcher then decided to stay with the family of the victim as village
rescue teams were sent with canoes to look for the body. The researcher became
distressed and could not go about her work as usual until after the funeral.
Meanwhile the incidence was seen as lack of good will by the Orma to go for peace.
4.1.2 Informal Interviews
Victims of the violence, and other people were interviewed while travelling in the
buses, on their farms and the peace meetings that were attended. This method acted
as a check to see whether people were giving honest responses or not as they would
fill the questionnaires.
4.1.3 Questionnaires
This technique relied on the administration of questionnaires to the community in
Garsen division in three locations. A sample of 150 people was drawn from the three
locations namely; Ngao, Shirikisho and Oda-Wachu locations. Also 100
questionnaires were randomly distributed to students in two secondary schools in the
division; Tarasaa and Ngao.
This method was time consuming and expensive due to the training of research
assistants, production of the questionnaires and travelling expenses involving
distribution and collection of the questionnaires. A lot of time had to be used in
explaining to the people that the research was just an academic exercise. After
people had become suspicious of the exercise and afraid they will be jailed for
giving the researcher information relating to the conflict. The research assistants
50
helped greatly in assuring the community of the academic nature of the research and
the people trusted them because they came from their areas. This in turn was an
advantage because apart from the research assistants facilitating the acceptance of
the respondents to fill the questionnaires they also facilitated the explanation of the
questions in terms and concepts that were understood and familiar to the
respondents.
The suspicion by the local community may be explained by the fact that the
government had taken a helpless stance in all the insecurity situations in the area.
4.1.4 Key informant method
Key informant interviewing is a form of interviewing in which only some of the
questions are predetermined. This method was used to get information from selected
key informants who were knowledgeable on the conflict situation in the study area.
This method entailed the interviewing of key informants from the Pokomo as well as
the Orma communities.
In Ngao location one Chairman of the Pokomo council of elders (Gasa) was
interviewed and in Oda-wachu location one chairman of the council of elders of the
Orma and Wardei (Matadheda) was interviewed with the help of a translator. An
Orma ward (a ward is an area administered by a councilor) councilor from the Oda-
wachu location was also interviewed. Government officials, two chiefs, the
Divisional officer and the District Commissioner were also interviewed.
Information collected from these people included their experiences and their roles in
the conflict. A key informant interview is useful when one wants to gain some
insight into a particular subject or when data collection is done on a complex or
sensitive matter.
4.1.5 Focus group discussions
Focus group discussions take advantage of group dynamics. This method allowed
the respondents to be guided by a skilled moderator into increasing levels of depth
51
on key issues to be covered by the study. The people involved were able to talk in a
free environment on general issues related to the study such as; causes of the
conflict, its impact and traditional methods of conflict resolution.
The focus group discussions therefore provided an opportunity for group
interactions, which generally stimulated richer responses and allowed new and
valuable thoughts to emerge. In addition, the moderator (the researcher) was
privileged to gain first-hand insights into the respondents’ behaviors, attitudes,
language and feelings.
The discussions involved five groups. One from the farmers’ side and four from the
pastoralists’ side. Interviews were conducted in a relaxing manner so as to probe the
group to discuss issues about the conflict. The group discussions enabled
clarification to be sought. Further, most of the members of the group tried to answer
a question in their own perception of the situation and when a person seemed to have
forgotten something a response from one member of the group triggered another to
remember.
The group discussion was also helpful in that the researcher needed to just start a
discussion on a single issue and the rest picked it up and discussed it exhaustively.
Probes were used to elicit additional information where need be. This method took a
lot of time because rapport had to be built to keep the group at ease. The people were
generous with the information as they narrated how they dealt with conflicts in the
olden days, how today the traditional administrative structures have been weakened
and what can be done to strengthen them.
The elders appreciated that their traditional methods of governance and resource
management was going to be documented and gave information generously.
However, they liked diverting from main issues and this was not very interesting
sometimes, and sometimes it was interesting because it made people laugh and thus
acted as an ice breaker to those who felt ill at ease. Even after about three hours the
elders were not ready to let the researcher go because they said young people no
longer asked for maghaghisa (asking about the traditional way of life) a thing they
used to do themselves when they were young.
52
4.2 Sampling methods
A total of five locations were purposively selected for the study; this was because
some locations were purely inhabited by farmers and others by pastoralists. One
hundred and fifty households were interviewed randomly from three locations, 50 in
each location. Five focus group discussions were conducted one, from the farmers’
side and four from the pastoralists’ side. The pastoralists’ focus group discussions
were conducted in two other locations. In addition 100 students were interviewed
randomly from the two secondary schools in the division.
4.3 Secondary data
The secondary data presented in this study have been derived from documented
information that existed in one or more of the following forms;
1. Textbooks and archival records
2. Reports – example, workshop reports. Published and unpublished reports
3. Newspapers
These sources served to complement primary data and were also used to corroborate
oral testimonies.
4.4 Data analysis
Data analysis in this study has largely taken the form of tabulation, frequencies et
cetera.
4.5 Limitation of the study
This section deals with the main problems encountered in the field during the
research and some of the shortcomings of the data collection.
The data collection coincided with great insecurity in the area partly due to the fact
that conflict experienced in the year 2001 was far from being resolved and therefore
there was poor community relation. Also because of the fact that the district had
53
suffered insecurity since independence due to the shifta-bandits menace. The shifta
war was as a result of Somali people in Kenya wanting to secede to join the Somali
republic. The shifta-bandits are a remnant of shifta-war and they would attack
riverine villages, rob, rape and kill their victims as well as attack public transport
such as buses.
The researcher in September 2001, during an extended stay in one village shifta-
bandits attacked the little village of Sera at night demanding for money as they beat
up people, as a way of creating fear and giving them what they want, fortunately,
nobody was killed. However, the attackers kept shooting wildly in the air and the
villagers said they were used to such incidences. Although the researcher is an
inhabitant of the division under study she had never come face to face with the so-
called shifta-bandits. Asked who they thought the attackers were, the people
suspected their Wardei neighbors, because some of the attackers spoke a language
that was closer to Orma but not Somali (most of the shifta-bandits have been
Somali). The Wardei reported that they did not attack their neighbours. This
occurrence affected the researcher who decided to abscond doing research in the area
altogether since it was alleged that the attackers were likely to be visiting the place
again.
The researcher decided to leave the village for the reason that her life would be in
danger upon further stay. She then boarded the only available vehicle to the nearest
town of Garsen. While in the vehicle (the vehicle carried both people and small
stock) the Wardei kept pushing the animals towards the researcher and saying kaffir
(unclean) to the researcher and the animals. It was uncomfortable to travel with goats
in the same vehicle not to mention having to sit too close to them. The researcher
could not tell the driver to stop so that she could alight because the area was bushy
and the researcher would not have known her way out from that bush, besides there
were wild animals so the researcher had no choice but sit near the animal. From that
experience the researcher was so taken aback that she decided to take some two or
three days of respite. After the break she felt confident again knowing what to expect
and then decided to reduce her extended residence to a few places where she felt
secure.
54
Some areas were inaccessible due to inadequate infrastructure. Few proper roads are
available and the researcher and her assistants had to trek for long distances before
they could reach their destination. The rains (November and December) had cut off
some areas from main centres consequently affecting road transport. Bicycles were
used to shorten the walking distance, so that people only walked in the muddy areas.
The administration of the questionnaires was laborious and time consuming. This is
partly because some of the respondents wanted to be paid for giving the researcher
‘valuable information’. There was a general feeling that the researcher was going to
benefit alone from the results of the study since some Non-governmental
organization was thought to be funding the research project. Some of the respondents
were scared to give information thinking that the investigation was being done by the
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the government of Kenya and then
security people would be sent to arrest people. However, the use of local research
assistants coupled with detailed explanation of the nature of the study eventually
eliminated or minimized the suspicion.
Religious leaders, such as pastors in the churches helped in informing the people that
the research was purely an academic exercise. The results of this were exquisite
because many people kept coming to look for the researcher so that they could get
the questionnaires and fill them. Many were disappointed when the questionnaires
were over.
The focus group discussions were a bit slow in some areas this was because
translators had to be used. However, even when the meeting took too long the
researcher managed to get the information that required.
This study was seriously confounded by lack of reliable information on the state of
ammunition within the communities and whether or not the communities formed
‘tribal’ armies to fight each other.
55
CHAPTER FIVE
RESULTS AND DATA ANALYSIS
5.0 Introduction
The previous chapters have presented background information to the study. This
section focuses on findings of the study. The results and data analysis section is
organized into three main themes. The first of these is a general view of the conflict
situation in the study area and its causes; the second theme is the impact of the
conflict and lastly conflict management.
Before going into the discussions of the three themes, the characteristics of the
respondents will be shown.
5.1 General characteristics of survey respondents
During the administration of the questionnaire, respondents were required to give
some general information about their socio-economic backgrounds. This information
was on gender, age, level of education and ethnic group. These variables are
important in that they show how the two conflicting parties perceive the conflict in
terms of causes, impacts and how the conflict could be resolved.
The survey sample consisted of 250 respondents. One hundred of whom were
students (filled a student questionnaire).
Socio-economic characteristics of households – Standard questionnaire
By gender 71% (106) of the respondents were males while 29% (44) were females
(Table 5.0). The fact that there were more male respondents interviewed than
females is because when the interviewer went to a home and found both husband and
wife or a man and a woman, the man would dominate the conversation. The
interviewer then ended up giving the man the questionnaire. Sometimes the woman
in the house directed the interviewer to the man probably sitting outside the house.
56
The woman shied away from accepting to fill the questionnaire and where they
accepted to take a questionnaire they promised the interviewer that they would give
it to their husbands, claiming that they do not know the answers to most of the
questions. Most of the women would not talk in the presence of their husbands
though the interviewer noted that the men kept encouraging the women to participate
in the discussions.
The Pokomo and Orma communities have a patrilineal system of culture, where ones
identity is through the fathers’ line. Women who are married stay at their husband’s
home or village (partrilocal). Most of the women from the two communities have not
been exposed so much to the outside world. Most of the Pokomo women get married
after secondary school education. However, the Orma women rarely go to school,
and are not allowed to converse where men are. Orma men discipline their women
for standing to talk or greet men, particularly men who are not Orma or Wardei. The
researcher therefore had to go to Orma and Wardei villages alone without her two
male assistants. The women (at their homes) from the two conflicting communities
seemed to dread being the betrayers of their families and their respective
communities by jeopardizing their family’s and community security through
answering sensitive questions. Therefore they would choose generally to let the men
control the discussion.
Most of the Pokomo women are married to men who are more educated than they
are and prefer that the men fill the questionnaires. However, Pokomo women
comfortably speak in public forums (not in their homes, where they might feel
inadequate) while Orma women cannot speak comfortably in public (as observed in
one of the women peace meeting, with participants from the two conflicting
communities attended by a few male elders). However, it was possible to informally
interview some Orma/Wardei women who gave informative answers (though not
very clearly since most of Orma and Wardei women did not know Swahili, the
Kenyan national language). However, these women asked the researcher to assure
them that the she will not reveal to the rest of their community members about the
conversation, which took place. This is because they claimed that they might be
killed, if it is known that they provided any information at all about their
communities to strangers.
57
The respondents were also asked to identify with their ethnic group. Majority of
them, 67% (100) were Pokomo, 18% (28) were Orma, 9% (13) were Wardei and the
group, which formed other ethnic groups, were 6% (9). Most of the respondents
were Pokomo because most of the Orma and Wardei are relatively more illiterate
and could not fill the questionnaires in large numbers (however, their views have
been represented in other methods of data collection such as the key informants and
the focus group discussions). Out of the five focus group discussions held, one was
from the Pokomo farmers’ side and four from the pastoralists’ side; two from the
Orma community and two from the Wardei community.
The variable of age was also assessed by classifying the respondents into seven
categories: those under 20, those between 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, and
those of age 70 or over. It was found that 3% were those who were under 20, 29%
were those falling in the group of 20-29, then those with ages 30-39 were 19%, 40-
49 were 18%, 50-59 were 19%, 60-69 were 8% and 70 or over were 5%. The
questionnaires were mostly filled by youths in the age-category of 20-29 years old.
Respondents were also asked to indicate their level of education attained. Levels of
education were categorized into seven groups too: ‘no formal education’, ‘primary
school and less’, ‘secondary school and less’, ‘college’, ‘diploma’, ‘degree’ and
‘post-graduate’ categories. Those who had not received formal education were 10%,
while the rest had the following percentages, primary school and less – 14%,
secondary school and less – 25%, college – 33%, diploma – 11%, degree – 4%, post-
graduate – 2%. Most of the respondents who filled the questionnaires were either in
college or had cleared college education.
The pie chart (figure 5.1) illustrates the distribution of respondents according to
ethnic group, while the graph (figure 5.2) represents distribution of respondents
according to age.
58
Socio-economic characteristics of students – students’ questionnaire
The socio-economic characteristics of the students’ respondents were found to be
mainly female Pokomo and most of the respondents were in form four (Tables 5.1,
5.2, 5.3 and 5.4). The fact that most of the students were in form four is because the
data collection coincided with the teachers strike in the country such that only form
four candidates were allowed to be in school. Most of the male students were not
comfortable to accept filling the questionnaires because they were involved in the
conflict to a great extent (for instance, some of them were involved in actual
fighting). However, with a lot of convincing that the research is going to be
confidential they accepted to fill the questionnaires. The Orma and Wardei students
were few because most of them do not attend school; once they become teenagers
they are expected to go to Ureni (far into the hinterland) to herd livestock and the
girls stay at home to help their mothers in selling milk.
59
Percentage
Pokomo
Orma
Wardei
Others
Figure 5. 1: Distribution of respondents according to ethnic groups
60
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
under 20 20 - 29 30 - 39 40 - 49 50 - 59 60 - 69 70 +
Age of respondents
Ab
solu
te n
o./
per
cen
tag
e
Absolute no. percentage
Figure 5. 2: Distribution of respondents according to age
61
Table 5.0: Summary of general information of the respondents who filled the
standard questionnaire
Variable name Variable description Frequency Percentage of
respondents
Gender Male
Female
106
44
71
29
Ethnic group Pokomo
Orma
Wardei
Others
100
28
13
9
67
18
9
6
Age Under 20
20-29
30-39
40-49
50-59
60-69
70 or over
4
43
28
27
28
12
8
2.7
28.7
18.7
18
18.7
8
5.3
Level of
education
No formal education
Primary school and
less
Secondary school and
less
College
Diploma
Degree
Post-graduate
15
21
38
50
17
6
3
10
14
25.3
33.3
11.3
4
2
N=150
Source: Fieldwork, 2002
62
Table 5.1: Approximate ages of students in Garsen Division
Age bracket Frequency Percentage
12-14 7 7
15-17 39 39
18-20 50 50
21-23 3 3
24-26 1 1
N= 100
Source: Fieldwork 2002
Table 5.2: Ethnic groupings of the students
Ethnic group Frequency Percentages
Pokomo 66 66
Orma 18 18
Wardei 2 2
Others 14 14
100 100
N=100
Source: Fieldwork 2002
Table 5.3: Distribution of Students in Secondary Schools
Form Frequency Percentages
1 8 8
2 10 10
3 31 31
4 51 51
N=100
Source: Fieldwork 2002
Table 5.4: Gender of the students
Gender Frequency Percentage
Female 59 59
Male 41 41
N=100
Source: Fieldwork 2002
63
5.2 Conflict Situation In The Study Area
5.2.1 Ethnicity in the study area
Ethnic groups according to Martiniello (1995:109) are seen as having specific
territories that function as closed containers. Once the pressure inside the container
reaches a critical stage, it explodes, allowing the ethnic sentiments to emerge freely.
Therefore, ethnicity provides a fine example of a circular argument in that, being
ethnic presupposes owning a given area and thus control of resources. Max Weber
defines an ethnic group as a subjective belief in common descent whether or not an
objective blood relationship exists (Horowitz, 1985:53).
Ethnic identity is a fact of the natural world. Everybody belongs to an ethnic group
even if one does not realize it or does not want to acknowledge the fact (Martiniello,
1995:109). It has been argued that ethnic sentiments are seen as a result of external
pressures perceived as threats to a group’s “objective” identity such that people who
have lived side by side for generations turn to burn each other’s houses (Ibid.).
Ethnic identity itself may come about due to interactions between people with
different origins and identities (Levinson and Ember, 1996:394) and it may be a
cause of conflict but not a sufficient cause.
In the farmer-pastoral conflict in Tana River, the different kinds of livelihood, land
ownership by one group in the riverine area and land adjudication exercises, which
had hardly taken off in the district, seems to be at stake and hence violence resulted.
The situation of ethnic identity in the study area is made worse due to perception of
territorial ownership, each of the ethnic groups are supposed to own specific areas,
the Pokomo peasant farmers, the riverine areas and the pastoralists the hinterland.
Ethnic identities can lead to ethnocentrism. Ethnocentrism can be defined as the
belief that one’s culture is superior to other cultures, it is also a rational choice made
by members of an ethnic group that is competing with other ethnic groups for scarce
resources (Levinson, and Ember, 1996:404). Levinson and Ember further reported
that;
64
Ethnic groups that are culturally and linguistically similar, that live near one another,
and `that interact regularly are less ethnocentric toward each other than are groups
without such close ties.
The Orma and Wardei in times of farmer-pastoralist conflict seem to be less
ethnocentric toward each other than the two against the Pokomo who have a
different culture. It is argued that in situations of violent conflicts ethnocentrism is
accompanied by stereotyping, physical separation, prejudice and discrimination
(Ibid.).
Stereotyping in the Tana conflict may have aided the flare–up of conflict in the
region given that one group feels superior to the other because they believe they can
fight better. The ethnic identities (Pokomo peasant farmers and Orma/Wardei
pastoralists) underwent physical separation such that even in areas where the
conflicting groups had lived close to each other, they were displaced and separated.
The pastoralists who were a minority in Pokomo areas went to live with fellow
pastoralists such that in some areas they overwhelmed the Pokomo in those areas,
who then, became the minority group. The result was that either the Pokomo
migrated to join other Pokomo or remained to protect their land.
Prejudice and discrimination may be seen in situations where both of the conflicting
groups never sold goods to each other and never boarded the same vehicles, such
that there were vehicles only boarded by the Pokomo and others only boarded by the
Orma and Wardei communities. The two conflicting groups also stopped sharing
public roads in the period of active conflict.
Stereotypes are in place due to these ethnic identities where the pastoralists tend to
view the farmers as “poor” and “munyo” – an old word used to mean slave. In
response the farmers consider the pastoralists as “resistant to change”, “hostile” and
“wadondo” – meaning animals; perceiving them as people who think like their
animals thus causing trouble everywhere they go. Comparable with the way pastoral
clan-families in Somalia view their agropastoralists as “backward” and on the other
hand the agropastoralists considering the nomads as “anarchists”, unable to “manage
anything besides their herds” (Mukhtar, 1988). Stereotyping is exacerbated by ethnic
identities and violent conflict.
65
Ethnocentrism is advantageous in that it can create group solidarity. It is argued that,
kin groups may aid the reproductive success of group members when in competition
with members of other groups for limited resources (Ibid. p 105).
Ethnicity may be defined in terms of the consciousness such that people who share
cultural and linguistic, and sometimes kinship and religious roots conditionally
affiliate for purposes of political mobilization and political action (Glickman,
1995:161). There is the sharing of a feeling of a common political destiny relative to
other groups with whom they have to compete for scarce resources (Ibid.). The Orma
and Wardei pastoralists share the same physical characteristics, culture, language,
kinship and religious (Islam) roots. The Pokomo on the other hand share culture,
language and kinship roots, but not necessarily religion (some are Christians and
others are Muslims).
Ethnicity may also refer to that which pertains to, or belongs to, an ethnic group. It
also refers to both seeing oneself and being seen by others as part of a group on the
basis of presumed ancestry and sharing a common destiny with others on the basis of
this background (Levinson and Ember, 1996:393). Common features that ethnic
groups share may be racial, religious, linguistic, occupational, or regional; often a
combination of such features marks the contents of such identities (Ibid.).
Ethnicity therefore may mean different things to different people. In the study area,
(Table 5.5) the majority of the people (81%) reported that ethnicity was due to the
difference in culture and modes of livelihoods. While 15% reported that ethnicity
was because of differences in religion. All the pastoralists are Muslims in the study
area, while some Pokomo farmers are Muslims and the majority of the Pokomo in
the study area are Christians. In areas where the Muslim pastoralists interacted with
the Pokomo Christians, ethnicity for them is partly based on religious differences,
where one religion looks down on the other and calls each other names like “kaffir”
which is not taken kindly by the other group. Other respondents (9%) gave the
meaning of ethnicity as lack of respect for the wealth of a specific group by another
and one group feeling superior and therefore can do anything they want, even against
the will of the other group.
66
5.2.2 Ethnic conflict
According to Rupesinghe (1989:160-1), ethnic conflict can be defined as;
The direct or indirect pursuit by members of different ethnic groups, of incompatible
objectives where the winner takes all there is of what is available, in a situation
involving interaction which consciously or unconsciously is characterized by overt or
covert acts meant to neutralize, injure or eliminate the rival group before, during or
after the said pursuit.
In the Tana River conflict, the pursuit of incompatible goals can be seen in the use of
resources. The ethnic conflict therefore can be defined as the competition for scarce
natural resources of land, pasture and water. Ethnic conflict is foreseeable where a
group of “outsiders” suddenly occupy a territory “belonging” to others (Glickman
1995: 81). In Tana conflict, the farmers see the pastoralists as occupying some of
their land (along the river bank) and the pastoralists view the farmers as doing the
same.
It is argued that ethnic affiliations serve current specific needs and as long as these
needs remain and the ethnic affiliation addresses them, then ethnic consciousness,
and possibly conflict, is likely to persist (Ibid. p 82). The parties in conflict in the
Tana River, acts as two main interest groups. The ethnic groups therefore maintain
ethnic affiliations that aid them in the fulfillment of their needs, which are directly
related to their different modes of livelihoods. Thus these needs are encased in
farming and pastoralism.
5.2.3 Types of conflicts
Tana River district is faced by different types of conflicts (ALRMP, 2001b: 4) these
can be categorized as external, internal, and land conflicts.
5.2.3.1 External conflicts
At independence the boundary of Tana River District with North Eastern Province
was three miles (5km from the Eastern banks of the River Tana). The Pokomo
council of Elders would like this boundary to be respected and observed by Garissa
67
Table 5.5: The meaning of ethnicity in the study area
Ethnicity means… Number of
respondents
Percentages
Differences in languages
22 15
Differences in culture and modes of
livelihoods
121 81
Others
14 9
N=150
Source: Fieldwork, 2002
68
As well as the recently created Ijara district. Garissa town is just on the eastern bank
of River Tana thus it is reported, to be in Tana River district. This administrative
arrangement of one district being located in another district is an anomaly and is
creating a lot of confusion administratively and should be addressed as a matter of
urgency according to the Pokomo elders.
Some areas like Masabubu, Bura East and Mbalambala are in Tana River but are
being administered from the North Eastern Province. It is proposed that the District
Officers from North Eastern Province who are in Tana River should be relocated to
where they belong or be answerable to the District Commissioner, Tana-River and
Provincial Commissioner, Coast Province, according to key informants.
Influx of human and animals from outside the district is another cause of conflict
that is externally based. These movements usually take place in dry seasons;
pastoralists tend to move towards the river from the hinterland hence, creating
competition of land, pasture and water resources. According to LSK (2002:8-9) the
influx of immigrants escaping the war situation in neighboring countries of Ethiopia
and Somalia has generally had an escalating effect to the conflict in Tana River as
the implements of the conflict have been transformed from benign arrows and spears
to sophisticated and lethal weaponry hence escalating the conflict to calamitous
proportions.
Sometimes pastoralists versus pastoralists conflicts occur because some pastoralists
invite other pastoralists from outside the district. According to the Judicial
Commission Appointed to inquire into tribal clashes in Kenya (Republic of Kenya,
1999:281-2).
The Degodia (Somali herdsmen) were invited by the Orma in Tana River to help
them fight the Ogaden (also Somali) of Garissa district. But thereafter the immigrant
Degodia did not only outnumber the indigenous Orma, but also dominated them
socially and economically. The Degodia for instance occupied key water points and
grazing areas in the district and even sought to nominate candidates for
parliamentary and civic elections, which incensed the Orma who demanded that the
Degodia go back home to Wajir. The Degodia refused to do so, and this led to fierce
tribal skirmishes, which left many dead and injured.
This conflict between the Orma and the Degodia led to the defeat of Orma who were
pushed to the deltaic areas (Ibid. p.281) which are mostly settled by the Pokomo
69
peasant farmers causing farmer-pastoralists conflicts in the Lower Tana (Garsen
Division).
5.2.3.2 Internal conflicts
Internal conflicts are experienced between farmers and pastoralist, such as inter-
ethnic conflicts between the Pokomo, the Orma and Wardei. The conflicts between
farmers and pastoralists tend to involve all the farmers irrespective of their ethnic
groups. On the other hand the conflicts involving the Pokomo on one hand and the
Orma and Wardei on the other are tribal but are based on farming and pastoralism.
When a conflict occurs between farmers and pastoralists and when protracted to
violence levels, it is reduced to Pokomo and Orma/Wardei such that all the farmers
are assumed to be Pokomo and therefore Pokomo villages are attacked. On the other
hand all the pastoralists are assumed to be Orma and Wardei and therefore the
Pokomo attackers.
There are exclusive Pokomo, Orma and Wardei villages. However, the physical
distance between the villages matter, some villages are too far away from each other
and others are too close from each. It is claimed that some Pokomo chiefs helped to
settle their Orma ‘friends’ near Pokomo villages, and the manyatta always some
distance away from the Pokomo villages kept growing or reducing mostly in times of
droughts where the pastoralists would move to stay with their kith and kin in other
areas where pasture and water would be accessible. However, due to the conflict
some areas where the communities had lived separately the villages are almost
‘mixing’ in areas where the pastoralists’ numbers have increased and have
overwhelmed the local Pokomo people due to internal displacement. However, in
areas where the Pokomo are the majority, all the pastoralists’ settlement nearby are
no longer present, according to the researcher’s observations.
5.2.3.3 Land-use conflicts
Land-use conflicts involve the conflicts in ranches and game reserves (for example,
the Tana River Primate reserve.
70
Ranches
According to the National Environment Secretariat (Lower Tana, 1985:20-21) there
are four operating ranches in the district: three company ranches and one co-
operative ranch. Ida-sa-Godana is a co-operative ranch which was started in 1964, it
has an area of 51 000 Ha and membership of 100 people. Other ranches include;
Giritu company ranch (an area of 42 340 Ha and 242 members), Hagganda private
ranch (an area of 12 000 Ha and 20 members), Wachu company ranch (an area of 32
000 Ha and 75 members), Kitangale private ranch (an area of 20 000 Ha and 50
members) and Dalu ranch (5000 Ha), which is owned by a village polytechnic. The
ranches are therefore owned by very few pastoralists meaning that most of them still
practice the free-for-all system of grazing. The Agricultural Finance Corporation
(AFC) finances the ranches. The animals are usually sold to local butcheries in the
district.
Some of the ranches in the district have a problem according to the Gasa, for
instance, the Ida-Sa-Godana ranch – has its boundaries including the farming land of
the Ndera people, one of the Pokomo groups. This was done without the knowledge
of the Ndera community. It is claimed that the Commissioner of lands issued the title
deed without going to the ground to establish whether there were people living there
or not. The Gasa propose that the boundaries of the ranch be reviewed to exclude the
ancestral land where the Ndera people have been farming all along.
In the Giritu ranch pastoral intruders have settled there and have refused to leave.
Efforts to evict them have failed and the matter is still in court, it is claimed by the
Gasa that the court file has mysteriously disappeared. It is feared that if land is not
registered in Tana River most of the Pokomo farming areas will be converted to
ranches.
Primate reserve under Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS)
For many centuries the Ndera and Gwano sub-groups of the Pokomo communities
have co-existed with the primates without any conflict according to the Pokomo
council of elders. It is claimed that the forceful efforts by KWS (Kenya Wildlife
71
Service) with the silent support from the provincial administration to evict the people
will defeat the intended purpose of conservation. At the moment the forcefully
resettlement is not being discussed by KWS.
The local community was to be resettled to some areas in Lamu district to pave a
way for the primate reserve to be put in place. It is proposed that the primate reserve
be degazetted so that the people can be free to own and use their ancestral land
according to their wishes to avoid the extinction of the primates. This is because
there is not a memorandum of understanding between the Tana County Council and
KWS. The K.W.S. went ahead to gazette the reserve before the memorandum of
agreement was made and the matter is still in court.
5.2.4 Rules to guide the use of resources
According to the study 99 of the respondents (66%) said that there were rules to
guide the use of resources, while 27 (18%) reported that there are no such rules. 20
(13%) of the respondents did not know whether there were rules or not and 4 (3%) of
the respondents did not attempt to answer the question.
According to a group discussion, the people of Tana River shared resources. When
members of the pastoral community wanted to utilize a resource from the Pokomo
community, elders from both communities would converge and agree on modalities
for the use of the resource in question. Clear rules were to be observed by both
parties. Only agreed upon water points were to be used by pastoralists. The
pastoralists would provide a bull, which was slaughtered. In return the farmers
provided rice, tobacco or bananas, which they called “ndarara”. Ceremonies would
be conducted and the site offered for the pastoralists to graze their animals or water
them is blessed through a prayer for “naghea kapana”. Thereafter the animals use
the site for as long as there was need.
Table 5.6 shows the rules used to guide the use of resources. During drought seasons
the pastoralist groups were to ask for permission from the farmers to use land and
water resources according to 25% of the respondents. According to 29% of the
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respondents, the identified water corridors were not to be encroached by the farmers,
since such areas were to be used whenever there was a need by the pastoralists.
While 13% of the population reported that pastoralists were not to use any other
water corridors apart from the accepted ones, this is because most farms were lined
along the riverbanks.
On the other hand 19% of the respondents said that it was a rule that pastoralists
graze away from the farms, whether these farms were near the riverbanks or around
ox-bow lakes and other natural depressions. Seventeen percent of the respondents
reported that the pastoralists had to ask for permission from the owner of the farm to
graze their animals on the after-harvest. Ten percent of the respondents said that the
watering areas for the animals were to be different from the watering points used by
humans to bathe, fetch water for domestic use et cetera, this is because it was feared
that the smell of the animals would attract crocodiles that would then attack people.
Finally 13% of the respondents reported that in case of crop damages made by
livestock then, elders would preside over such meetings and decide whether the
person grazing should be fined or forgiven. According to a group discussion
conducted among the Orma people, the Pokomo usually forgave them. Another
group discussion with Wardei people revealed that they do not know of any rules to
guide the use of resources between them and the farmers. However, they are aware
that in the olden days the Orma and the Pokomo used to have such rules.
Unfortunately it is reported by a key informant that these rules are no longer
followed. It has been revealed that there are too many pastoralist ‘visitors’ who do
not know the rules, or do not want to follow them, since Kenya’s independence.
5.2.5 Rules of the market
With regard to the rules of the market 112 (74.3%) respondents reported that there
are no market rules, while 9 (6%) respondents reported that there are rules to guide
market operations. According to a key informant it was a rule that whenever a
pastoralist crosses the river using a canoe owned by a Pokomo he must pay some fee
for the service while fellow Pokomo people would cross the river for free. In the past
73
the pastoralists paid the Pokomo for crossing the river with milk or milk products, in
recent times they pay in cash.
According to observation made by the researcher each group sells their wares in their
own villages (probably due to the conflict). A key informant reports that there are no
markets shared by the two groups. In most areas, he reveals, before the conflict
broke in the year 2001 the pastoralists moved to neighboring Pokomo villages to sell
door to door or sit at strategic positions to sell their goods. The items they would sell
were usually milk and milk products. The farmers on the other hand, sold goods in
their own villages or the neighbouring farmers’ villages and when they needed to
buy livestock they would order for the animals to be brought in their villages.
According to a peace meeting attended by the researcher the Orma asked the farmers
to allow them to have their own canoe, in order to ferry themselves across the river.
The farmers seemed to hesitate. According to informal interviews done, the farmers
fear that if the pastoralists are allowed to own their own canoes then insecurity
incidences will increase. However, the researcher observed that in some areas the
pastoralists have their own canoes and ferry themselves to and from farmers’
villages. This meant that they do not have to pay the farmers for being ferried across
the river. In the past only the Pokomo farmers used to own the canoes and they are
still the ones with the skill of making the dug out canoes.
In the past pastoralists who wanted to attack the Pokomo farmers were slowed down
by the river, which acted as a shield for the farmers against the raiders. Since the
pastoralists did not have the skill of making canoes, they could not cross the river
without the help of the farmers. This continued until in the recent past when some
chiefs ordered that the Pokomo farmers in some areas must allow the pastoralists to
operate their own canoes, meaning that the raiders can easily attack Pokomo
villages, a key informant reported. Therefore the proliferation of canoes in the
pastoralist camp has the potential of increasing unsupervised “guests” in the Pokomo
areas and thus introducing an element of insecurity.
74
Table 5.6: Rules to guide the use of resources
Rule Number of
respondents
Percentage
During drought seasons pastoralists were to ask for
permission from the farmers to use land and water
resources
32 25
Identified water corridors were not to be
encroached by farmers
44 29
Pastoralists were not to use any other water points
apart from the accepted ones
20 13
It was a rule that animals grazed away from the
farms
29 19
Pastoralists would have to ask for permission from
the owner of the farm to graze animals on the after
harvests
25 17
The water corridor for livestock (malka) should be
different from the one (chiko) used by humans
15 10
In case of damages made by livestock to crops the
case has to be presided over by elders
19 13
Source: Fieldwork, 2002
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5.2.6 Factors that make pastoralists to be perceived as hostile
Culture is one of the factors that can make pastoralists to be perceived as hostile.
According to the Akiwumi report (Republic of Kenya, 1999:279) some cultural
practices such as cattle rustling are meant to be signs of bravery or an essential part
of the initiation of boys into manhood. Often cattle rustling involve violence for
those who resist letting their livestock go.
Another factor that makes pastoralists to be seemingly hostile is their exposure to
sophisticated weapons. The seemingly unstoppable influx of firearms and
ammunition into some regions of Kenya such as Tana River and the Northeastern
province from neighboring Ethiopia and Somalia has increased banditry and made
fighting almost a hobby by pastoralist groups according to the Akiwumi report of the
Judicial Commission appointed to inquire into tribal clashes in Kenya (Ibid.).
Pastoralists are exposed to gun power and are using then to defend their herds
against raiders and to fight when their needs or the needs of their animals are not
met.
Schlee (1989:54) has argued that the pastoral Rendille asserts that the culture of
keeping camels is only one (entailing the ritual treatment of camels), and that other
pastoralist groups, which do not observe ‘this culture’, are not true owners of camels.
Therefore, in Kenya the Rendille believe that the Nilotic Turkana pastoralists got
their camels through raiding them (Ibid). The belief by some pastoralists that they
are the only ones who should keep livestock or specific kinds of livestock for that
matter may motivate these pastoralists to be hostile and confrontational with their
neighbours and therefore cause conflicts with other herdsmen or agro-pastoralists.
The harsh physical environment may have contributed to the pastoralists’ perceived
hostile nature as well. Pastoralists walk for long distances in bushy areas and need
arms in order to protect themselves from fellow human beings and wild animals too.
In order to be a successful herdsman therefore one must be able to defend his
animals as Netting has argued;
Since cattle are a volatile form of wealth, a man has the freedom to raise his status
through initiative and skill. On the other hand he must be willing to defend his
76
animals aggressively from predators and military raids to show fortitude and
endurance when he meets with hardship (Netting, 1986:55).
5.2.7 How the Pokomo peasant farmers have been able to build a force to counter
the pastoralists
The period under focus is the colonial, pre-colonial and post-independence times.
5.2.7.1 Pre-colonial times
The Pokomo in the pre-colonial past had preferred to have a settlement pattern where
clan or lineage villages were scattered along the river with one village recognized as
the ritual center (Bunger, 1970:3). When the Somali invaded Tana River after 1870,
the people of each sub-tribe came together in a large stockaded town called Ganda
(Ganda – the concentration of the Pokomo into fortified villages because of Somali
raids can be compared to the similar development among the Mijikenda people who
were compelled to dwell in fortified towns called Kaya by raids of certain Maasai-
speaking people) situated between thick bush and the river and usually accessible
only by canoe (Ibid.).
5.2.7.2 Colonial times
An important revelation as pointed out by the respondents in a focus group
discussion and also the Law Society of Kenya Report (LSK, July 2002:7) was that,
though the colonial government exercised control over land use and ownership, it
however sought to distinguish between the different uses of the land by the
pastoralists and the farmers. Consequently the colonial government took the trouble
to demarcate land for pastoral use and for farming.
During the colonial regime, therefore 'reserves' for both Pokomo farmers and the
Galla or Orma were established.
The proposal for the Tana land reserves (Kenya National Archives, 1920-1925)
indicated that, the Pokomo were not only required to live in their specific riverine
77
reserves but could also cultivate any unoccupied riverineland. Although the reserve
areas would be theirs ‘for keeps’ they would be squatters in the unreserved areas and
likely to be expropriated whenever companies or individuals turn up and promise to
develop the land. Those Pokomo people, who would be displaced as a result, would
be compensated. It was found in the same letter to be unreasonable to exclude the
Pokomo from tilling the land until it was wanted since; nobody had appeared who
wanted the land. Therefore the Pokomo have continued to till the riverine land to
date.
Special access routes to the river were reserved for pastoralists who used them during
the dry periods. According to a colonial intelligence report dated 4th
October 1949
(Kenya National Archives (KNA), 1940-1950), the colonial regime tried to diversify
watering points for the pastoralists as far as the Sabaki River. The point of gazzeting
a native reserve was given as; enabling preservation of land for a tribe against the
alienation or encroachment by other tribes and also to curtail the incessant conflicts,
which were inherent in the relations of the pastoralists and farmers.
The proposal for the Tana land reserves (Ibid.) further indicates that;
The only natives in any way likely to encroach were the Somali and the Galla, who
require access for their livestock to water on the river…it is not desirable that they
should be allowed access everywhere, for the Somali especially are upto to carry
Pokomo women.
This argument justified the creation of reserve areas by the colonists in the study
area.
In an Intelligent report dated 5th
January 1950 from the District Commissioner’s
Office (DC) Kipini, Tana River to the Provincial Commissioner (PC), Coast
Province (KNA, 1940-1950) it is reported that;
Fighting amounting to native war broke out on the 9th and again on the 11
th
(December 1949) between Oromo and Pokomo…. One Pokomo man was killed; two
Pokomo women and three Pokomo men were injured. One Oromo is believed to
have been killed though the body has not yet been found and two Oromo women
were injured….the initial blame lies clearly on the Oromo who begun the first attack.
Therefore the Pokomo created some strength in coping with their pastoralist
neighbors through revenge attacks. Generally, during the colonial period the Pokomo
78
managed to build a force against the pastoralists through the help they obtained from
the colonialists who protected them by separating them from the pastoralists.
5.2.7.3 Post-independence period
In post-independence Kenya, the government tends to helplessly look on as people
slash each other in the perennial conflict of Tana-River district between the Pokomo
peasant farmers and the Orma and Wardei pastoralists. In such an instance, the
community wonders, whether they should arm themselves to ensure community
security when the state fails to protect them. In general the Pokomo people have not
been able to comfortably fight back when attacked by pastoralists in their villages. In
smaller villages almost all the people would run away to hide from the pastoralists
who would attack villages in form of “shifta-bandits” (heavily armed Cushitic men)
with sophisticated weapons. In most cases the cause of such attacks was never
known. However, in case of conflicts arising from pastoralists grazing their stock in
farms the people would prepare to fight back according to the views of a focus group
discussion.
The following are incidences of insecurity in the district since the year 1980 to 2001
according to a document made by the Gasa (2001), to be taken to the Minister of
State, Provincial Administration and Internal Security, dated 23rd
August 2001.
1. 1980 at Ngao Irrigation Scheme, Ngao location – Orma from Kipao village
attacked Pokomo farmers and killed two.
2. 1995 Peponi village, Bilisa location – Orma ambushed and killed six. All culprits
were identified and arrested. Within days, all of them were released.
3. 1996 at Ngomeni village, Chara location – Orma killed two Pokomo. The
killings were sparked by the creation of two exclusive locations for the Orma.
4. 1996 at Dumi village, Salama location – An Orma drove his animals into a
Pokomo farm and destroyed his crops. When the farmer protested, he was killed
plus other eight. In this incidence, a total of nine Pokomo people were killed.
5. March 2000 at Laza village, Zubaki Location – Three Pokomo men were killed
in their farms.
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6. March 2001, Duwayo, Kinakomba location – Two Pokomo were killed in their
farms by Orma pastoralists.
7. March 2001, Ngao village and environs – Orma people waylaid and killed
seventeen Pokomo men.
8. 27th
May 2001, Mnazini village – According to the Daily Nation of June 2, 2001
seven Pokomo people were killed and 22 Wardei suspects were arrested. They
were later released. Two more Pokomo were killed on the same day at Mikameni
village, Mwina location.
9. 3rd
June 2001, Idsowe village, Shirikisho location – A retired Pokomo teacher
was attacked and killed in his farm. The sixteen year old Orma herdsboy who
was found responsible was arrested and later released.
10. 12th
July 2001, Nduru village, Chara location – Neighbouring Orma people
evacuated their families and animals at night and attacked Pokomo in the wee
hours of the following morning. They killed one Pokomo man. This happened
exactly a week after a peace meeting was held in the village involving the two
communities.
11. 13th
August 2001, Semikaro village, Chara location – Orma people killed a
Pokomo man using a poisoned arrow.
All these incidences led to the Pokomo preparing themselves for resistance against
the pastoralists. The elders approached ‘their cousins’ the Mijikenda people of
Kwale district to help them fight the pastoralists through some supernatural powers,
according to an Orma key informant who said that the Pokomo are involved in what
he called, Kaya Bombo (this is the name of a Digo shrine). The Pokomo themselves
did not give this information to the researcher, but the pastoralist groups informed
the researcher that this is what the Pokomo people did and that they also wanted to
get the Kaya people to help them. The reason why the Pokomo may have built this
force against the pastoralists is that they have no access to sophisticated weapons
like the pastoralists. However, fascinatingly the pastoralists feel even guns are not as
good as the Kaya Bombo power.
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Kaya
Kaya means ‘homestead’ in nearly all the Mijikenda (the Mijikenda comprises of the
Rabai, Ribe, Chonyi, Giriama, Jibana, Kauma, Kambe, Digo and Duruma sub-tribes)
dialects (NES, Kwale, 1985:22). The kaya areas were initially places of refugee by
the Mijikenda peoples of coastal Kenya, when they had to hide away from
pastoralists’ attacks such as the Masai and the Galla. Later as this threat subsided the
forests were used by the elders for prayers and ceremonies. These areas were revered
by the rest of the community because they had protected their ancestors (Ibid.). The
elders used the plants in the forests for medicinal and religious purposes and stayed
there when close to death and were buried there.
The forest or shrine called Kaya Bombo is west of a place called Ngomeni in Kwale
district (Ibid. p.25). This is where it is claimed the Pokomo obtained their mystical
powers for fighting the pastoralists Orma and Wardei. It is claimed that during the
Likoni-Kwale clashes which pitted the Digo coastal people against the upcountry
people, the Kaya mystical powers were used and all the government security people
who had committed some inhuman acts like raping were all affected and later died in
the Coast General Hospital according to a key informant.
It is also claimed that government security men who tried to hit the Pokomo old
men, were affected in that their hands remained stretched out. Therefore the security
men feared these powers from the Pokomo side and the sophisticated weapons from
the Orma and Wardei. They therefore did not commit the same acts they had
committed against the people of Kwale to the Pokomo but these inhuman acts were
committed to the pastoralist women, of whom, it was perceived were not protected
by magical powers. Though the Orma and Wardei people look exactly the same
physically, they live in different manyatta and the Orma women were not raped
because it is claimed the Member of Parliament at the time being an Orma used the
government security to protect his own people and not the Wardei people who were
used in the fighting and taken to the frontline of battle and not the Orma according to
a Pokomo key informant.
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The kaya bombo powers only protected a few people who were to fight in defense of
the community, these powers, it is claimed also protected Pokomo villages against
attacks according to a key informant. However, the Orma and Wardei pastoralists
raided most of the Pokomo villages supposedly protected by these supernatural
powers. Are kaya mystical powers real? It is possible that the so-called Kaya bombo
powers are only meant to psychologically boost the morale of the young men
required to defend their villages without fear. Some of the so-called ‘protected by
kaya powers’, Pokomo fighters died during the conflict. A possible analysis of the
situation is that Pokomo people are not fighters and they always ran away from
pastoralist attackers. The Pokomo therefore might have needed this Kaya Bombo
assurance that they can fight the pastoralists.
5.2.8 The Causes of the conflict
There are a number of causes that have been identified for the conflict in the study
area (Table 5.7).
The study revealed that 69% of the respondents gave the cause of conflict as fear of
displacement by pastoralists due to land adjudication, 26% said the conflict was
caused by incitement by politicians and council of elders’ from both communities
(the Gasa and Matadheda). Twenty-three percent of the people gave the cause of the
conflict as grazing of stock in farms, similarly 23% pointed out that land ownership
and creation of new administrative locations contributed to the conflict. Further, 13%
attributed the conflict to closure of water corridors for watering livestock, while 13%
reported that lifestyles and different uses of the same resources contributed to the
conflict. Thirteen percent of the respondents have added that, drought and creation of
unknown water corridors is a cause of the conflict and likewise 13% attributed the
conflict to the influx of foreigners and their animals into the district. Each
respondent gave more than two causes of the conflict.
Land adjudication
In July 1995 the Government declared and gazetted Tana River district as an
adjudication area (the legality of the land to be decided in the courts). Adjudication
has bred a lot of animosity between the two conflicting groups owing to different
perceptions over the consequences. According to a group discussion the Pokomo
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peasant farmers accepted this move since it is a major step towards poverty
alleviation, with the hope of acquiring title deeds they can be able to obtain loans
from banking institutions which usually ask for collateral and they can also protect
their land from grabbers. Farmers claim that about 90% of the district is rangeland
and ranches have been registered and allocated to pastoralist groups. The farmers
occupy only a tenth of the district and therefore they should be allowed to have title
deeds on this land.
However, the pastoralists Orma and Wardei have resisted the land adjudication
exercise. This is because with land adjudication their free movement with their
livestock will be constrained. Furthermore, it is feared that the exercise will only
benefit farmers, and it will not take into consideration the reality of dry seasons and
therefore the need by pastoralists to access fallback areas. The pastoralists would like
to be educated more on land adjudication because they are also interested in the
riverine area. Besides some of the pastoralists have farms and they fear that the
Pokomo will take them away since they are already claiming that these farms are
theirs by ancestral claim, and that they had deserted the farms because of insecurity.
This is according to a group discussion with the Orma.
The Wardei, according to a focus group discussion, assert that they are also
interested in farming. They however complain that, once they acquire a piece of
land, work on it for some time the Pokomo all of a sudden, begin laying claim on the
land, on the alleged reason that it is their ancestral land. The Wardei state that they
are then left with no option but fight for the land because since they are Kenyans
they have a right to own land like other Kenyans.
Incitement by politicians, Gasa and Matadheda elders
During the Njonjo Land Law Commission meeting held at Ngao village (Ngao
location), the local Member of Parliament for Garsen constituency, supported
sentiments echoed by the chairman of the Matadheda (Council of Orma elders). The
legislator asserted that, if the government insisted on land adjudication it would
govern forests and baboons and warned that there would be problems similar to
those of Isiolo, where conflict had erupted and many people got killed. These
references according to the group discussion were indications of a looming conflict.
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Table 5.7: Causes of the conflict
Cause of conflict Number of
respondents
Percentages
Fear of displacement by pastoralists due to land
adjudication
103 69
Incitement by politicians, Gasa and Matadeda
elders
39 26
Grazing in planted farms 35 23
Land ownership and creation of new
administrative locations
35 23
Closure of water corridors or malka 20 13
Lifestyles and different uses of common
resources
20 13
Drought and creation of unrecognized water
corridors passing through farms
20 13
Influx of aliens and their animals into the
district
20 13
N= 150
Source: Fieldwork, 2002
84
In another meeting presided over by the Coast Provincial Commissioner on the 17th
March 2001. It is reported that the local Member of Parliament for Garsen warned
the government not to impose the land adjudication procedures on the people of
Tana River who want a ‘homegrown’ solution. This prepared the populace to be
ready for an imminent conflict. There is consequently a conflict in that one group
consider the land adjudication exercise as an imposition, while the other group seem
to be content with the exercise.
The traditional administrative structures were also blamed for inciting people. The
Gasa (Pokomo council of elders) according to a group discussion has become
extremely political and had discarded traditional means of dealing with conflicts.
When livestock are injured and the Orma and Wardei pastoralists report to the
Pokomo elders no action is taken. The Pokomo on the other hand held responsible
the Matadheda for not taking any action when they received reports that Pokomo
farms have been grazed on. When a fight breaks both communities complain that the
elders support their young men to fight.
Grazing in planted farms
According to a group discussion pastoralists have been accused of intentionally
grazing their livestock on farms. However, according to another group discussion
with the pastoralists, Orma blame the Wardei for grazing in Pokomo farms claiming
that most of them are new in Garsen division and are therefore not aware of
agreements made between the Orma and the Pokomo. However, the Orma also
maintain that Wardei and Orma are one and the same people explaining that Wardei
were taken as slaves by Somali men and that the war in Somalia has led to their
forced movement to look for their Orma kith and kin in Tana-River for refuge. One
Orma councilor claimed that the Kenyan government was aware of the Wardei
people coming to Tana-River from Somalia.
The Pokomo argue that both Orma and Wardei take their animals to graze in their
farms. This may be because they cannot differentiate the two groups who physically
look alike. It is also possible that the Orma use the Wardei as scapegoats because
they have internal conflicts amongst themselves.
85
Land ownership and creation of new locations
Tana River is a district, which has not been adjudicated and has mainly two types of
land – Government and Trust land. Much of the riverine land is Trust land.
Traditionally the community, among the Pokomo, owned the land. The community
here is the clan. The clans have their own units as per the settlement patterns and are
characterized by rules and regulations of the clan. The clan land is subdivided further
into areas belonging to the constituent lineages (Bunger, R, 1970:2) as noted earlier.
According to a key informant the Pokomo customary law does not allow women to
inherit land except for special cases. Daughters could get pieces of land from their
fathers and once given it remained with them for their use but not their descendants.
For one to get a clan Shamba, (farm) a “barhe” must be paid to the clan elders who
will consent to the use of that land. Upon the death of the individual (a man), his
children will do the same (pay barhe for use of the land) until the third generation
then the land will belong to the new family. The Pokomo according to a group
discussion believe that anybody without land is a foreigner.
The Pokomo peasant farmers have been accused of desiring the riverine area for
themselves and interested in displacing those Orma living in such areas. The
Pokomo also fear that the pastoralists want to displace them from their ancestral
lands.
It was reported, in a group discussion that, the Orma have manipulated the creation
of exclusive locations for themselves out of the existing Pokomo locations, which
have existed since independence – the creation of these locations has led to attacks
of the people going to their farms as the Orma assumed ownership of ancestral farms
belonging to Pokomo simply because they were in ‘their locations’. The creation of
new locations is perceived by the Orma and Wardei pastoralists as creation of their
own land, a land they can call home, this means that all other people should leave,
and farmlands should be relocated as well. This feeling is brought about by the fact
they have been nomadic and can loose out on ownership of land if the land gets
86
demarcated. According to a government official new locations were created for ease
of administration.
The researcher noted that Pokomo peasant farmers lived in villages on one side of
the river and have their farms on the opposite side of the river, which in most cases
meant that a village could be in one location and the farms in a different location.
The problem is that the river has been used as a boundary for the creation of the new
locations. The pastoralists needed land they could call their own, and needed their
own locations. One Orma woman wondered why the Pokomo restricted pastoralist
movements in their location (Pokomo locations) while pastoralists do not restrict
farmers to farm in Orma locations. Both groups perceive the idea of administrative
location differently. The Pokomo farmers seem unconcerned with the idea of their
own locations and that is why they did not oppose the creation of new locations from
the existing ones as long as they can access their farms, according to a group
discussion.
Mostly in any location the farms belong to the Pokomo, however, in the recent past
the pastoralists also have owned gardens where they mostly grow tobacco and a little
maize. However, all the ranches belong to the pastoralists. A few Pokomo people
who dread rearing their own cattle entrust the pastoralists to take care of their
livestock for a fee (usually pay a cow per year) as mentioned earlier.
Closure of water corridors
According to a group discussion among the pastoralists, the farmers deny them a
place to water their animals claiming that those are farm areas. Therefore farmers
have been held responsible for encroaching into water corridors (Malka). In another
group discussion among the pastoral group again, the issue of water corridors is not a
problem; they declare that they have a lot of access to the river.
The researcher noted that in areas where the farmers and the pastoralists had lived
close to each other for a long time there was no problem, as the Malka areas existed.
However in areas where there are new settlements of Manyatta this was one of their
major causes of the conflict. This is because the same traditional Malka areas that
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were set during the colonial British administration were still the ones which farmers
recognize. Plate 5.1 shows a malka
Lifestyle and different uses of common resources
The fact that the farmers and the pastoralists have different lifestyles was cited as a
cause of conflict. In one group discussion a Pokomo elder said that in the past (no
longer practiced) in order for an Orma to get married he must kill a lion or a human
being and that the Pokomo were an easy target and they were sometimes killed by
their trusted friends when they invited them to attend their ceremonies. If they were
lucky some of their Orma friends would alert them and plan their escape. The Orma
man, after killing, he would cut the private parts of the person or a part of the animal,
tie it on the hand (halibwora), in order to show his bride to be that he is a ‘man’.
Pokomo people report that they knew that this was happening and whenever a
Pokomo man disappears or his body is found lacking some parts of his body. They
would suspect the Orma and would therefore revenge by killing an Orma, and
throwing his body into the river. Therefore the Pokomo had been socialized not to be
alone with the either the Orma or the Wardei pastoralists, and the cycle of mistrust
and suspicion continues.
Today, different uses of the same resources have remained a major problem. In a
village where the Wardei and Pokomo lived close to each other, it was reported that
water corridors are not a problem however; the use of the resources is the problem.
The researcher was shown two water points called Chiko (pl. Viko) for human use,
and malka for animal use. There was a general complain that livestock is taken to
drink water at the Chiko which is for human use – this then would attract crocodiles
and wastes time for other users of the Chiko who must wait for the large herds to be
watered. The Wardei wondered why the farmers were creating a problem where
there was none; according to them there is nothing wrong in having a water point
shared by human beings and animals. According to focus group discussions. This is
a case of different perceptions on the use of the same resource. The group of Wardei
were new in the area and did not understand the differences between a chiko and a
malka.
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Drought and creation of unrecognized water corridors passing through farms
Due to different livelihoods practiced by the pastoralists and the farmers, the
pastoralists over time have been moving from the hinterland towards the riverine
areas in search of water and pasture for their animals during dry seasons (ALRMP,
2002b). This is due to the drainage of the lagas to the river leaving the hinterland dry
and with no source of water for the dry period.
Drought periods, which are common in Tana River, create tensions to the people of
the riverine areas because the traditional structures, which used to deal with such
migrations, have been weakened and are therefore no longer strong partly because
the chiefs in charge of locations have absorbed their powers. In the past there were
strong elder set-ups, which administered the movement of animals from the
hinterland to the riverine from both sides (farmers and pastoralist). These elders used
to agree on terms to resolve their problems in case animals invaded the riverine
farms.
Pastoralists having trekked for a long time, would use the shortest distance to access
the river water, which may not be the recognized water corridors. Further, during
and after the conflict, farmers in some areas, it is claimed were farming on water
corridors, which they claim are not the traditional ones agreed upon by elders but
that they are shortcuts made to the river by the pastoralists. The Nduru-Orma agree
that some of the agreed upon water corridors are too far from their new settlements
and that the livestock gets exhausted moving for long distances in the heat, and
therefore the need to create shortcuts. Therefore the farming on these new water
corridors impact negatively on pastoralists who then have to take their livestock to
the recognized water corridors tiring their livestock in the process.
Influx of other people into the district
Influx of animals and people from neigbouring districts - Wajir, Mandera and
Garissa has led to conflict in the study area. It has limited the grazing areas hence
invading farms as a result, according to a key informant.
89
According to group discussions traditional methods of resolving conflict are no
longer pertinent on a large-scale because of the presence of aliens or ‘visitors’ who
do not understand the rules. The Orma have been blamed for inviting people who are
not indigenous in the district to live there and hence strain resource-use. The
‘visitors’ mentioned were the Wardei, Galjeel Somali, Degodia among others. These
are people whom the Orma have close kinship ties with and some are self-settled
refugees from Somalia.
The police were reported to be patrolling the River Tana banks to prevent suspected
influx of bandits on October 1, 2001 (Peacenet, 2001). This patrolling is probably
not effective since people still move in and out of the district at will with their
animals this movement has led to pastoralist-pastoralist conflicts with the Somali
pastoralist being stronger and emerging victorious against the Orma and Wardei
according to an Orma key informant. Therefore as the Pokomo blame the Orma for
inviting visitors into the district leading to conflicts the Orma themselves have been
having conflicts with some of these visitors.
Other causes
Apart from the above causes of the conflict, the Arid Lands Resource and
Management Programme in Tana River district (ALRMP, 2002:3) identified other
causes of tensions in the division, which had perpetuated the conflict in the year
2001. It has been reported that, since the 1980s conflict has been pronounced due to
a number of factors among them, utilization of fertile land by the government for
development activities for instance, areas around Gamba in Garsen division (Tana
and Athi River Development Authority – TARDA). Thus, leaving ox-bow lakes for
the use of the pastoralists limited, and further, limiting the area under farming.
Another cause of conflict is the weakening and disrespect of the traditional
structures, of the Gasa and Matadheda, which used to resolve local farmer-
pastoralist conflicts in the past.
90
Source: Fieldwork, 2002
Plate 5.1: A malka or water corridor
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According to a key informant, the conflict, in addition to some of the above causes
was caused by; wounding and killing of livestock that damage crops, disregard of
other people’s wealth, negligence of early warning signs by leaders (rumours of
impending conflict and illegal gatherings). Further, lack of adequate grazing lands
caused by competition among pastoralists and diversion of The River Tana’s water
by pastoralists in Lower Tana through canals hence affecting the flow of the river are
causes of conflict in Tana River. This diversion has consequently led to desertion of
rice farms, because the farms which are lined along the river banks no longer get
enough water due to the main river channel drying up as a result of the presence of a
new river channel elsewhere according to the researcher’s observation in November
2002 (Chara location). The pastoralists claim that the government gave them a go-
ahead to divert the water in order to use it in the hinterland, according to a group
discussion with Nduru-Orma in Chara location.
5.3 Impact of the conflict
The Tana conflict led to a number of socio-economic, cultural and psychological
impact.
5.3.1 Socio-economic impact
5.3.1.1 Internally Displaced persons
In the Tana River conflict violence had increased to uncontrollable level in the year
2001. Ryan (1995:78) has argued that the more violence that occurs the more bitter
and protracted the conflict becomes. This led to several impacts; the experience of
violence had triggered several destructive processes to the social environment.
Ninety eight of the respondents (65%) admitted that they were displaced from their
homes either to the neighbouring districts or to churches where they camped until
they felt that they were safe. Forty seven (31%) reported that they were not displaced
and stayed back to guard their villages.
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5.3.1.2 Health
The displaced people suffered ill health. The nurse in charge of the Catholic Church
dispensary where many Pokomo families had camped reportedly appealed to the
government to send in medical supplies to combat diarrhoea and typhoid before the
situation got out of hand as there were worries of impending deaths in the camp
(Peacenet-Kenya, 2001:26).
Most of the pastoralists could not go to hospitals due to insecurity reasons Table 5.8
reveals the results of hospital attendance.
Ninety-six respondents (64%) attend the same hospitals they used to attend before
the conflict broke, while 27 (18%) of the respondents said they do not attend the
same hospitals due to insecurity reasons. According to a group discussion conducted
in a pastoral region, pastoralists cannot attend public hospitals. This is because; some
members of one ethnic group (the Pokomo) dominate the main sub-district hospital
and dispensaries in the division as staff members. In addition, the hospitals are
located in regions inhabited by people of the enemy camp and although the hospital
staff may not necessarily be Pokomo, it is feared that they may take sides and inject
pastoralist patients with poison thus killing them.
This is because during the period of active conflict the pastoralists who had gone to
seek medical attention in these hospitals, it is claimed, were attacked. As the farmers
brought their first victim of the clashes in the hospital where he died, they attacked
all the pastoralists who were found in their village including the sick ones who were
seeking medical attention according to a pastoralist key informant.
However most of the respondents 123 (82%), still attend hospital within the district,
while 21 (14%) go for treatment outside the district as far as Garissa and Nairobi.
Because of inadequate health care most of the pastoralist groups suffered from
diseases such as typhoid and malaria, those who could afford went to Malindi for
treatment, and those who could not afford waited to borrow drugs from friends and
families.
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Table 5.8: Hospital attendance
Hospital attendance Sample Percentage
Still attending the same hospital that I used to receive
treatment before the conflict broke
96 64
Do not attend the same hospital that I used to attend before
the conflict broke
27 18
Source: Fieldwork, 2002
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5.3.1.3 Necessities
In any conflict area getting basic necessities is a problem. The most common
methods of getting necessities in the study area during the conflict are shown in
Table 5.9. It is reported that 46% of the people obtained their necessities through
moving in groups, to farms, herding fields, trading centers et cetera. Of the sample
13% sold their goods outside the district since the market structure between the
conflicting groups had broken down. Seventeen percent of those interviewed
revealed that they obtained their necessities from relief aid; the aid was in form of
drugs, food, clothing and building materials. The organizations that assisted these
people included; Catholic Relief Services, the African Inland Church, The Red Cross
Society among others.
Thirty three percent of the respondents reported that they bought goods from the
nearby shops from their salaries as government employees. Wild fruits, vegetables
and animals were utilized for food by 13% of the respondents
Government security escorted some respondents (20%) to work on their farms and
go to shopping centers. In addition, 10% of the respondents reported that the whole
village cooked food in a single pot and shared; this is in areas where most of the
villagers were displaced such that very few villagers remained in the village.
According to 13% of the respondents, families with extra food, clothing and extra
space in their houses assisted those who lacked, for instance due to their houses and
granaries being burnt. Thirty three percent (33%) of the respondents reported that
they bought goods from the nearby shops from their salaries as government
employees. Seven percent (7%) of the respondents went to towns to work as casual
laborers while 17% of the respondents sold their sick livestock in order to get some
money for survival. Lastly, 13% of the respondents said that they kept on
slaughtering their animals for food.
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Table 5.9: How necessities were obtained during the conflict period
How necessities were obtained Sample Percentages
People walked in groups to their farms, forests and trading
centres.
69 46
Went outside the district to sell goods 20 13
Relief aid 25 17
Bought goods from the shops around, from government
salaries
50 33
Utilized wild foods 20 13
Government security took people to their farms and
shopping centers
30 20
The whole village shared food cooked in one pot 15 10
Families with extra food, clothing and shelter helped those
with none
20 13
Got casual jobs in building houses that were burnt 10 7
Sold the sick livestock 25 17
Would slaughter livestock for food 20 13
N=150
Source: Fieldwork, 2002
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5.3.1.4 Insecurity
Mair (1964:16) has argued that a government protects members of the political
community or its citizens against lawlessness within and enemies without; it takes
decisions on behalf of the community in matters that concerns them all, and in which
they have to act together. The political system of any society is concerned with the
use of force. From a global perspective therefore, only the government has the
monopoly of legitimate coercive power to master compliance in ensuring protection
of life and property and in pursuit of law, order and justice. When the government
falls short of this expectation, those in need of protection and justice lose hope and
confidence. The Kenya government seemed to have failed in one of the oldest roles
of states – ensuring that they provide human security for the governed. This led to
people arming themselves in order to provide their own security.
The following were the responses given regarding government security in the
division during the time of conflict. Of the 150 respondents 90 (60%) said that they
were not safe when government brought its security during the conflict, while 60
(40%) said that they felt safe. Those who said that they were safe when government
brought its security gave the following reasons; that, the presence of the security
personnel gave them hope, the security went round disarming people, security would
go to villages and inform people that they would be attacked in advance, they
brought relative peace and escorted people to their farms and sometimes to the
shopping centers.
Those who said that, they were not safe gave the following reasons; that the security
men harassed people and beat them up for no reason; they raped pastoralist women
but not Pokomo women apparently because of the Kaya Bombo factor - security
officers it is claimed, feared that something wrong would happen to them if they
raped Pokomo women. In addition, the respondents reported that, the security took
people to prison for acquiring legal tools such as pangas (machete), spears et cetera.
The government security personnel, it is reported, were few and lacked sophisticated
weapons to deal with attackers. Further, they disarmed police reservists who were a
hope to the people. Government security, it is claimed were biased and went to
disarm one group of people and not the other, they would also go to conflict areas
97
too late after attacks had already occurred. They were also involved in some of the
village attacks, thus they formed an ‘external force’, depending on how sympathetic
they felt towards a given group and at some point people were puzzled as they did
not know whether to trust them or not. This led to the government transferring
Pokomo and Orma police to other duty stations outside the district. It was also
reported that, the police were glued in their stations most of the time and seemed
undisturbed by what was happening in the areas under conflict.
Despite the presence of security, raids still occurred. In fact, the security actually
informed people in advance that, they should anticipate raids. The raids would then
take place while the so-called security disappears. The security were said to be after
money and looting. Therefore according to a group discussion it was better if
government security was not sent to the areas that were conflicting, because they
protracted the conflict.
5.3.1.5 Impact on education
The two secondary schools in the division were not attacked however a primary
school in Ngao location was attacked by pastoralists who kept shooting wildly in the
school compound when the students were having their usual night studies. Nobody
was killed. This incident frightened the secondary school students, whose school
bordered the primary school in question according to a key informant.
According to the respondents, the assessment of their overall marks for the subjects
done in school were as follows; None of the students had an excellent average mark,
while 17% rated their performance as being good, 44% reported that their
performance were fair and 33% said that they had performed poorly.
Students seemed to be most affected in the third term of the year 2001. Fifty three
per cent (53%) reported that their third term performance was the worst compared to
the first and second terms, while 31% said that the second term’s performance was
the worst for them, finally 18% said the first term was the worst term since they had
performed poorly then. The clashes begun in the beginning of the year, then it
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appeared to have cooled a little in mid-year and this may have raised the hopes of the
students; however, the third term or late that year the conflict had escalated again.
In comparing the performance for the years 2000 and 2001; most students reported
that they had a better performance in the year 2000, 61%. While 3% said there was
no big difference between the 2000 and 2001 class performance. The conflict in the
year 2001 had certainly affected the performance of the students.
It was reported by 69% of the student respondents that their parents could not pay
their school fees at the beginning of the year 2002. However, 22% of the students
reported that their parents did not have a problem in paying their fees; this may be
because these students have parents who receive salaries from the government
working in the civil service or other organizations. Parents who were peasant farmers
or pastoralists had problems paying school fees for their children.
Education was negatively affected when teachers stopped teaching altogether due to
the conflict. Sixty six percent (66%) of the respondents said that teachers were not
teaching regularly during the conflict period, while 26% of the respondents reported
that teachers were teaching regularly. Teachers live in villages and were affected and
afraid like other people to go about their normal routines. However, the government
had issued an order that all teachers had to go back to the schools and continue
teaching according to the students.
Table (5.10 and 5.11) reflects the opinions of respondents for the two secondary
schools studied. Table 5.11 shows some of the impacts that are specific to the
pastoralist students.
Of the 100 respondents, 30% reported that they had delayed to attend schools when
they were opened beginning of the year 2002 because they were terrified that the
conflict might still go on. During the December holidays of 2001 tensions in the
villages were very high. 29% of the student respondents said that they were socially
affected by the deaths of schoolmates and relatives. On the other hand 5% of the
respondents said that their parents restricted them from attending school, these were
mostly pastoralist students whose parents feared that since the two secondary schools
99
in the division are situated in Ngao location, which is inhabited by mainly Pokomo
people their children would not be safe. Other students who were restricted to go
back to school by their parents were neither from the Pokomo nor the Orma and
Wardei communities.
All the students (100%) said that they could not concentrate while in class, and gave
several reasons such as; some of the students kept thinking about their families at
home and whether they were alive or not, this led them to sneaking out of school in
order to ask for information about their families from the villages nearby. Other
students said that they never slept at night because they thought that the school
would be attacked while they would be asleep since some of the primary schools
were burnt in the division. Some of the pastoralist students were afraid because they
were in schools that were in Pokomo areas and therefore could not concentrate.
Ten percent (10%) of student respondents were involved in conflict as they guarded
their villages at night. Five percent of the respondents became orphans as a result of
the conflict. While, 10% of the respondents had no houses to live in, because their
houses were burnt. Thirty percent (30%) of the respondents said that the teachers
went to school irregularly to teach and therefore never managed to clear the syllabus
on time. Further, twenty percent (20%) of the respondents said there was no peace
even after the closure of the schools and that they had to look for hiding places for
fear of imminent attacks.
The students in these schools do not trust each other; this is because some of the
students carried knives in school, according to 30% of the respondents. It is reported
by a key informant that some of the students, since they were minority they used to
go to the bushes during class breaks. This frightened other students. It is possible
that the minority students (from pastoralist families) were afraid of the majority
Pokomo students just in case they would be attacked and would therefore not wish to
linger around during class-breaks.
100
Table 5.10: Impact of Conflict on students
N=100
Source: Fieldwork, 2002
Impact Number of
respondents
Percentage
Delayed in attending school when they opened in
the year 2002 to make sure it is safe, catching up
was difficult
30 30
Death of school mates and relatives 29 29
Cannot concentrate in school. 100 100
Guarded the village at night no time to study 10 10
Orphaned as a result of the conflict 5 5
No house to live in hosted by neighbours 10 10
Teachers came to school to teach irregularly 30 30
No peace at home looked for hiding places 20 20
We students do not trust each other some carry
knives
30 30
Schools closed early 50 50
Fainted in school people passed the school with
spears and livestock ran towards the school
10 10
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Table 5.11: Impact of conflict on pastoralist students
Impact Number of
respondents
Percentages
Parents removed me from school because
they are in Pokomo areas
5 5
Lost a lot of cows payment of schools
became a problem
10 10
Source: Fieldwork, 2002
102
Fifty percent (50%) of the respondents reported that schools closed too early because
of the conflict. While 10% of the respondents said that their families had lost a lot of
livestock as a result of the conflict and that payment of their school fees became a
problem. Ten percent (10%) of the students reportedly fainted (because of profound
fear) at the site of heavily armed villagers passing by their schools. During an
incident the students thought they were about to be attacked when they saw livestock
running towards their school away from pursuers.
5.3.1.6 Other social impacts
Livestock herding became a problem, the herders could not freely move around for
fear that their animals would be attacked. Houses and manyatta were burned. Farms
as well as villages were abandoned. The Plates 5.2 and 5.3 show a burnt house and
an abandoned manyatta respectively. The Plate 5.4 shows an abandoned farm across
the river Tana.
103
Plate 5.2: A burnt house at Tarasaa village
104
Plate 5.3: An abandoned Manyatta
Source: Fieldwork, 2002
105
Plate 5.4: An abandoned farm of banana plants across the River Tana overgrown with grass
Source: Fieldwork, 2002
106
5.3.2 Cultural impact
In Oda-Wachu location, at the Oda village the Orma and Wardei internally displaced
persons had settled on Pokomo graveyards. The Pokomo claimed that they had no
place to bury their dead. The researcher was taken to see these sites. Most of the
graves had not been built in a permanent way; they were just mounds of sand, and
the displaced pastoralist groups had resided near the graves. The Pokomo were
therefore afraid to go bury their dead because they had to pass by the newly erected
manyatta (built on older graves which are unmarked and therefore it is possible that
the displaced did not even know that they had settled on graveyards).
At Oda-village, the pastoralists had overwhelmed the Pokomo in number due to the
displacement of pastoralists from other areas. The pastoralist Orma and Wardei had
even started constructing some permanent houses contrary to the usual style of
Manyatta in the Pokomo village (the two villages of the Pokomo and the Orma were
initially separated by a road). The pastoralists Orma and some Wardei new comers
had crossed the road and were putting up some buildings at the Pokomo side of the
village. This situation has exacerbated tension in the area. However, according to the
local Divisional Officer, he is handling the situation, by trying to have a discussion
with the pastoralists not to continue building permanent houses in the Pokomo area.
By the end of the research period this situation had not been resolved.
The researcher talked to some of the displaced people (mostly the Wardei are the
ones displaced from the manyatta at Tarasaa village to Oda) and they had divided
opinion some wanted to move back to their former areas while others did not want
because they doubted if there will be any peace at all. This is because at Tarasaa
where they had put up their manyatta some distance away from the Pokomo village
is still a Pokomo area and that is why they may not be able to go back. In fact the
pastoralists in this area are not concerned about making peace like the other
pastoralists in other areas that the researcher visited, because they believed that there
will never again be tranquility in the area according to a key informant.
The Pokomo would wish to see that the Orma and Wardei who had been displaced
due to the conflicts never return to where they used to stay before the conflict
107
because they claim that the pastoralists had imposed their stay in their (Pokomo)
villages whereas Pokomo people had by no means forced themselves to live in the
pastoral areas, therefore the Pokomo farmers still guard their villages day and night
lest the pastoralist group come to put up their manyatta ‘again’ in their villages
according to a key informant (a man who guards his village).
Traditional rules of war
In most of the African communities there are cultural rules of war. Among the Nuer
(Gluckman, 1959:8-9) for instance, men of the same village fight each other with
clubs, not spears while men of different villages fight each other with spears. There
is no raiding within the community for cattle, and it is recognized that a man ought
to pay cattle as compensation for killing a fellow tribesman. When raiding foreign
people, men, women and children can be killed, and granaries can be destroyed but
not when raiding fellow tribesmen.
According to focus group discussions and key informant interviews the Orma and
Wardei pastoralists have the following rules of war. That;
1. Women, children, the very old and mad people are not to be killed or attacked
and should not go to war. People who kill such people become Yakka or outcasts.
Also it is believed that killing such people leads to bad luck in the war e.g. defeat.
2. Food stores and livestock were not to be destroyed or killed.
3. Women should not be raped. Women and children may be captured. Women in
captivity should not be “touched” until they are socialized into the community
and then married off properly in the community alternatively if they wish they
could be returned to their own communities after the conflict is over.
4. In the process of spying or Doya, spies should not be killed. They should be
taken to the Matadheda elders where they would be warned not to spy the area
and never to be seen in the surrounding area again. They would then be released.
5. People who are worshipping should not be killed.
6. Taking loot is acceptable.
7. War has to be declared in order to be fought. Many a times the Orma and Wardei
informed the Pokomo that they will be attacking them.
108
8. Pokomo should be fought only with walking sticks and not any other kind of
weapon such as spears and the like, so that no blood is shed since they are weaker
in strength and are like brothers.
9. Fugitives even if they belong to enemy camp should not be killed, but should be
taken care of until it is peaceful for them to go to their land.
10. Should not go to war unless there is a good reason. The Matadheda elders
decides this, and a leader to lead the people to war is then chosen.
Pokomo traditional rules of war
Most of the interviewed reported that the Pokomo do not have rules of war; five of
the respondents held that the Pokomo people are not supposed to kill women and
children. According to a key informant an old man of 90 years old, the Pokomo
people never killed children and women in times of war. In the past when the
Pokomo realized that some of their kinsmen had disappeared they would mostly
suspect the Orma. When the Orma would ask the Pokomo to ferry them across the
lakes in order to go to their homes further into the hinterland the Pokomo men would
then kill the Orma men while they ferry them across the lakes to revenge for the
disappearance of their kinsmen. The Pokomo never openly declared a war with their
neighbours. They would never kill the women and their children who want to be
ferried across the lake, because the pastoralist women in many occasions saved
Pokomo men who had visited their pastoralist ‘friends’ innocently and unsuspecting
that their death was being planned. The women saved them by making sure that they
would leave before their pastoralist ‘friends’ realize.
Observation of rules of war
The recent conflict activities were carried out outside the norms of war making a
flagrant violation of norms of war - what the local communities would consider a
violation of human rights. This means that cultural expectations in intergroup
relations are fast disintegrating.
The penalty for breaking any of these rules is that somebody will be isolated
according to the rules of war of pastoralist groups. Even his own relatives are not
109
supposed to associate with him. When the law-breaker dies he is not supposed to be
buried. However, if the person realizes his mistake and ask for forgiveness a
cleansing ritual will be performed and the person will be received back to the
community.
These rules of war were not observed according to group discussions and a key
informer and the necessary penalty for the law-breakers was not given. This brings
us to the fact that culture is being degraded as a result of conflict. Plate 5.5 below
shows a boy from Golbanti village, Ngao location killed by raiders and his sister
(Plate 5.6) who was attacked and wounded but later survived. Being children they
should not have been attacked if the rules of war were followed.
5.3.3 Psychological impact
A number of respondents reported that they knew people who were psychologically
affected 70 (46.6%) people said they knew of some affected people, 33 (22%) said
that they did not know and 47 (31.3%) did not attempt to answer the question at all.
Table 5.12 shows that, 27% of the people known to the respondents seem confused,
and are depressed. Seventeen percent (17%) had nightmares and hallucinations (for
example some people see everybody in a bus as skeletons). On the other hand 8% of
the psychologically affected people lack adequate sleep after witnessing people
being killed, the elderly people had developed hypertension and others had died so
fast in the conflict period without being killed by the enemy. Nine percent (9%) had
seen mutilated bodies and had helped to collect them for burials and yet appear very
calm, some of them who used to make jokes have become very quiet and they did
not show any emotion even after they saw the bodies of their relatives. Some of the
affected persons reacts very violently to loud noise, even the breaking of utensils
these form 23% of the affected persons. The researcher noticed in one village during
the celebrations of New Year (January, 1st, 2003) some people fainted when they
heard the fireworks thinking they were gunshots.
110
Plate 5.5: A school boy killed at Golbanti village by raiders
Source: Fieldwork, 2002
111
Plate 5.6: A schoolgirl wounded when raiders attacked her village
Source: Fieldwork, 2002
112
Thirteen percent (13%) of the psychologically affected persons are reported to run
whenever they see some specific people from the enemy camp. A key informant
supports this view that some members of one ethnic group (pastoralists) run
whenever they see or imagine they have seen people of the enemy camp who they
consider perilous because they are allegedly strengthened with the Kaya Bombo
powers. The researcher informally interviewed a Pokomo young man who is always
‘seen’ by the Orma people as going after them and reported to the authorities.
However, on many occasions when he was purportedly seen around the man had
alibi and claimed he was not even around the district at the time when he was ‘seen’.
This young man has decided to spend most of his time outside the district so that he
can stop frequenting the offices of the authorities whenever he is reported.
According to the respondents, 23% of the affected people are full of fear, and are
rude even where there is no proper reason to be rude. Further, 1% of the
psychologically affected persons are reported to be insane. The researcher was
shown a woman in one village who kept on singing endless songs about the conflict.
The songs made sense but the fact that the lady tires herself singing the whole day is
the problem. Finally, 7% of the affected persons had been maimed.
Some people felt anomic because they had lost everything and had to adjust to a life
they were not used to. Other people were scared of their own homes assuming that
the neighbour’s house was safer than their own houses. Some suffered from
incoherent speech and felt so bitter they could not co-ordinate their speech well. Still
others felt that they were very ugly, the researcher was shown some gunwounds and
a man whose face was half gone because he was slashed using a panga Or a Machete
(the people did not want to be photographed) these people hide their wounds and feel
so inadequate and cannot comfortably attend public ceremonies lest somebody
wonders why they are ‘hiding’ themselves. Seven percent (7%) of the affected
people suffer physical deformity.
Some people that the researcher talked to had a strong sense of hatred towards the
other group. One Orma woman laments;
The Pokomo people are heartless people, they killed the sick people who went for
treatment in the hospital located in their village, and they also killed a pregnant
woman, removed the child from her womb and threw her body into the river.
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Table 5.12: Form of psychological impact
Form of psychological impact Frequency Percentage
Seem confused and are depressed 40 27
Nightmares and hallucinations 25 17
Lack of sleep, witnessed somebody being killed 12 8
Hypertension and sudden deaths to old people 30 20
Staying abnormally calm after seeing mutilated bodies of
relatives
14 9
Reacts violently to loud noise 35 23
Runs whenever one sees a person of the enemy camp 20 13
Full of fear, and very rude 35 23
Completely insane. 2 1
Physical deformity, covers the whole body, stays indoors 11 7
N= 150
Source: fieldwork 2002
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On the other hand one Pokomo young man admits;
I hate the Orma, they killed my father and they killed my relatives and stole their
internal organs, the heart, liver and private parts.. They hanged others, passing a tree
through them. So I felt mad and I just killed. …and I resigned now I was ready to
die. I waited for them to come but they did not come. I was disappointed because I
felt I was ready to die, because I had already avenged the death of my father, my
three relatives and my own death in advance…
The local people believe that the Young man is mentally sick as a result of the
conflict. There is unmistakably a strong hatred between the two conflicting parties.
5.4 General impact at individual and family levels
Table 5.13 shows the general impact of the conflict experienced by the respondents
in the study area both at an individual and at the family levels. Fifty three (53%)
percent of the respondents reported that the conflict led to their small-businesses
stalling, 33% reported that education stagnated, meaning that schools were closed.
On the other hand 97% held that the conflict created food insecurity because the
population could not go to their farms or herd their stock. In addition, 75% reported
that there was increase in poverty due to loss of property, 93% asserted that free
movement was restrained, while 37% stated that their families were displaced.
The respondents could not access necessities and these were 63%. Those who still
felt insecure were 67%. According to 53% of the respondents there was loss of lives
of relatives and wounded persons. The interviewer talked to two respondents who
were wounded when a heavily armed group of pastoralists attacked their village
(Plate 5.7)
Another impact of the conflict is that some parents who had become ‘non-resident’
found it prudent to stay home with family. Children had been reported (17%) to have
been traumatized by seeing people being killed. Finally people live in fear suspecting
and hating each other, (33%).
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Table 5.13: General impact of conflict at individual and family levels
Impact Frequency Percentage
Business stalled
80 53
Stagnation of education
49 33
Food insecurity
145 97
Poverty through loss of property 75 50
People could not move freely. 140 93
Family was displaced 52 37
Cannot access necessities 94 63
Feel insecure 100 67
Loss of lives of relatives and some are wounded 80 53
Parents who were non-resident found it wise to stay at
home
20 13
Traumatized children after seeing the killings 25 17
Fear, suspect and hate the other group 50 33
N=150
Source: Fieldwork, 2002
116
Plate 5.7: Youths attacked by heavily armed pastoralists in their village
Source: Fieldwork, 2002
117
5.5 Positive impact of the conflict
According to a group discussion one of the positive impact of the conflict is that the
sub-tribes usually divided were united during the conflict period. The Pokomo
peasant farmers are usually divided, likewise the Orma/Wardei communities. Such
that when either of the groups is not conflicting with one common enemy they
conflict internally.
The pastoralists, who had to pay a little fee to be ferried across the river by the
Pokomo, have in some places managed to cross themselves and have acquired their
own canoes. Plate (5.8) shows pastoralists ferrying themselves across River Tana in
their own canoes.
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Plate 5.8 Pastoralists ferrying themselves across River Tana
Source: Fieldwork, 2002
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CHAPTER SIX
CONFLICT MANAGEMENT
6.0 Introduction
Conflict being an unending human problem can be a healthy aspect of society if pro-
actively managed (Deusdedit, 2002:13). Conflict if properly managed can open up
new possibilities and alternatives. In order for the conflict to be managed in the study
area the conflict situation must be well analyzed, such that issues relating to the
conflict can be identified and the best suitable action taken.
Conflict is a complex social reality with many layers and root causes (Deusdedit,
2002:15). Identifying and addressing the root causes of a conflict will not necessarily
resolve the conflict, because so many other layers of causality remain (Simon
Fischer et al; 2000:57). Only when all the issues, especially the root causes of a
conflict are seen to be addressed by the parties to the conflict and are convinced that
a solution to their problems will be found, conflict will then be nearing a settlement.
It is argued that different people may be required to work together on different
aspects of the conflicts in order to receive the best results in managing conflicts. That
means political leaders, religious leaders, Non-governmental Organizations, all have
a part to play (Ibid. p15). In the case of Tana River, the farmers, pastoralists and the
government must play their roles too.
Conflict can be managed in different ways depending on the parties involvement,
and the type of conflict experienced. In the Tana conflict seminars, workshops and
open-air meetings (baraza) have been arranged in an attempt to manage the conflict.
All in all good leadership is an indispensable factor in conflict management. A good
leader will work towards managing the conflict as an entry point before conflict
resolution and reconciliation can be done.
This chapter deals with opinions given on how peace can be achieved and probably
sustained.
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6.1 Organizations and institutions that are involved in managing the conflict in
Tana-River
There are a number of organizations and institutions that have been involved in the
management of conflict in the study area. Eighty one percent (81%) of the
respondents agree that there were some external interventions in conflict
management, while 5% reported that there have not been any such organizations
managing the conflict in their areas. Moreover, 1% did not know whether there were
such organizations that have been involved in managing the conflict in their
respective areas or not.
The organizations/institutions that have been involved in conflict management
include; Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya, World vision, The Red Cross
Society, Council of elders, Arid Lands resource and Management Programme in
Conjunction with Ox-fam, among others.
According to 91 (61%) of the respondents there are no positive signs of achieving
sustainable peace. The local people do not seem to trust the peace meetings that are
conducted outside the district by some Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in
collaboration with government officials. One chairman of the Gasa informed the
researcher that he was picked from his house at night to go and represent his people
at a peace meeting to be held outside the district. The elder complained that he was
not informed in advance hence he could not call for a meeting to inform the villagers
concerning this appointment. When he went to the meeting he did not therefore
participate in it because he argued that if he had participated he would have given his
own views and not those of his people.
According to a group discussion, people got suspicious of peace meetings taking
place outside the district. It is reported that NGOs select their own people considered
as being poor representatives by the population, to attend workshops for peace on
behalf of their communities. The community would like to choose their own people
to represent them in such meetings. However, according to the District
Commissioner of Tana River District, workshops conducted outside the district for
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peace are good because they enable participants to discuss issues in stress-free
environment, and without fear.
It is revealed that pastoralists were still taking their livestock to graze on abandoned
farms and that farmers cannot access fishing areas as usual. In one of the peace
meetings attended by the researcher, one Orma chief said that, there are people of
Cushitic pastoral origin leaving in the forests near the fishing grounds, who have
never heard of the word peace before and therefore even though the Pokomo and the
Orma were talking peace, no Pokomo should go fishing lest they are attacked by
‘these people’. This particular chief suggested that if the Pokomo men desire to go
fishing, they should make sure that they are escorted by the Orma chief himself.
The Pokomo told the Orma chief that he should tell these people to go back to where
they came from since they were visitors of the Orma. The Chief admitted that these
Cushitic people were ‘visitors’ and that as he goes to contact these people trying to
make peace with them, sometimes he does not even understand their language.
According to a key informant there will not be sustainable peace unless the land and
water corridors are demarcated and registered. Also, the Wardei were the most
affected compared to the Orma and are not ready for peace. They believe that the
Orma have taken advantage of them, such that they were taken to the battlefront and
were more involved in the fighting than the Orma. This has caused tensions between
the Orma and Wardei.
According to 46 (31%) of the respondents there are positive signs of achieving
sustainable peace. It is felt that people are generally drained because of the fighting
and want to stop the violence and the conflict since they have lost too much. The
farmers have high hopes that the making of boreholes in the hinterland for the
pastoralist by some Organizations such as the Red Cross will bring about sustainable
peace since this will reduce the competition for resources at the riverine areas. The
provincial administration has informed the community that whichever group rouse
attacks will face the wrath of the government; this has caused the fighting to cease.
However, the key issues, which have acted as root causes of the conflict, are far from
being addressed and no lasting peace will come if these issues are not addressed.
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Some of the respondents, 8 (5%) reported that they were not sure of sustainability of
peace but they prefer to ‘wait-and-see’.
6.2 Different roles in Conflict Management
In order for the conflict to be managed there are a number of roles for the different
parties to the conflict and the government. When asked about these roles that the
various parties could play in conflict management, the respondents provided a
number of suggestions as recorded in Tables 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3.
6.2.1 The role of farmers
The study revealed (Table 6.1) that, 8.6% of the respondents said that in order to
manage the conflict all the farmers ought to fence their farms so that animals may
not stray into farms. While, 36.6% of the respondents reported that farmers need to
press for land adjudication to continue in the district. The pastoralists perceive land
as a common resource where everybody has a right of use, whereas the farmers have
a customary system of land ownership based on the clan system as highlighted
earlier. Furthermore, 3.3% of the respondents said that the conflict may be resolved
if the water corridors are increased where there are not sufficient for the use of
livestock. According to a group discussion, ‘visitors’, in the district, should not
expect new water corridors to be allocated for them. Instead they should use the
available ones that are recognized by the pastoralists who live in the district, instead
of forcing their way to access the river through farms.
Instead of taking the law into their own hands the farmers should report the
destruction of their crops to the authorities, according to 3.3% of the respondents.
According to a key informer, by the time somebody goes to report the animals may
have fed on the entire farm, since the farm plots per person rarely exceed 1.5
hectares. In addition, the authorities have been reported not to take any action, since
farmers in most cases finds it tricky to identify individual pastoralists who guide
their livestock into farms. Sometimes farmers go to a nearby pastoralist manyatta to
try and identify the culprit but in vain. Then the Matadheda are blamed for hiding
such culprits. The problem is that sometimes the Matadheda may not even know the
person being implicated for such offence this is because the pastoralist groups in
Tana River increase seasonally, and then go back to their areas as far as Garissa.
123
Table 6.1: The role of farmers in conflict management
Role Frequency Percentage
Farmers should fence their farms 13 8.6%
Press for the land adjudication exercise to continue 55 36.6%
Increase water corridors where they are not sufficient 5 3.3%
Should report to the authorities in case livestock graze
on their farms
5 3.3%
Should not encroach into the recognized water corridors 29 19.3%
Get their farms that have been grabbed by the
pastoralists back – so that people do not have to fight for
what does not belong to them.
49 32.6%
Insist on separate areas for grazing and farming 10 6.6%
Individual farmers should not allow their farms to be
used as grazing fields as this affects other farmers
30 20%
N=150
Source: Fieldwork, 2002
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Others are Some Somali refugees (the Galjeel) who also live in the district.
All the areas that are culturally recognized as water points should not be encroached,
according to 9.3% of the respondents; on the other hand 32.6% of the respondents
said that the farmers should get back all their farms from the pastoralists that they
had grabbed. In addition, 6.6% of the respondents said that the farmers should insist
on separate areas for farming activities and for grazing activities. Further, 20% of the
respondents proposed that individual farmers should not allow their farms to be used
as grazing fields after harvests or before, this is because the livestock end up grazing
in other people’s farms, since none of the farms are fenced. Also it has been reported
by one key informant that when one pastoralist is allowed to graze in a farm from
after harvests, the person then invite very many people claiming that they are
relatives. Such people keep grazing on the farm and extending to other farms
bringing about conflict.
6.2.2 Role of pastoralists
The study was also interested in knowing what role the pastoralists can play in
bringing about amicable relations with their neighbors since it appears that conflicts
more often than not begin with pastoralists encroaching on farms. The responses
were as recorded in Table 6.2:
Seventy two percent of the respondents said that, in order for the conflict to be
managed, the pastoralists should graze their livestock in the hinterland, far away
from the farms, while 36% said that the pastoralist should water their stock only on
the specified water corridors. In addition, 33% reported that pastoralists should
surrender land they had allegedly grabbed from the farmers, 39% reported that even
in case of emergencies such as droughts pastoralists should respect farmers property
by not grazing their stock on planted farms. Further, 10% of the respondents
proposed that grazing should be confined on the ranches, 10% added that the
pastoralists should reduce the size of their herds so that the herder may not find it
difficult to control the animals not to enter into farms as they are taken to the river to
drink water. Also according to 7% of the respondents, pastoralists should accept the
land adjudication exercise because ranches were registered without any objection
from the farmers.
125
According to 13% of the respondents for the conflict to be well managed the
pastoralists need to hand over their guns to the government. Some of the respondents
(3%) have suggested that the pastoralists should do away with some cultural beliefs
that they are more superior to the farmers and take their children to school.
Education may help reduce strong ethnic sentiments, which are culturally deep-
rooted. Lastly, 7% of the respondents said that the pastoralists should not
misconstrue individual wrangles for ethnic conflicts, as this may spark a large-scale
ethnic violence.
6.2.3 The role of the government
The role of government in conflict management was sought and the following
responses were recorded.
In order for the conflict to be well managed (Table 6.3) 30% of the respondents said
that, the government should dig boreholes in the hinterland for use by the pastoralists
in order to reduce competition for water resources. Sixty three percent proposed that
the government need to continue with the land adjudication programme so that free
movement of people and stock may be controlled. On the other hand, 33% reported
that the government need to improve the security of the area for the conflict to be
managed, security may be improved by introducing more police stations in villages,
arming the police force with sophisticated weapons, training police reservists and
giving them sophisticated weapons too. Others considered that an army barracks
ought to be established in the district due to the position of the district bordering
politically unstable states such as Somalia through Garissa and Lamu district.
According to 5% of the respondents the government should ensure that each group
does not encroach into the other’s land. Further, 7% said that the government should
mediate peace talks in the district. Whereas 10% were of the view that all the
‘visitors’ in the district should be sent back to their lands, because they increase
competition for the limited resources. Also, 13% said that the government should
take legal action against leaders who utter inflammatory statements. According to
10% of the respondents the government should stop creating new locations out of the
existing ones for specific ethnic groups.
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Table 6.2: The role of pastoralists in conflict management
Role Frequency Percentage
Pastoralists should graze their animals in the hinterland
far away from the farms
108 72
Pastoralists should use the specified water corridors to
water their animals
54 36
Pastoralists should surrender the land they grabbed from
the farmers
50 33
In case of emergencies like droughts livestock should
not be left to graze on farms but pastoralists should
respect farmers’ property
58 39
Grazing should be confined in ranches 15 10
Reduce the number of livestock to reasonable size 15 10
Should accept land adjudication for farmers because
farmers did not object when ranches were registered
10 7
Hand over guns to the government 20 13
Do away with some cultural beliefs and go to school 5 3
Tackle individual cases as such conflict with one person
should not lead to ethnic war
10 7
N=150
Source: Field Work, 2002
127
Table 6.3: The role of Government in conflict management
Role of Government Frequency Percentage
Dig boreholes in the hinterland for use by the pastoralists 45 30
Continue with land adjudication in order to restrict free
movement
95 63
Improve security in the district 49 33
Ensure no encroachment by either group on the other’s
land
7 5
Mediate in peace talks 10 7
‘visitors’ in Tana River should be sent back to their
lands
15 10
Take legal action against leaders who utter inflammatory
statements
20 13
Stop creating exclusive locations for pastoralists from
existing locations
15 10
Stop behaving like the conflict and the people in Tana
River do not exist
10 7
Encourage pastoralists to take their children to school 5 3
Search for arms from both communities and should not
be biased
38 25
Should separate farmers from the pastoralists 47 31
Do nothing 5 3
N=150
Source: Field Work, 2002
128
Some of the respondents (7%) were of the opinion that the government has neglected
the district and has not been taking the conflict seriously. The government should
therefore take action in managing the conflict and making sure that the people in
Tana River are safe. In addition, 3% said that the government should encourage
pastoralist groups to take their children to school.
The government should not take sides in the conflict according to 25% of the
respondents, and should therefore search for weapons from both groups; the question
is, why should the people want the government to mediate the conflict management
exercise, if they think the government is biased? The people realize the government
has coercive force and could help bring peace to the district. Without the government
people will kill each other year in, year out because the conflict seem to be
institutionalized.
According to a group discussion, the government should act as a witness in the
intercommunal peace talks. The government according to 31% of the respondents
should separate the farmers from the pastoralists because living together is directly
proportional to conflict and this may be a good solution for the conflict. However,
according to a group discussion with the pastoralists they do not want to be separated
from the farmers because they cannot live without them, they need to be exchanging
their pastoral goods with them. The farmers on the other hand report that they can
live without the pastoralists, by the time the researcher left the study area no farmer
was buying milk from the pastoralists. The government should do nothing according
to 3% of the respondents, this position shows a resigned mood on the part of some
respondents
According to a report made by the Law Society of Kenya (LSK, July, 2002:10)
government administrators whether at the local level or otherwise have never been in
a position to sufficiently deal with the conflict situation in Tana River. In dealing
with the conflict emphasis is laid on peace for its own sake and not justice obtained
through punishing the perpetrators of the conflict. This is further reported by one key
informant who said that the government administrators would call for a public
meeting and simply ask how many people want peace. The people therefore
129
complain that the real issues to the conflict are not addressed and pastoralists are
quick to accept peace and quick to repeat atrocities.
6.3 Solutions given to the conflict by the Tana River Gasa elders
According to a report made by the Gasa (August, 2001);
1. The killers should be brought to book
2. In the district 70% of the land is government land. Out of this 58% has been
allocated to group ranches namely, Idasa Godana, Kon Dertu, Nairobi,
Kitangale, Kurawa Holding, Giritu, Mpongwe, Wachu and Galana. All the
above ranches have been issued with title deeds that belong to Orma and there
are plans to register five more ranches namely, Assa, Hangada, Jama Komoro,
Waldena and Bura Group. The government should not deny the Pokomo land
registration under the pretext of insecurity
3. No more allocation of group ranches. The five ranches should not be registered
4. The Pokomo occupy only 10% of the land. It is unfair to deny them this small
percentage; therefore the land adjudication should be commenced with
immediate effect.
6.4 Possible solutions of the conflict obtained from participants of a workshop
According to a workshop report prepared by, Arid Lands Resource Management
Project (ALRMP, 2001b). In order to manage the conflict the following should be
done;
Strengthen traditional structures of council of elders
It is important to revitalize the cultural conflict resolving institutions, such as the
Gasa and Matadheda this can be done through;
Identifying two elders from each location to form a peace management
committee
Local leaders, making sure that the youth respect the decisions arrived at in
meetings of the council of elders
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Elders nominated in the Gasa and Matadheda should be faithful and
committed elders of the community
Peace ceremonies – “Ibisa” should be conducted after conflicts occur to
ensure reconciliation
Peace committees should be chosen by the village elders themselves
During deliberations elders should be open and truthful
Matadheda and Gasa should avoid indulging themselves in political affairs
Chiefs should stop interfering into the activities of the Gasa and Matadheda
Matadheda and Gasa to deliberate peace related issues.
Land adjudication
Land conflicts to be dealt with by the Gasa and Matadheda
Avail at least two water corridors or malkas in every location
Elderly people to take responsibility of herding especially near the farms
According to a Peace and Reconciliation Workshop for Councilors (Caritas
Malindi Development office, February, 2002) propositions that were made with
regard to the issue of land adjudication include the following;
Involvement of all community members on issues related to land
adjudication, so that both farmers and pastoralists can know what is at stake.
Involvement of the community elders for they are the backbone of the
community
Land to be adjudicated following cultural and traditional structures as done in
other areas in the country
Consideration of dry and wet seasons for both farmers and pastoralists for the
sake of different livelihood set-ups
Land to be adjudicated following traditional and ancestral ownership
Formation of land adjudication committees should be inclusive of all
communities
Government land should be adjudicated to the people for example, the
moribund irrigation schemes.
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Recurrent bout of drought
Kenya electricity generating company (Ken gen) and Kenya Power and
lighting company to assist drought related development projects in Tana
River district, since the damming activities upstream has resulted in reduced
flooding in the delta causing destruction of ecology and affecting fall-back
areas
Construction of dams/reservoirs to harness water for use during dry spells
Reluctance of appropriate measures by administrative arms
Peace management committees that are formed should form regulations
which conforms with laws of Kenya and to involve all stakeholders
Rumor mongers to be dealt with accordingly
Victims of conflicts should be penalized in accordance with the law
Office of the District Commissioner to facilitate elders deliberations
Poor community relationship
Conflicts occurring in one area should not spread over the entire district
Communities should respect each others culture and lifestyles
People to form a spirit of apology and forgiveness
Abide with religious teachings
Tana River residents to have a common understanding towards visitors in the
district
6.5 Solutions given by the Orma and Wardei pastoralists
Riverine land should not be registered according to Pokomo customs alone, but the
government should also consider traditional ways of land-use among the pastoralists.
This is because the pastoralists have found out that the land in the hinterland is not
productive for those who want to practice or are already practicing agro-pastoralism.
Thus, the pastoralists in Tana River would like to share the riverine land with he
farmers.
132
The pastoralists would like to be educated on the land adjudication processes and
what is at stake for them.
6.6 Traditional Method of Conflict Resolution
In the past when the Pokomo farmers conflicted with the Orma (not the Wardei)
pastoralists they would perform a ceremony called ‘ibisa’ usually done in the area
worst hit by the conflict and this was therefore always done in the Pokomo villages.
The pastoralists would provide a bull and the farmers, farm products, usually rice.
People would talk of the causes of the conflict and the perpetrators of the conflict. A
prayer would be made, and anybody who would initiate the conflict afresh would be
cursed such that bad luck would befall him and his entire family.
The last ‘serious’ conflict that occurred in the 1980-1981 was not resolved
traditionally and people feared that the conflict could erupt anytime. The Pokomo
farmers therefore had an agreement with an Orma who wanted to be a legislator in
1997 that they would vote for him, if he could assure the voters that during his term
he would facilitate ‘ibisa’. Unfortunately the said Orma became a Member of
Parliament and did not facilitate the traditional peace-making ceremony. Instead
during his term conflict rose to its worst peak in the year 2001.
According to a group discussion some of the members of the group felt that
sustainable peace could be obtained through the traditional ceremony of ‘ibisa’.
However, there are a number of issues to be addressed; to what extent will ‘ibisa’ be
effective keeping in mind that the parties to the conflict have changed? The only
people who can conduct ‘ibisa’ are Pokomo and the Orma. Now the conflict scene
has new actors such as the Wardei. According to a group discussion with the Wardei,
they are aware that the Orma used to resolve their conflicts with the Pokomo people
through ‘ibisa’ but they have never conducted this with the Pokomo themselves,
although some of them have settled in the district since 1967.Ibisa may not be
effective unless it is modified to fit the values of the new actors in the conflict scene.
133
At a peace meeting conducted in an Orma village between the Orma and the
Pokomo. The researcher observed that, the Pokomo elders called all the Pokomo
who attended the meeting and briefed them on what to talk about. There was to be no
mention of the causes of the conflict, and no mention of ‘ibisa’, people were to talk
about impacts of the conflict (not to mention the killings but talk generally on
impacts on education and economy) and why they wanted peace. The Orma, the
researcher noted talked about bitter experiences of the conflict. This stance taken by
the Pokomo was probably used to act as a balance so that the meeting could be
successful, because if both parties talked resentfully then people would have left the
meeting feeling bitter after they would have been reminded of their losses.
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CHAPTER SEVEN
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
7.0 Summary of the findings
The general objective of this study was to find out the causes of the conflict, what
compels the pastoralists to behave in a war-like manner, the impacts as well as the
management of the conflict.
The first specific objective was to find out the causes of the conflict and it was found
out that the cause of the conflict was multidimensional as well as multifaceted in that
a number of causes were cited and these include; fear of displacement by the
pastoralists due to the land adjudication exercise which had hardly taken off,
incitement by politicians, Gasa and Matadheda elders, grazing in planted farms, land
ownership and creation of new administrative locations – this was a problem in that
the two conflicting communities perceived the locations differently, one of the
groups viewed the locations as areas comprising of specific ethnic groups. The other
causes are closure of water corridors, lifestyles and different uses of common
resources, drought and creation of unrecognized water corridors passing through
farms and influx of aliens in the district. This study did cover any longitudinal
comparisons of causes of conflicts but this can be an area for further research.
The implication is that the first assumption of the study, which states, “Under normal
circumstances, conflict like cooperation is multidimensional and multifaceted in
cause and consequence. Tana River being an arid and semiarid district, it is however,
expected that conflict between the pastoral Orma and Wardei and the agricultural
Pokomo is about ownership and use of land, pasture and water resources”, was
proved to be correct. As a consequence of this, the following recommendations can
be suggested:
135
1. The pastoralists should be educated on the land adjudication issue. Land tenure
should be governed through customary or communal rites.
2. Community relations can improve if both groups respect each other’s wealth.
Farmers should not attack livestock that graze in their farms but may tie the
animal and report to the relevant authorities. The pastoralists should also respect
the farmers crops and should not deliberately graze their animals in farms
3. All leaders should desist from issuing negative statements. The council of elders
from the conflicting groups should avoid issuing inflammatory statements. The
traditional institutions of the Gasa and Matadheda should be revitalized to
enable conflict to be treated at an early stage before it erupts to uncontrollable
violence.
4. On the issue of land ownership and creation of new locations, the farmers should
not be dispossessed of the riverine land, which is only 1/10 of the land in the
district.
5. With regard to malka areas the government should demarcate the existing
watering points and maintain them, where possible fence them, though this may
be expensive, but in the long run it will be cheaper than the cost of conflict.
6. New locations created out of existing ones should be revoked and the old ones
remain as before
7. There are no proper droughts coping mechanisms. There is a lot of surface run
off through seasonal rivers. Instead of wasting this water which ultimately drain
into the Indian Ocean. The water may be dammed at several points so that it can
be used for irrigation or livestock. This will keep the pastoralist groups inland
8. There should be proper and controlled movement of pastoralists from
neighboring districts or countries as the case may be
The second specific objective was to find out the environmental and other factors
that compel pastoralists to be war-like. It was found out that the culture of the
pastoralist groups might be a contributing factor in that some of the pastoralists seem
to hold a conviction that they are the only ones who should keep certain kinds of
livestock and if others keep them they will be dispossessed. The culture of cattle
rustling contribute to the war-like behavior of pastoralists where it may be practiced
Also the harsh environmental conditions may be a contributing factor in that
136
pastoralists have to walk for long distances often in areas with wild animals. They
also need to constantly protect themselves against military raids by fellow human
beings in new areas that they go for purposes of grazing. They therefore need to
prepare themselves for such eventualities.
It is important to note that historically, the pastoral groups (Orma/Wardei) have
oscillated between Tana River to the south in Kenya, Ethiopia to the north and
Somalia to the east. In the neighboring countries that is, Southern Ethiopia and
Somalia they have both relatives and stock associates. These are areas of insecurity
from where they have acquired sophisticated weapons. This also encourages them to
bully the Pokomo.
Under normal circumstances the pastoral communities do not value land per se but
in terms of the resources there in, that is, water and pasture. This is why the idea of
open corridors to River Tana and grazing in the fields of farmers are significant
causes of the conflict. Thus, the different perception of what is a resource, who owns
it and how it should be used differs from society to society, depending on the mode
of livelihood and culture.
Thus the second assumption, which states “environmental factors and the distance
between the Orma and Pokomo cultures leading to different perceptions towards
resources and each other are probably some of the causes of the conflict between the
two groups that pursue different kinds of livelihoods”, has been confirmed to be true.
There is no intergroup, intercultural communication between the Orma/Wardei and
the Pokomo due to institutionalized conflicts and contradictions based on
ethnocentrism, stereotypes and social segregation.
It is therefore recommended that; aspects of cultures, which are no longer useful,
should be done away with. The belief that only pastoralists have a right to livestock
is retrogressive and should be done away with. The culture of raiding among
pastoralists should also be left and new ways of coping with calamities for example,
drought should be sought. Governments should ensure its citizens are secure.
137
The third specific objective was to find out the socio-economic, cultural and
psychological impacts of the conflict.
The socio-economic impacts included the following; there were internally displaced
persons, some members of a specific group could not attend public hospitals because
most of the workers of the hospital are from the enemy camp. Necessities became
difficult to obtain and the people obtained them through walking in groups for
security reasons as they go to their farms, shopping or to the forests to get building
materials as the case may be. Relief aid was distributed in form of food, drugs and
even building materials to both the affected parties although the relief aid was slow
in coming and inadequate most of the times. Most of the people did not feel safe
when government security was taken to their villages because they complained of
harassment.
In the education sector, students reported lack of concentration in school, some of
the students kept thinking about their relatives at home and whether they were still
alive or not, some lost their relatives, others were involved in the conflict through
guarding their villages, other student respondents were orphaned as a result of the
conflict, in the schools studied the students do not trust each other because some of
them carry weapons like knives, among other impacts.
The cultural impacts were as follows; some of the displaced people have settled on
graveyards such that another group is not able to bury their dead. In addition the
traditional rules of war were not observed during the conflict and this brings the
realization that cultural expectation in intergroup relations are fast disintegrating.
The psychological impact is manifested in the following ways; confusion and
individuals getting depressed, some people are ever miserable, some get nightmares
and they hallucinate, still others experience sleeplessness. Old people have suffered
from hypertension and sudden deaths, some people are abnormally calm even after
seeing mutilated bodies of relatives, others react violently to loud noise, at least two
people are completely insane while others ‘feel ugly’ due to physical deformities
they succumbed to and they fully cover their bodies and stay indoors.
138
It is recommended that intervention strategies in the study area by the government or
Non-governmental organizations should find a way of dealing with the
psychological impact apart from giving aid on physical needs alone. People need to
have their psychological needs attended too.
There are some positive impacts that have occurred as a result of the conflict. The
sub-tribes from both the conflicting groups that usually are divided were united
during the period of active conflict. Some Orma pastoralists have acquired their own
canoes and can ferry themselves across the river meaning that they do not have to
pay the fee to be ferried by the Pokomo farmers in some areas.
The fourth specific objective was to find out ways of managing the conflict. A
number of views have been obtained from the study area. There are a number of
organizations/institutions, which are involved in the management of the conflict.
Some of the organizations include the Red Cross, Council of Imams and Preachers
of Kenya, World vision, the Arid Lands and Resource Management Programme in
conjunction with the ox-fam group among others. The institutions involved include
the Pokomo elders of council (Gasa) and the Orma/Wardei council of elders
(Matadheda).
For the conflict to be managed different groups have their roles to play. The farmers
it is reported should fence their farms, they should press for the land adjudication
exercise, should increase the water corridors where they are not enough, ought to
report to the authorities in case pastoralists graze their animals in their farms, must
not encroach on water corridors, should take grabbed farmlands from the
pastoralists. In addition the farmers are to insist on separate areas for themselves and
the pastoralists and finally individual farmers should not allow their farms to be used
as grazing areas as this is likely to affect other farmers.
The pastoralists are to graze their animals in the hinterland far away from the farms,
they are to use specified water corridors, they are to surrender the land they grabbed
from the farmers and in cases of emergencies like droughts livestock should not be
left to graze on farms but pastoralists should respect farmers property. The
pastoralists should confine grazing in the ranches, they should reduce their herd size,
139
should accept land adjudication for the farmers because the farmers did not object to
the ranches being registered. The pastoralist in order to manage the conflict it is
proposed that they should surrender their guns to the government; they should do
away with cultural beliefs and take their children to school. Finally, they should
tackle individual cases of conflict as individual instead of letting the conflict
between two people spread to the whole society leading to ethnic war.
The solutions given to the pastoralists themselves are that, the land should not be
registered according to Pokomo customs alone but consideration should be given to
pastoralist traditional system of land-use. In addition the pastoralist would like to be
educated on the issue of land adjudication before they can be expected to accept the
exercise.
The solution given by the Gasa generally is that, the government should not deny the
Pokomo an inalienable right to legally own their land under the pretext of insecurity
while the pastoralists own ranches legally.
According to participants of a workshop there is need to strengthen the traditional
structures of the council of elders in order to handle the conflicts, at least two water
corridors should be availed in every location and registration of land should
continue.
In another workshop, the views of the participants include; that the community
members should be involved on issues related to land adjudication so that both
farmers and pastoralists can know what is at stake, the community elders should be
involved, land to be adjudicated following cultural and traditional structures,
consideration of dry and wet seasons for both farmers and pastoralists for the sake of
different livelihood set-ups, land to be adjudicated following traditional and ancestral
ownership. In order to address the issue of droughts there should be the construction
of dams/reservoirs to harness water for use during dry spells.
With regard to reluctance of appropriate measures by administrative arms the
government should deal with early warning signs of conflict such as rumour
mongering among other things. To improve on community relations conflicts
140
occurring in one area should not spread over the entire district and the communities
should respect each others culture and lifestyles. With regard to conflict management
it is recommended that the government should as a matter of priority establish a
barracks in Tana River considering its strategic position to some unstable countries
such as Somalia and Ethiopia.
The research findings show that there is a great need for proper policies on land in
Tana River district taking into consideration the traditional ways of land-use and
ownership of the locals.
An unbelievable amount of human suffering has already occurred in the district,
resulting from the conflict. It is to the credit of the local people mostly, that a fragile
peace now holds as a result of different committees for peace (Elders, women and
the youth), which enabled the visitations of pastoralists and farmers at their
respective villages to talk about peace.
At the base of the human suffering are the complex problems of natural resources of
land, water and pasture. If these are not managed with reasonable priority and in a
way to lead to the settlement of the conflict, the existing peace will suffer strains it
may be unable to endure.
141
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149
APPENDICES
APPENDIX 1: STANDARD QUESTIONNAIRE
LETTER OF INTRODUCTION
Dear respondent,
This interview is part of the requirements of getting an Mphil degree in Human
Ecology, in the School of Environmental Studies, Moi University. It is conducted in
an attempt to learn about the conflict in Tana-River district and its socio-economic
impact. The results of this study, it is hoped will lead to sustainable methods of
resolving the conflict and also, enable policy makers and government administrators
in the district to make informed decisions concerning the perennial conflict.
Most questions involve what has been experienced during the period of active
conflict and it may be distressing to express yourself. But please do try and take your
time to answer the questions aptly and sincerely. This is because if some solutions to
this problem are going to be attained we need you to be strong enough and tell us
what you think.
If you find it difficult to answer some questions sincerely say so. But since we are
asking only a few people to answer these questions your full cooperation is
extremely important. All your answers will be kept completely confidential and
your name will never be associated with them.
Pilly Martin
Research Executant
Human Ecology, School of Environmental Studies, Moi University - Eldoret.
150
Section A
1.What do you understand by ethnicity? In the Tana-River conflict?
a. Differences in religion
b. Differences in languages
c. Differences in culture and modes of livelihoods
d. All of the above
e. Others (specify)
2. How did the Pokomo farmers and the Orma/Wardei pastoralists find themselves in
Garsen division together?
a. Is there any myth that relates the two (above)?
3. How are the Pokomo adapted to the environment?
4. How are the Orma/Wardei adapted to the environment?
5. What is the social organization of the Pokomo?
6. What is the social organization of the Orma/Wardei?
7. What are the causes of the conflict in Garsen division?
8. Are there any rules in the society to guide the use of resources by the farmers and
the pastoralists?
9. Did you stay in your village throughout the period of the conflict in the year 2001?
a. If the answer is No above, where did you go?
11. Are there any houses or manyattas that were burned in your village in the year
2001?
151
12. Were schools closed during the period of active conflict in the year 2001 or
learning continued in your location?
13. Are you attending the same hospital you used to attend before the conflict broke?
a. If No why?
b. Where do you go for medication when you are sick?
14. Are there any rules of the market shared by the pastoralists Orma/Wardei and the
Pokomo farmers?
a. If yes, what are they?
15. How were necessities obtained during the conflict period?
15. What are the traditional rules of war?
a. Were they observed during the period of active violence? (Please explain)
16. What are the regulations regarding grazing areas near the farmers’ settlements?
17. How was the trend of farming during the period of active conflict?
18. How was the trend of herding livestock during the period of active conflict?
19. How does the community organize itself in anticipating for attacks?
20. What kind of form did the attacks take?
a. Were the attacks done during the day or at night?
21.What was the stand of the politicians during the period of active conflict?
22. Do you know anybody in your village who is psychologically affected as a result
of the conflict?
a. What form does this psychological impact take?
23. How did the conflict affect you as a person and your family?
152
24. Were you safe when the government brought its security personnel in the area?
a. If yes in what way?
b. If no, in what way?
25. What do you think should be done to restore peace?
a. What should the pastoralists do?
b. What should the farmers do?
c. What should the government do?
26. Are there any organizations/institutions that are involved in resolving the
conflict in your area?
a. If yes, which are they?
b. Are there any positive signs of achieving sustainable peace?
27. Whenever there was tension in the past between the farmers and the pastoralists
how was it resolved?
28. What is the role of the Government in;
a. Conflict and
b. Conflict management?
153
Section B: Personal information
The information you have given is strictly confidential as stated above. However,
the following questions form an important part of the research.
Q1. What is your age category?
a. Under 20
b. 20-29
c. 30-39
d. 40-49
e. 50-59
f. 60-69
g. 70 – or over
Q2. Your sex? Male/Female
Q3. What is your level of education attained?
a. No formal education
b. Primary school and less
c. Secondary school and less
d. College
e. Diploma
f. Degree
g. Post-graduate
Q4. What is your ethnic group?
a. Orma
b. Wardei
c. Pokomo
d. Others (please specify)
154
Q5. Please indicate whether you agree with each of the following statements by
answering (T) true, (F) false or (D) don’t know.
i. I found the interview very interesting
ii. The interview took too long
iii. I felt I did not have enough information
iv. I felt I did not have enough time to consider
v. Offering my opinions generally comes easy to me
vi. I answered the questions hoping the conflict will be resolved soon
vii. I don’t like being asked questions about the conflict
Thank you for completing this survey
Section C: Interviewer comments
1. Understanding
Complete – 1
Great deal – 2
Somewhat – 3
Little – 4
Not very much – 5
Not at all – 6
2. Consideration given to questions
Prolonged – 1
Careful – 2
Some – 3
Very little – 4
3. For what length of time did the interview appropriately last? ……….minutes.
4. Site of interview…………………………………
5. Date of interview…………………………………
6. Questionnaire number……………………………
I certify that I conducted the above interview, to the best of my ability and have
correctly recorded the answers given by the respondent.
Signed………………………. Date……………….
Supervisor………………….. Date…………………..
155
APPENDIX 2: STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRE
Section A: Instruction
1. This questionnaire is aimed at acquiring knowledge on the causes, impacts and
resolution of the conflict that took place in Tana River, Garsen division in the
year 2001.
2. You may not consult your friends your opinions are very important
3. Thank you
Section B: Personal Details
Age………………
Sex F/M…………
Ethnic Group (E.g. Pokomo, Orma etc.)……..
Form (e.g. 1, 2, 3, or 4)…………………………...
Section C
1. How did the conflict affect you?
2. Was your school attacked? a. Yes/No
3. If the answer is yes for question two (2) above.
a. Are there any students who died in your school as a result of the attack?
b. Please give details of the attack?
4. How are your marks per subject for the year 2001? (Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor)
a. Which term did you perform the worst during the three terms?
b. How can you compare your performance for the year 2000 and 2001?
5. For how long did your school closedown in the year 2001?
a. Which term was it (for Q5. above)?
156
6. What was the relationship among students from pastoralist families (especially the
Orma and the Wardei) and those from the Pokomo families?
7. Did your family move to another area during the period of the conflict?
a. If yes, where did you go?
8. Have your parents or guardian been able to pay fees for you as usual immediately
the schools were opened in the year 2002?
9. Were your teachers teaching normally in the whole of the year 2001?
a. Describe the situation
10. What do you think are the causes of the conflict?
11. What do you think should be done to attain sustainable peace in the district?
12. Were you involved in the conflict in any way?
a. If yes how?
13. Have you witnessed anybody who was been murdered during the conflict?
a. If yes what type of weapon was been used?
b. Do you still think about it or you got used to it?
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APPENDIX THREE: CHECKLIST FOR FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION
1. What are the causes of the conflict?
2. What are the types of conflicts in the Tana region?
3. What are the rules in the society used to guide the use of resources between the
farmers and the pastoralist?
4. How have the Pokomo farmers been able over the years, to build a force to
counter the pastoralists?
5. What need to be done to resolve the conflict once and for all?
6. What are the needs of the pastoralists?
7. What are the needs of the farmers?
8. What are the impacts of the conflict?
9. Who do you think should conduct the conflict resolution procedures? The
government, village elders, or some Non-Governmental Organization. Give a
reason for your choice.
10. What kinds of weapons were used in the violent conflict?
11. Did the community form an “army” to defend or attack the enemy?
12. What has been the local politicians’ attitude throughout the conflict period?
13. Do you consider yourself to be peaceful now that the conflict is inactive? What
led to this state of affairs?