By Betty Luke
A program seeking to unite Turkana and Samburu communities living in Isiolo and Samburu East has been launched, with peace stakeholders from both counties calling for peaceful coexistence between the ‘historical foes’.
Yesterday’s over 20-kilometer peace walk from Ngaremara ward which hosts the Turkanas to Sereolipi village in Samburu County offered a space for dialogue and bonding between the two communities.
Convened by Strategies for Northern Development (SND), a local Non-Governmental organization, the walk also sensitized residents to the dangers of incessant conflicts among themselves and called for sustainable solutions to the challenges the two communities face.
SND representative Charles Lomali said “The walk is meant to help them interact and share ideas that can benefit themselves and be replicated in other warring communities across the country,” said Mr Lomali.
The organization, according to the official, had established that inadequate water and pasture for the animals were the greatest causes of intercommunity clashes and had come up with different projects to remedy the issues.
He said they chose to begin with the two communities before engaging the rest who were also affected as past research showed the pair were the most affected by incessant conflicts.
“It would not have been possible for us to engage all the communities affected by banditry before first uniting these two. We are planning to bring all the affected communities in the neighboring counties together in our quest to ensure a peaceful society,” he told The Press Point.
The, Initiative for Peace project is funded by the Scottish Government through Oxfam and the Asal Humanitarian Network (AHN).
A resident Asha Lekudere hailed the initiative saying residents were living in constant fear of attacks and called for concerted efforts from all actors to end the vice.
“Every month we are in someone’s home to comfort them for losing either their son or husband to banditry. The killings must end,” she said.
Samburu Woman Representative Pauline Lenguris who flagged off the caravan said it was unfortunate that while organizations were spending millions on development projects in other areas, those in Northern Kenya were spending huge monies on peace initiatives.
She said the conflicts had seen leaders labeled as thieves by the government and called on the Morans to quit the retrogressive culture of livestock theft and senseless killings.
“Women are tired of losing their husbands and sons. This needs to stop immediately. Money spent today could have sunk a borehole to enable someone to venture into farming,” she told Morans at the climax event within Sereolipi town.
The politician called on the organizations to offer sustainable sources of income to the young men to ensure they were engaged so they could completely cease banditry.
AHN Coordinator Ahmed Ibrahim pledged that the network was committed to creating awareness so that the communities view each other as neighbours and not enemies.
Also present at the caravan was Oxfam communications lead Joseph Odongo, Isiolo Sub-County DCC Patrick Musango and his Samburu East Counterpart Stanley Kimutai and several ward representatives from Samburu, Isiolo and Laikipia.
The caravan comes barely two months after ward representatives from the two counties entered into a peace pact and promised to work closely with state organs to end banditry that had led to the loss of lives and property as well as collectively champion the interests of their people.
