Using children and heifers for peace North Rift style

When Mary Kukat’s daughter Chesut informed her of her plans to spend a few days at her friend’s home in Longewan, Samburu during school holidays in September last year, the mother of six was devastated.

It was unimaginable because the Kukats are Pokots and their daughter’s friend, Denis Lesiaton, is a Samburu. The communities’ relationship has been characterised by animosity for decades. This was mission impossible.

However later, Mrs Kukat and her husband were forced to accompany their daughter on the visit after she insisted.

“Our attempts to stop her were fruitless. Her father and I had no option but join her on the visit only to protect her and not because we wanted to. There has been serious animosity between Pokots and Samburus. We were shocked when Chesut said she wanted to visit a friend in Samburu,” she says.

When they arrived in Longewan, the family of Mr Joseph Lesiaton was waiting for them after their son informed them they would be hosting a friend from another community.

“We could not sleep the whole night for fear of attack,” says Mrs Kukat.

Mr Lesiaton says he was surprised when his son told them a friend from a rival community would spend some days with them. “We didn’t know what to expect, yet we couldn’t do much to stop the visit because my son was adamant,” he adds.

Chesut was 13-years-old while Denis was 14. Both children were members of peace clubs a Non Governmental Organisation has established in various schools to foster peace among the warring Pokot and Samburu communities in the North Rift.

The NGO, Children Peace Initiative Kenya (CPI-Kenya), is using children to promote peace based on the belief a child’s friendship is genuine and sincere.

According to the organisation’s deputy director Monica Kinyua, the NGO moved to primary schools and formed peace clubs when they realised it was almost impossible to achieve peace with adults.

Through the clubs, CPI-Kenya paired Samburu and Pokot children and made them friends. The networks were later expanded to involved parents, families and now, their villages.

“The children have so far united four villages whose residents have been stealing each other’s livestock, fighting and killing each other since time immemorial,” says Ms Kinyua.

“People who could not set foot on each other’s land except during raids are now dining together, thanks to their children,” she adds.

Some of the villages that had been turned into battle fields but are now havens of peaceful include Longewan, Peleshian, Logorate and Lemaiya along the Samburu-Baringo border.

Longewan has been the scene for many inter-community clashes, cattle rustling, destruction and killings.

Ms Kinyua says most parents could not believe it when their children told them they would spend days in the homes of their friends from either community during school holidays.

From that time, many families have become friends and as a result, suspicions between the two communities have been fading fast. Families in the programme are even exchanging gifts including livestock and have become one big extended family.

“They are even sharing resources such as health centres, pasture and even watering points,” says Ms Kinyua.

CPI-Kenya director Hilary Halkano says the organisation also uses heifers to strengthen the new-found bond between these families.

Two families from either community are given one heifer which they are expected to look after and share benefits thereafter. To date, the NGO has given out 40 heifers to 80 families.

“We give the heifers as a gift the families because of the efforts of their children are making to foster peace,” says Mr Halkano who spoke at Longewan Primary School while handing over heifer to several families.

Ms Kinyua said they hope to influence more families into the peace initiative.

“Children are the new actors we have brought in to promote peace because they have been left out of such initiatives for a very long time.

They have not been give the chance yet in their own ways, they can contribute to peace in a very unique way,” says Ms Kinyua.

She said they Samburu and Baringo after a similar initiative among Borana and Gabra children in Marsabit County succeeded in 2011.