The government has abandoned us, so we resort to self-defence

Every few months, one is bound to hear the now familiar story of Pokot warriors attacking villages in Baringo County, killing people and stealing livestock.

Consequently, the community has earned a reputation for being warlike.

But what is the reason behind these hostile activities.

Are the Pokot inherently violent, or is there more to these recurrent episodes of savagery?

Last year, more than 400 residents of Mukutani Division in Baringo South Sub-county were forced to abandon their homes after a clash between the Pokot and the Tugen.

At least 23 houses were burnt after 2,500 heads of cattle were stolen, reportedly by Pokot bandits.

As recently as two months ago, cattle rustlers shot dead a retired chief at Loruk village in Sibiloi Location, sparking another round of fighting between the Pokot and Tugen.

The story in Loruk is that it was the Pokot who started it.

Kapedo and Baragoi are names that evoke an unnatural fear of the Pokot whenever they are mentioned.

In 2012, more than 40 police officers and reservists were killed by bandits in Baragoi and two years later, 21 administration police officers were killed in an ambush by bandits in Kapedo.

In fact, much of the blood of the nearly 200 people killed by cattle rustlers in Baringo County since 2005 is traceable to the Pokot.

Of course, the nuanced version of the story reveals that each of the communities fighting the Pokot, namely the Ilchamus, Tugen and even the Turkana in the North, also have blood on their hands.

Vilified community

Across the border in Turkana County, similar stories make headlines every day, with the latest being the massacre of more than 50 people in Nadome village on the Turkana-West-Pokot border.

But even though both the Turkana and Pokot were to blame in the May 2015 incident, no community is as vilified as the Pokot.
A few members of the community living in the heart of the troubled land have come out to explain why their young men have opted for this path of deadly violence.

"We are not monsters,” says Nakan Alube, a resident of Paka Village in Mondi Division. “But we might as well be, because the government that claims to be for us has systematically worked against us.”

Speaking during one of many peace meetings organised recently in the county by the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), Mr Alube and other villagers attempted to shed light on the situation.

He said the marginalisation of the Pokot in terms of resource allocation and political under-representation is what has led to bitterness within the community.

“When people are pushed to the limit, there is no limit to what they are capable of doing,” he said.

He recalled a time when the Pokot, Tugen and even Turkana, lived in harmony.

It was a time of plenty, when each community had plenty of water and pasture for its animals.

But the combination of changing climatic conditions and a skewed political system resulted in the Pokot receiving the short end of the stick.
“The Turkana started the attacks many years ago.

They had guns, which gave them an advantage over the rest of us.

They attacked us and pushed us from the fertile hills, so we were forced to encroach on the Tugen’s land due to fear,” Mr Alube offered.

He blamed the government for neglecting the region and coming in only after the conflicts had got out of control.

He said the reactionary nature of the security operations, which do not take into consideration the historical roots of the problem, had contributed to the negative image of the Pokot.

“Our neighbours steal from us and kill us and we wait for the government to come to our rescue but no help comes.

But the moment we take matters into our own hands, the government is quick to come.

It doesn’t even find out who started the fighting. What is wrong with avenging myself?” he asked.

“So we concluded that the government is not for us. It doesn’t like us. Why doesn’t it tell the aggressors to stop the attacks? Even if they are the ones getting killed, it matters that they started it.”

Had the government taken time to find out the source of the conflict and who started it, this problem would have been solved a long time ago, he says.

“We were pushed to the limit and had to hit back.

But it is only after we started fighting back that the government noticed, and of course, we were obviously seen as the guilty ones,” added Mr Alube.
But resolving the conflict in Baringo and reedeming the name of the Pokot will not be achieved by simply finding out who is at fault.

A deeper and more systemic problem threatens to keep this region in a warring state for decades to come – the community’s marginalisation in terms of development and political representation.

According to the acting district officer for Mondi Division, Robert Kanyakira, the media are largely to blame for portraying the Pokot in a negative light.

“Only a few bandits terrorise each other but the press reports it as if there is ethnic cleansing going on here. Such generalisations do not help anyone,” he said at a peace meeting in Chemorir.
He added that lack of development in the areas inhabited by the Pokot, and the great progress being made in the neighbouring areas had made the community bitter.
“People are suffering, we have infrastructure for schools but no human resources. We have structures for clinics but no doctors or medicine,” he said.
Pointing to two shallow water pans a few metres from the venue of the meeting, Mr Kanyakira said lack of water was the greatest source of conflict in the area.
Ironically, he added, water was also the most ignored reason by the government whenever people talk of bringing peace to the region.

“These two dams you see are the only sources of water for Chemorir Sub-location. The nearest permanent water point is in Kiserian, more than 100 km away. All around us you have to fight your neighbours in order to access water,” he added.

One result of the dwindling water sources and the pollution of the drying-up water pans is the proliferation of diseases, which is made worse by the lack of access to healthcare.

“Typhoid is common here because of the dirty water. Just check the records at Nginyang Hospital. The nearest referral health centre is at Chemolingot, more than 30 kilometres away, and if not there, Kabarnet,” he said.

During the conflicts in Baringo County, the Pokot have been blamed for the attacks, with little said concerning their plight.

One reason for this could be that few people care about their rights, and in the process, the grievances of the Pokot have gone largely unaddressed.

The villagers who showed up for the peace meetings organised by the NCIC last month showed a willingness to give peace a chance.

But they were also firm in their resolve that no one should expect peace when development and resources proliferate in one community while the other has to make do with crumbs.

Meanwhile, the Pokot continue to be feared and demonised for the sins of the young men who take matters into their own hands in the name of protecting and providing for their own.

They resort to crime because they have been denied the chance for a good education and are growing up in a semi-arid area that can no longer sustain productive pastoralism.

The forces of nature, coupled with political segregation, continue to work against a community that will do whatever it can to survive.

And as long as the situation remains the same, it should not be surprising if the hostility persists.