Be cautious in calling for military engagement in disputes

The violence that has flared up between the Turkana and Merille along the Kenyan border with Ethiopia in the recent past has seen the rise in popular agitation for military solutions to violations of Kenya’s territorial integrity.

Coming in the wake of President Museveni’s continuing provocations on Lake Victoria, and Al Shabaab raids on some Kenyan villages to the north east, a sense of siege is filtering into our psyche.

From the Prime Minister to MPs, to ordinary folk, we are hearing voices of brinkmanship like never before. Military solutions are being bandied around like candies at a school open day. Suddenly, the fact that our soldiers are not engaged in any war is turned into an accusation of complacence. Lest we be carried away by parochial exuberance, it is necessary that we think through our options before making potentially dangerous statements.

Our armed forces exist as the ultimate guarantor of our national integrity. If all else fails, it is expected the armed forces will need to be deployed to protect our territory. But to assess situational relevance of military intervention requires that we understand specific conditions we are dealing with.

The actions by members of Uganda People’s Defence Forces on Kenyan islands in Lake Victoria represent the most potent threat to international solidarity between Kenya and her neighbours. President Museveni leads the country that objectively is Kenya’s most useful friend.

Yet he is playing military games that are of absolutely no value to either his or our country. Perhaps he is attempting to draw attention away from the street rumblings that have arrived at his doorstep. Why he chooses a route that can cause severe problems to his legacy confounds many.

In the three theatres of conflict, the lake issue is the one that comes closest to requiring a threat of deploying our armed forces to protect citizens from unjustified incursions from a friendly country.

The bilateral harmony between Kenya and Uganda is the irreducible foundation of EAC and the pillar of regional peace in the Eastern and Central African region as a whole. Museveni must be informed of the risk his adventure is bringing.

And Kibaki must make it clear that our islands are something we may have to defend by the force of arms.
The problems around the Somali border have rightfully been dealt with by use of the regular police. Kenya suffers directly from the failure of the people of Somalia to govern themselves. We have a responsibility as a regional leader to help organise that sad country.

But beyond seeking to stop the flow of illegal immigrants and weapons from the territory, we must offer human solidarity to the victims of the continuing barbarity in Somalia.

This compounds our vulnerability to the violent groups that occasionally strike into our country. What we need is a combination of military vigilance and enhanced police presence to protect our people without acting as if we are at war with Somalia.

We must not forget that we are among the principal inventors of the group attempting to become a government of Somalia.

Along the Ethiopia border, Merille nomads have forcefully settled in Turkana territory. Before we raise war cries, we must remember that the history and practice of nomadic pastoralism has always entailed large groups of herdsmen moving across national borders according to the pastoral resource map of the different seasons.

Drought has often seen sections of Turkana and Pokot move to neighbouring countries. They have on occasion used arms against their hosts. Local politicians will raise war cries about foreign invasion into their territory. But they know that their own people are often the invaders when resources are better across the border.

What is required is a combination of disarming the scarcity-induced visiting tribesmen and reinforcing more peaceful sharing of cross-border pasture and water resources than crying wolf as if the Merille cousins of the Turkana have been sent by Menes Zenawi to start war with Kenya.

Violence in Turkana is a product of resource competition between communities that have traditionally shared the joy and pain of pastoralism.

The increasing pain is associated with declining ecological conditions and rising human populations. Such challenges will not be resolved by states flexing military might.

Our history of keeping the army in the barracks and using police for law and order has broadly served us well. Only failed states blur the boundary between defence and police forces. Certainly Kenya is not Museveni’s Uganda where soldiers beat up people for refusing to board matatus.