bringing imperialism back in || pastoralists & politicians in kenya

ROAPE Publications Ltd.

Pastoralists &Politicians in KenyaAuthor(s): John MarkakisSource: Review of African Political Economy, Vol. 26, No. 80, Bringing Imperialism Back In(Jun., 1999), pp. 293-296Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4006569 .

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Briefing: Pastoralists & Politicians in Kenya 293

security in that country. It looked forward to receiving further reports from the Secretariat's participation in the inter- national contact group on Sierra Leone. CMAG encouraged the provision of Com- monwealth technical assistance for the enormous challenges of national recon- struction which faced Sierra Leone, and urged member countries to make good the Comrnonwealth's pledge to assist the Government and people of Sierra Leone in this task.

CMAG's Future Work CMAG considered draft guidelines proposed by the Commonwealth Secretary- General to assist the Group in its future work programme. CMAG decided to refer to a meeting of Senior Officials the task of drawing up proposals for its future consideration on how CMAG could continue to strengthen democratic proc- esses and human rights in line with the Harare Declaration and in pursuance of its mandate.

The Gambia

CMAG reviewed the situation in The Gambia and agreed to continue to keep it under consideration.

Future Meetings

CMAG agreed to meet again by the end of September and on the eve of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Durban in Novem- ber to adopt its Report to CHO.

Pastoralists & Politicians in Kenya John Markakis

'North-Eastern Province Members of Par- liament have Moi on the ropes' was the curious headline that appeared in the weekly The People (Nairobi, 17-23 April 1998). Even more curious was the fact disclosed in the article that most of the parliamentarians involved were members of the ruling party, KANU. The rift between them and President Moi appeared when MPs from the Somali-inhab- ited North-Eastern province proposed to form a parliamentary caucus bringing together members of parliament repre- senting all pastoralist areas in Kenya across party and ethnic lines. The avowed aim was to defend the interests of Ken- ya's pastoralist population by forging a united front transcending political and tribal divisions. This unprecedented at- tempt to bring pastoralism into the main- stream of national politics seemed to worry the government leadership, which tried but failed to obstruct it.

There are several reasons for this failure. A relative thaw in the political system in Kenya during the last few years played a catalytic role by loosening the authoritar- ian grip of the ruling party, emboldening the opposition, and presaging the end of Arap Moi's long reign (see R. Southall, ROAPE No. 75, 79). The 1997 elections brought a group of young professionals into politics to represent pastoralist areas. They include medical doctors, engi- neers, teachers, lawyers and development specialists; the few who managed to overcome the handicap of their pastoralist background. They are mostly new- comers to politics, without strong ties to political parties, but keen to work within the system to end the isolation and neglect that has been the legacy of the state in the pastoralist habitat. One may well ask why would a doctor - a rare species in that habitat - want to become a



294 Review of African Political Economy

parliamentarian? Because a doctor can- not practice where medicines are not available, is the reply. The sensitivity of the novice politicians was sharpened by the activities of the Kenya Pastoralist Forum (KPF), another Kenyan innova- tion, which has succeeded in placing the pastoralist predicament on the national political agenda. The KPF was formed in 1994 through the joint efforts of NGOs and local activists who served their ap- prenticeship working for the former. It was designed to act as a link and provide co-ordination for organisations involved in pastoralist affairs and to advocate on behalf of pastoralist interests. Led by highly motivated and capable young people and funded by NGOs, the KPF developed a modus operandi that com- bines education with agitation, intended to raise popular awareness and bring pressure to bear on the state. Needless to say, it soon fell foul of state officials.

The KPF's main activity is the organisa- tion of meetings where the main prob- lems confronting the pastoralist world are aired. Tribal elders, educators, local officials, members of parliament, and cabinet ministers are invited to these meetings, where discussion has become increasingly uninhibited and criticism of state policies is a matter of course. Landholding rights are a prime topic of discussion. Land grabbing by the ruling class in Kenya has reached such propor- tions that it is hardly considered illegal. 'Is it a crime for one to own a piece of land in this country, whether it is government or forest land?' asked the Minister of Natural Resources recently when he was accused of this practice (Daily Nation, 11 December 1998). Part of the land in the arid region is classified state land and comes under the exclusive control of the central government. The Ministry of Lands and Settlement controls its allocation, and does so without the consent, or even knowledge, of the local councils. The bulk of the land in the arid region is classified Trust Land and is allocated by District Land Boards chaired by District

Commissioners. The process of allocation at this level is open to widespread abuse, and according to the KPF, excess population from the highlands is channelled to the arid lowlands whose population is increasing at an unprecedented rate. As a first step towards reclaiming pastoralist land rights, the KPF is campaigning for the conversion of all state land into trust land and the abolition of Land Boards. It is also agitating against the practice of Land Adjudication, the opening wedge leading to the privatisation of land in the pastoralist domain. Land adjudication was successfully applied in Masailand where, following the failure of the Group Ranching Schemes, land was adjudicated, that is divided, among various claimants. In 1996, a presidential directive ordered the adjudication of land in Isiolo district, and President Moi himself visited the town to promote the scheme. The KPF organised a visit of Somali and Borana elders from this district to Masailand to see for themselves the consequences of land adjudication (privatisation). They returned saying:

The Masai have no land, only pieces of paper. They are not a people anymore. They don't even have a communal tree to meet under.

Public reaction in Isiolo forced the with- drawal of the presidential directive. In August 1997, the KPF organised its an- nual meeting in Lodwar in Turkana district. The parliamentary seat in that district was held by a Turkana who, having failed to be selected as KANU's candidate, defected to the opposition Ford-Kenya party. The meeting was to discuss cross-border security and the perennial conflict between the Turkana and the Karamajong. The then Director of External Intelligence in Uganda, a former Minister for Karamoja, was invited to attend. A couple of hundred people were gathered in Lodwar and local officials were making hasty preparations, when an order came from Nairobi to ban the meeting. The District Commissioner de-



Briefing: Pastoralists & Politicians in Kenya 295

clared it illegal on the grounds that foreign officials had been invited without regard to protocol, and the Ugandans were turned back at the border. Subse- quently, Moi gave KPF a publicity boost by denouncing it as a subversive organi- sation and a tool of the opposition.

After the 1997 elections, the MPs from northern Kenya prepared to form a caucus to be called the Northern Parliamen- tary Group, following the example of other regional groupings in parliament; for the Rift Valley, Western Kenya, etc. In April 1998, the KPF invited the parliamentarians to a joint meeting at Lake Navaisha. When he heard of it, Moi summoned the KANU members of parliament from the north and ordered them not to attend. A heated discussion fol- lowed, and the MPs took the opportunity to air their grievances. The Somali com- plained of the 'screening' their people in North-Eastern Province have to undergo in order to prove they are Kenyans and entitled to passports. The Somali also believe they are not getting a fair share of the 'national cake', because they have fewer posts in the central government than the Masai and Kalenjin. Moi told them the Navaisha meeting was not in KANU's interest, and asked why Masai and Kalenjin MPs were not invited to join the pastoralist caucus.

In the event, the meeting in Navaisha went on despite the presidential injunc- tion. Sixteen members of parliament were present, eleven of them KANU members. One of them, a Turkana, was Assistant Minister of Labour, while another, a Samburu, was the chief whip of parliament. The rest belonged to Safina, Ford Kenya and the Democratic Party. They included Somali, Samburu, Turkana, and the sole Masai MP elected by the opposition. Out of loyalty to Moi, no Kalenjin MPs participated. Lasting two days, the meeting proved eventful. It produced a list of resolutions that summarised the pastoralist predicament in a forthright and concise form. More significantly,

they put forward daring, but not imprac- tical, proposals to deal with it. These were presented in a memorandum to the government and the public.

Concerning land, it was recommended that all relevant legislation be amended 'in order to give the outright ownership to the pastoralists'. Possession of title deeds would then enable herders to get loans from financial institutions. The Mining Act also should be amended to allocate a share of the revenue to the local people. At an earlier KPF meeting in 1995, pastoralist education, perhaps the most intractable issue, had been thor- oughly discussed, and the Navaisha meeting was able to draw on this experience. The memorandum pointed out that the main reason for the inadequacy of state education in the arid region is the allocation of funds on the basis of population size rather than need. As a result, sparsely populated districts in the arid region with woefully inadequate facilities re- ceive funds sufficient only to maintain the status quo. The Navaisha memorandum asked that funds be allocated according to the number of needy people in the districts. The thorniest issue of all, of course, is the kind of education that is suitable in the pastoralist habitat. The 1995 meeting wrestled with this issue, but failed to come up with concrete proposals. Likewise, the Navaisha meetings' recommendation that 'nomadic education be included in the school curricu- lum' was quite vague.

Another issue that hinges on population size is electoral representation. The dis- parity between densely populated highland constituencies and sparsely populated ones in the lowlands is a topic of heated political debate. It is widely expected that the next review of constitu- ency boundaries due in 2007 will reduce the pastoralist representation to a hand- ful. To pre-empt it, pastoralist repre- sentatives argue that land size, dispersal of population, and the state of transport and communications within constituen-



296 Review of African Political Economy

cies ought also to be taken into account. They point out it is far more difficult for a member of parliament in the arid region to visit and consult his constituents, than it is for his colleagues in the highlands. The memorandum drafted in Navaisha boldly demanded the creation of more constituencies in the arid region by sub- dividing existing ones; in other words, an increase in the number of MPs from the arid region which, after all, represents about two-thirds of Kenya's territory. The memorandum also asked for the creation of more districts in order to make administration more efficient and bring government closer to the people. The underlying reason for this demand is the fear that in some districts the indig- enous pastoralist population is becoming outnumbered by immigrants from the highland, and risks becoming marginalised in its own homeland. The Navaisha memorandum further asked that National Parks be converted into game reserves, so that local communities can benefit from tourist revenue. It asked for the setting up of a livestock development board, and the provision of roads, communication facilities, electrification, water supply, abattoirs and marketing facilities in pastoralist areas. Finally, it asked for a special police force to combat banditry, and a special border force to stop cross-border raiding.

The meeting set up the Parliamentary Pastoralist Group (PPG), and invited all members of parliament from pastoralist constituencies to join. After they returned from Navaisha, KANU members of the PPG were called by President Moi to a meeting, where they had the opportunity to present their memorandum. Within months, the PPG's membership grew to 36, as MPs from other pastoralist communities (Borana, Masai, Rendile, Pokot, Orma) joined, irrespective of party affilia- tion. It was now a political force to be reckoned with, as was shown when it proposed an amendment to the draft law setting up a Constitutional Commission. The PPG asked for a pastoralist repre-

sentative to be included in the membership of the Commission, and threatened to vote against the law otherwise. The government was forced to give way, and further tried to mollify the PPG by appointing its Chairman, a medical doctor and KANU member, Assistant Minis- ter of Health. For the time being, the PPG appears to have resisted the divisive impact of political partisanship. Ethnic rivalry is another recognised threat to its cohesiveness, and certain steps were taken to blunt its force. For example, the pastoralist representative to the Constitutional Commission will not be selected by the PPG itself, but will be chosen by professionals from pastoralist areas. The Navaisha meeting spent some time dis- cussing majimbo, the hotly debated notion of re-introducing federalism in Kenya. Majimbo is suffused with the potential for ethnic contention, and since no common ground could be found at the meeting, the subject was dropped.

Meanwhile, tribal strife reached new extremes in northern Kenya. In Novem- ber 1998, two to three hundred Degodia Somali were reported massacred in North- Eastern Province and thousands of their cattle was stolen. The identity of the perpetrators was not known for certain, at least not in Nairobi, and the ensuing speculation illustrates the tangled web of geopolitical relationships in the Horn of Africa. Many fingers pointed to the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) which wages war in southern Ethiopia against the regime in Addis Ababa, allegedly with support from the Borana Oromo pastoralists in Kenya. The OLF attack was said to be in retaliation for an earlier Degodia raid on the Borana. Alternatively, it was said to be an Ethiopian attack to punish the Degodia for alleged incursions into that country. Other Somali clans were among the suspects, as were plain bandits of unknown provenance. In the havoc cre- ated by tribal strife, the PPG members will need extraordinary political skill to maintain solidarity.



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