Conflicts Around Kenya Influencing Isiolo: Pokot

Conflicts within Kenya have existed for as long as Kenya has been a country, but the current rash of conflicts and problems across the country seems to hint at a government that is struggling to cope with disillusioned wananchi (citizens), fed up with bad governance, endless corruption, and policies that delay solving problems that have been hanging around since Independence and those new ones that are arising.

Here's a review of one of the current problems and how it affect the Isiolo area:
The Turkana-Pokot-Samburu conflicts in Turkana District and Western Laikipia.

Kenyan Pundit writes:
The Samburu return to Western Lakipia was slow and steady and remarkably peaceful but by the mid 1990s there were a number of Government led initiatives to burn Samburu houses and bomas and force them to go back North and East. None of these efforts to move the Samburu was very effective.

In the mid 1990’s large numbers of Pokot and their cattle also moved onto western Laikipia where for several years they coexisted peacefully as, Latia, neighbors, with only minor exchanges of small stock theft. But at that time the Pokot were carrying out increasingly effective cattle raids against the Turkana in South Turkana district... At that time guns and ammunitions were being sold to both sides to speed up the incentive for both Turkana and Pokot to step up their cattle raiding to both steal and recover from raids on both sides.

It took nearly twenty years but the Pokots with greater access to political protection and power vastly reduced the herds held by the Turkana. The bulk of the Turkana poulation was driven into towns. The raids of the Samburu by Pokot were initiated in the very late 1990s as Turkana was destocked and attention shifted from raiding Turkana to raiding Western Samburu.

The Pokot boasted that they would “urbanize the Samburu” the same way they drove the Turkana off their range lands. The past 3-4 years have been devastating to Samburu cattle herds with at least 11,000 herd being driven off by Pokot raiders without significant recovery or compensation. The raids are often described as reciprocal, mutual and traditional but in fact these days successful large scale cattle raiders require partnering with individuals who can support the raids with State Power.

Read the full article at: Historical context of Isiolo/Samburu raids/violence

Pokot raiders and cattle rustlers have had a very negative impact on the Samburu in Western Laikipia and Samburu District. Loss of their herds forces them (in traditional ideaology where having large herds is of upmost importance) to become increasingly involved in cattle raids of their own to rebuild their herds. This is detrimental to the security in Western Laikipia and Isiolo District. However, it is the fact that the Pokot are State Sponsored that is most troubling!

More recently, the Boran in Isiolo District, with the blessing of MP Kuti and President Kibaki, were given nearly 300 automatic guns to serve as "home gaurds" to protect the Boran herds, though they have since been accused of using the guns in raids on Samburu and Turkana herds.

With the Samburu trapped in-between two State Sponsored tribes, the Pokot and the Boran, what do you expect their reaction to be?

The fact that the Turkana near Isiolo (who have mostly small herds and do not control large swaths of land) have become involved and siding with the Samburu tells me that Boran and Somali aggression in Isiolo District has become intolerable and a threat to their land and life.