Violent cattle rustling is documented to have been happening in the North Rift in the colonial period. Reports indicate that by the 1930s cattle raids had become a menace, prompting the colonial government to impose arbitrary boundaries among pastoral communities.
This disadvantaged certain communities as evidenced by their complaints to the Kenya Land Commission (1932-1933), leading to resource conflicts among them. The land conflict was exacerbated by successive policies of the colonial government, which forcibly acquired land from pastoralist communities to establish White settler communities.
This relegated pastoral communities to unproductive arid and semi-arid regions. The Pokot, for instance, were forced from the rich dry season pastures in Trans Nzoia to create room for white settlement, leading to increased conflict with their neighbouring communities of Marakwet and Turkana. Cattle raids started to increase among the pastoral communities as a restocking measure to replenish stock killed by drought.
The colonial government saw the pastoralist way of life as primitive and it deliberately marginalised the communities. Subsequent economic marginalisation of the region led to the militarisation of cattle rustling and its transformation from a traditional practice to the current violent criminal activity.
This endemic marginalisation has led to an upsurge of cattle theft, manifested through intense inter-ethnic armed conflict caused by the presence of illegal small arms and light weapons, which the rustlers obtained from Uganda after the collapse of the Idi Amin administration. The national government’s attempt at disarming the pastoralists has faltered because of lack of a replacement strategy in lieu of cattle rustling for economic stability.
Efforts to curb insecurity include improved governance through the county system, education reforms such as free primary education or even manyatta education. But much is still needed through enhanced region-specific formal education, adult education, vocational training and entrepreneurial skills.
Compulsory but regionally supervised formal education makes young adults stay in school for long. This discourages them from engaging in criminal activities such as cattle rustling. A significant number of young adults in the region lack formal education. This group is active with lots of energy with nothing much to do.
Formal education at formative stages plays a pivotal role in shaping one’s life. However, there is still a huge gap in achieving formal education in the region. Challenges such as the availability of illegal small arms and light weapons need concerted efforts to resolve.
All stakeholders and the warring communities should be involved. The national government administrators must be involved in mobilisation and sensitisation of parents to take their eligible children to school.
For the primary school dropouts, the government should initiate and encourage the pursuit of free certificate courses to develop income-generating skills sets among the youth. This can be possible through building/equipping TVETs. The availability of these TVETs in the sub-locations, locations or wards will translate to low cost of training as the learners will minimise costs in rent or commuter.
The national and county governments should support learners who transit to secondary school to complete their studies. This will be possible through building/equipping sufficient schools and financing/subsidising the cost of education. NGOs, religious organisations and private individuals should be encouraged to contribute.
The national and county governments should support those in tertiary institutions and universities financially, through bursaries, grants and loans. Very few people who pursue education to tertiary levels engage in cattle rustling and other criminal activities.
In addition, extra-curricula activities inside or outside school premises can play a pivotal role in promoting peaceful coexistence. This is because the initiative will assist to discover, develop, nurture and nourish talents that will not only focus on entertainment and leisure but also is a way of generating income and wealth for the youth.
Adult education is another component of bringing about change in the communities.
In conclusion, the root cause of perennial cattle rustling in the region remains successive educational, economic and political marginalisation. Educating the warring communities is the better option, in the short-term to end idleness and in the long term to improve regional economic and political development.
This approach to sustainable peace and security, therefore, aims at imparting knowledge to the warring communities and exposing them to attitudinal change and holistic empowerment, as they integrate into the mainstream national economy. ‘From guns to pens is possible.’
