Oil, Conservancy Land Deal A Travesty Of Justice

Aerial view of Ngamia 1 Oil Well, Lokichar. Photo Courtesy: TWITTER

The issue of oil discovery in Turkana is known to all. That Kenya is going to join the club of oil producing countries is no new fact. Some pundits have even projected that oil flow is set to commence in the next few years. As expected, many people are apprehensive of this new development. The hopes of communities living around Kenya’s oil wells are quite high. They see this as some sort of “oil miracle” that will catapult their fortunes.

Apart from this “oil miracle” brouhaha, one fundamental point remains unresolved. Unfortunately, some things don’t just add up. Here is the sticking point.

A scandal of historic proportions is unfolding in Turkana County. The impact of this man-made mistake will leave many people homeless and devoid of livelihoods. If unchallenged, this mistake will, undoubtedly, reduce many people to strangers in their ancestral lands.

This scandal is principally pushed by people whose determination is built on self-gain. They are fearless, and well-connected. They have set their eyes on one thing: They want a slice of the oil dollar. Worse still, local leaders are believed to have a stake in this plunder. Their silence sums it all.

Good people; the nomad in Turkana county stands to lose his land. He has been pushed to the peripheries of land management system. It must be noted that oil and gas exploration activity taking place in Turkana has left, and will leave many a nomadic people crisscrossing this vast county in pain. 

Let me redraw the map for you. About three-quarters of people living in Turkana depend on livestock. The southern part of the county is home to a huge proportion of herders. This is partly because the place has abundance of water and pastures. Besides, this part is where oil wells are located.

Now, you get the drift. Oil exploration poses a direct threat to the wellbeing of these herders. They know no alternatives. They cannot, and will never accept to be redirected to drier zones to pave way for oil exploration. Economic reasons spewed by pro-oil groups simply do not hold water. 

To be clear; this is not to dispute the benefits that come with oil discovery. It is a fact that many grey areas have not been cleaned.

Which beggars many questions: Who should enjoy unhindered access to this resource-rich sub-region? What parameters should be used to give a conclusive answer to this question? When were these parameters put in place?

And this is where the point of departure comes in. Local populations have scanty knowledge as far as land laws are concerned. Absence of a comprehensive Community Land Act has compounded the problem. How community land was allocated to oil companies remains a point of concern.

Animal watering points are under threat. Routes heading to these points have been barricaded and herders' movements restricted. 

To aggravate the matter, there is a well-crafted conspiracy, ostensibly popularized in the name of community conservancies, in order to dispossess people of their land. Some forces are busy selling this idea to the herders of Turkana South and East constituencies. They have organized a number of last-minute “awareness campaigns” to sanitize this one-sided deal.

Look, it is purely immoral for us to maintain silence in the face of this coup. The region’s high poverty level is emblematic of the politics of poverty predicated on shortchanging peoples’ collective dream.

The untold truth about this conservancy thing is out there for all to know. Its architects want to singlehandedly partition, consolidate and make a killing in name of compensation "just in case oil dollars start flowing."

This scramble must be stopped. Those behind it must face the truth. This deadly ping pong must not be allowed to stand.

Fundamentally, it must be understood that no one is against development. The people of Turkana know the centrality of development. On the same line, the people of this resource-rich county understand what meaningful development stands for. They have brains and feelings. They have interests to protect - and to be respected. They will never accept to be strangers in their own land.

The bottomline is solid: Existing oil and conservancies’ land deals must be streamlined to include the interests of the local community.

Lemukol Ng'asike is an architect. Twitter:  @mlemukol.