Turkana Oil Discovery Gave Us Land Grabbers

An Oil Rig in Lokichar. Photo courtesy: Twitter

The anticipated oil development that was to flood Turkana County is turning out to be a blunder of historic proportions. Optimism in the face of a deadly attack by thieves of all proportions is not a thing even the cool-hearted of this world can hold on. Cautious optimism tinged with a huge dose of community aggressiveness, it seems, is what I will advise my people to bank on. Their ancestral land is being auctioned left, right, center by people entrusted to protect it. The number of anti-people deals signed up to now will scare you to your grave. Leadership in this oil county has just run amok. It has turned against the populace in a manner only reminiscent to those blood-thirsty, power-hungry dictatorial regimes we read in history books.

This is the story. The central issue here is about oil land. The set-up is in Turkana East and South Constituencies. The tipping point is who should allocate, partition, and/or transfer ownership of public land, and on what terms. The point of divergence is how our tipping point should be executed. Is the local community part and parcel of its execution? Can suspect boardroom talks and roadside signings stand as the legitimate voice and aspirations of the general public - especially with regards to land matters? What measures are there to lock out crooked minds who may want to use their power and connections to shortchange the demands of the community? We will get back to these points shortly.

While land grabbers elsewhere in Kenya tend to be more daring (sometimes resorting to the use of raw power) in their exploits, in Turkana the situation is quite different. Over there, they have effectively mapped out the weaknesses of the local community. They know for sure that; 1) the populace is gullible and unaware of the existence of any law that safeguards its interests, and 2) a majority of these people can hardly read and/or write and are anxiously waiting to see "development". These crooks know any mention of the word development will blindly endear the community to their ill-thought deals.

Look at what is happening. Approximately 300 acres of a prime community grazing area somewhere in Turkana South is already under the control of certain faceless "investors". Millions of dollars - it is believed - oiled this deal. How did it happen? The deal makers, of course under the cover of supposedly clever local sons and daughters, landed on this desolate village, picked up some two three wazees (old men) who could not even pin together the import of this charade, shipped them to a distant hotel, get them fed well so as "to taste the fruits of development", and finally have their fingers on paper. And alas, the community land was gone! Forever - I suspect.

Good people, this is just a slice of the whole cake. Right now Kainuk, Lokori, Katilu and Kapedo Divisions of Turkana South and East Constituencies will soon be declared "community wildlife conservancies". Proponents of this idea want us to believe that it is purely a community-centered initiative that will bring the much needed socio-economic progress in this sub-region. However a closer analysis of the "agreements" establishing these conservancies reveals something fishy. There is more to this initiative than community conservancies. Someone wants to render residents of these places strangers in their own land.

This is it. One, the "agreements" do not state where, when and how they came into being. Two, no coordinates or geographical specifications have been provided. The common byline is: There will be established this and this community conservancy. Three, the cracks within local leadership gives some nice political juice. Lodwar seems to be applying breaks on these deals. Political networks within the aforementioned constituencies are in top gear: they want these deals implemented like yesterday. Four, the constitutional safeguards that underpin the centrality of public participation have been thrown through the window. Over there, community is just a bystander. Deal makers' interests come atop the list. Painful experience!

What really scares me most in these exchanges is the requirement that they SHALL prevail notwithstanding the provisions of the yet-to-be passed Community Lands Act. Could there be some powerful forces outside this oil county pulling the strings? Perhaps yes. This, I think, explains why it has taken centuries for Parliament to pass a community-conscious Community Lands Act. The silence of local politicians really makes me believe they are either part of this scheme or they are gatekeepers for malevolent people. No true leader shall forsake her people when they need her most.

Just like that infamous Lenana Vs British Colonialists agreement of 1911 that kicked the Maasai people out of their ancestral land, the unchecked deal-making in Turkana County will eventually reduce the Turkana people to visitors with nothing - even an inch to call home.

Lodwar bureaucracy has failed to live up to the populace's expectation. It can't feign ignorance.  Local professionals' body is another entity that is too noisy, and rudderless. Its members - and leadership - are out of sync with the reality. They fence-sit and just shout when an anti-people deal is signed. Intellectual emptiness is their base.

Robustness, I believe, should be the way to frustrate such one-sided deals. Turkana people want hope and action.

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