POKOT-TURKANA FIGHTS MERE CHIMERICAL ESCAPADES

Any mention of Pokot-Turkana "peaceful cooperation" has proved difficult and a hard-to-swallow-fact. Leaders and the populace, from these poor but warring communities have failed to internalise the simple understanding that peace is the way to go if prosperity is their vision and raison d'étre. 

Nothing can demonstrate this well than what I witnessed recently. A friend of mine “proposed” on Facebook that the only way to peace is for the people of Turkana and West Pokot Counties to accept each other as brothers.

The barrage of insults and commentaries he received for this brought to light the shallowness of brains and poor reading of history that has confined our people to continued state of senseless killings.

Some “educated” chaps went ahead to declare the “proposer” unpatriotic and blind to the fact that “our” people have nothing fruitful to share with “the other side.” For them the answer is simple and clear: people must rise and fight and kill and destroy “enemies” for peace to prevail.

For too long, all generations of leaders (especially the politicos) have blamed outside forces, understandably among locals, as the government of the republic of Kenya, for not acting and coming in the way of the people with a view to "protecting the people and restoring peace in the region". They assert that the supremacy of the State must be applied to make communities coexist peacefully.

Countless peace meetings have been held. Peace declarations have been made. Many more police stations have been opened up. Intermarriages have happened. Inter-community development programs have been launched. But the cancer of tribal killings still persists. 

These senseless fights have taken a toll order on both sides. Schools have been converted to rescue centers to shelter those running away from rain of bullets from bandits. Hitherto grazing and agricultural lands serve nothing else but to house tribal warlords reigning terror on poor defenseless villagers.

Away from the villages are found the so-called sons and daughters of the land trading insults, tossing glasses and counting the spoils of war. For them this has nothing to do with their way of life so long as their egos are fulfilled. 

Tellingly, this is a war of the elite, for the elite and with the elite. It is a manifestation of the insatiable greed of power and wealth. The poor, who in this case are just but tools of war, have nothing to boast of. You see, they only have their challenges to highlight!

Like the poor slaves who saw no need to run away from their masters, these victims have perfected the art of killing and maiming one another, all in the hope of chasing the other side so as to profit from the abundance of nature (read water and pastures). Nothing positive seems to be coming out of this. 

Isn’t it high time we dived to the deepest roots of the events I have highlighted above to attain a comprehension of the bad blood that characterizes the Pokot-Turkana people?

Get this from me: this enmity is premised on a false belief that militancy - and not mutual coexistence - against the other side is the surest way to victory over the other. And that this victory implies the necessity of destruction of the other side's strongest points, or by inflicting painful blows to "scare them away".

It is a complete antithesis of the principles of good neighbourliness. It is founded on poor leadership whose only "vision" is to speak fire. It is a fact we cannot run away from.

Until the top brass is painfully touched, the poor shall continue killing, maiming and destroying each other.

It is time people are told what they ought to know: That fights are mere chimerical escapades. They never materialize to fruitful peaceful friendships. They embody hatred and continued conditions of sufferance for the poor.

No government “donates” peace to its people. Peace "dished out" by government; and not conceived and promoted by the people is just ephemeral. It must be nurtured by the people themselves for it to stand firmly. 

We must talk and look for lasting solutions for the Pokots and Turkanas to enjoy the products of their lands!

The writer is an Architect. Twitter: @mlemukol. Email: lemoseh89@gmail.com .