We must begin from where we must begin. I have in the last few days received a number of interesting questions - and commentaries on what ought to be done to foster long-lasting peace up north - that remote Kenya's wild north we commonly refer to as Northern Frontier Districts.
Keen observers of this segment of our nation will agree that there is a greater need to interrogate its dicey peace initiatives with a view to putting in place a constructive roadmap that will ensure peace and tranquility get a permanent footing in the hearts and minds of communities - and leaders.
A quick look into the past lays bare the ineffectiveness of gun-culture or the use of brute force and dependency on boots and bullets to restore some semblance of peace and order up north. Remember, it is fifty-plus years of independence and we still see no results.
Bloodletting still continues. Poverty is inflicting permanent, painful blows on the people. The political-social-economic links are disappearing. See, communities are in the middle of nowhere. Disillusioned. Hopeless. And with blurred future.
The light is here though: no more use of guns will soften the hearts and stifle the fingers of trigger-happy tribal militias in their never-ending killing spree in the wild north. We must explore other routes to contain this.
There is need to rethink, question, panel-beat and even discard some of these old fruitless interventions for the sons and daughters of northern Kenya to laugh and dance together.
And here is the message; water is the stabilising factor up north. It is the life-blood. It is the root-cause of all happiness or sorrow for its people.
People die. People get displaced. Check, for one solid reason: to get access to this vital resource. It is scarce and only those with muscles can comfortably "own" it.
Which brings us to center of our pool. Isn't it chimerically defective to believe that guns and bullets will be muted by opening more poorly-staffed police stations without addressing the underlying cancer that is the scramble for scarce water resources?
Look at this. Ask the Pokots and the Turkanas and the message will pop up; water scarcity is the cause of their primitive bloodbath. Move further north to the famous Baragoi's "valley of death" and still the line strikes again; water is the issue. Take a tour of Marsabit and the song is repeated; water scarcity is the cancer.
People want water. They know their peace and that of Kenya is inseparable from the ever-flowing cool streams of water that still remain a distant dream - a mirage.
This is a water-petition directed to the governors and politicos of these outlying counties. It is a show of trust that there is still room to make amends and chart a new way forward. That of abundance of water and happiness.
It is a message of the people, for the people, to the people’s representatives.
Apart from silencing the cacophony of AK-47s, water has that mystical power to retain a people in one place and lead to what we all know as urbanisation. Urbanisation is definitely a plus for a people who have never had the privilege of “enjoying” services like schooling and health – in one place. Isn’t this what is highly missing up there?
Again, over-reliance on relief food and government livestock off-take interventions is largely as a result of water shortage. Irrigation therefore, comes in handy. A shift to agriculture is no more an option but the only way to adopt.
Some good examples come to mind. Morocco’s dam policy of 1960s is credited for the transformation of the country’s economy to a successful all-inclusive agriculture-based one.
You see, these brothers across the Sahara decimated hunger and famine forty-years ago!
Is this the time for these outlying resource-rich but poor counties to make grand steps forward and put premium on the positive social-political-economical transformation attached to water? Are NFD Governors ready to pull together and put a closure to hunger-deaths and water-related conflicts?
Remember water is the way, the life and peace. Build dams NOW!
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