Human ingenuity - we are told - is flexible. Sometimes it's timeless. By his natural construct, Man is thought to be the greatest risk taker. Testing new ways is his daily cake.
Now, how does this have to do with northern Kenya? Well, some of you who have been following the noises up there - centrally about security challenges - will definitely agree with some of us that disarmament - that security fallacy of seeking to mop up guns from people by force - is not the cure to the home-grown terrorism involving pastoralist communities.
Though the media - and Kenya's security honchos - loosely refer to this terrorism as "cattle rustling", "bandit attacks" or "culture-instigated killings", facts on the ground reveal something else. The historical "men-against-men contests" involving some fist fights to woo the beautiful lady in the village is no more.
Many factors come to the fore. One, education is yet to sink into these forgotten territories. This one should not worry us though. Devolution will completely deal with that. As we discuss, many schools are popping up in these areas. By the way, the so called CDF schools and now, county-funded schools are more than schools built between 1963 and 2003 (the year CDF was born)!
Two, politics practiced in these regions is still, to say the least, stone-age politics. Displacement and invasion are its outer cover. The inner thinking is purely elitist and one-sided. And we can see the results.
It has created a pool of "fighters" controlled by a clique of profiteers masquerading as leaders. Paradoxically, these so called leaders don't reside among their fighters. They commandeer the war train from the city - or those posh havens they call home. Displacement for them is the rallying call and way of life.
Three, national security engagement vis-à-vis these regions is predicated on a colonial philosophy of endless display of raw power and collective punishment. Many a times we see top government officials unleashing armies and police officers to "comb these areas and recover all guns".
The script has been the same since the white man created the human collection we call Kenya. Meanwhile, we cannot point out even a single positive score from these endless "operations".
Four, amidst this one-sided war economy, poverty is booming among its loyal "fighters". Desperation evident among the people of northern Kenya is enough to push a people-centered leadership to advocate for comprehensive anti-poverty interventions. What we see, however, is a far cry. More needs to be done - we hope.
Five, though it's silently told, this war machine could actually be benefiting some "philanthropists" operating up there. You know, continued sufferance creates more desperate people. More desperate people need "help" to survive. This "help", of course must be "marketed" to attract moneyed guys who may be willing to pour out some extra coins to "uplift the poor."
And so we ask: Who is really a good friend of these people? Should we bank our hopes on endless - fruitless - security escapades that have failed to contain this war? Mustn't we re-invent the wheel - for good?
I think we can do something to rewrite this story and restore hope to these "fighters". Personally, I feel we've had enough of "hard power" while trying to pacify northern Kenya. Perhaps we need to take a pinch of "soft power" to see what will happen.
One, diagnosing and curing the cancer that causes all other cancers is paramount. Poverty is the chief culprit here. Its biggest victims are women and children.
Hence my proposal: What if we exchanged the 250,000+ guns in the wrong hands in northern Kenya with money and train these people to make real their dreams using the cash?
Two, the patriarchal nature of communities in northern Kenya is proving to be the foremost hindrance to peace negotiations. Women, though on the receiving end of these conflicts, lack representation on the negotiation tables.
Couldn't it be wise to involve victims of war in peace building than banking our hopes on ego-filled, culture-backed male grouping that has failed to grasp the basics and build a peaceful society?
Women - more so pastoralist’s women - have all it takes to do what their men have failed to do - for years. They have peace in their hearts, minds and hands. Just rope them in.
Only two ways: "Money for guns" and women peace crusaders and northern Kenya will be pacified. Yes, only that.
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