Paul Redfern
17 April 2008
London — Donors have been asked to stop funding NGOs working for peace in northern Kenya because the money has failed to do anything to reduce conflicts between pastoralist communities.
Moreover, governments in East Africa have been challenged to do more to stop the proliferation of arms in the region. They have also been urged to work jointly to disarm all militia groups to improve security in the region.
These are the conclusions of two new studies on the escalating conflicts across northern Kenya and Uganda which have claimed the lives of thousands of people in recent years.
In his book, Guns and Governance in the Rift Valley, published by James Currey, Mr Kennedy Agade Mkutu said there has been a massive increase in the number of small arms finding their way into the hands of pastoralist communities such as the Turkana, the Samburu and the Karamajong over the past 10 years.
Mr Mkutu said that in the Rift Valley alone, there has been a tenfold increase in cattle rustling over the past decade. And although Kenya "has one of the best examples of arms legislation in the Greater Horn of Africa, it still has major problems with illegal and legal small arms proliferation."
In another study conducted for the Oxford journal, African Affairs, Mr Dave Eaton argued that peace work in northern Kenya and Uganda is "big business".
"Each year, new groups are created, thanks to the generosity of major donors while others disappear due to corruption and mismanagement. This cycle has continued for decades and, despite an absence of tangible results, millions of dollars continue to flow into the bank accounts of peace groups."
Mr Eaton argued that the behaviour of peace groups has been "appalling" with "peace meetings often only held so NGOs can display an engagement with the conflict."
He concluded that many groups "are dominated by politicians who use money earmarked for peace work to fund their political ambitions." According to him, donors had failed to monitor progress made because they have accepted arguments that it is too dangerous to visit conflict areas.
Mr Eaton also argued that for many people in poor areas in the north of Kenya and Uganda, the money from peace groups is the only way to acquire desperately needed resources, but this money comes with conditions attached that have little or nothing to do with conflict resolution.
The key to easing conflict in the pastoralist communities is "proper, investigative policing," particularly with regard to cattle theft.
According to Mr Eaton, peace work needs to concentrate "on negotiating the return of stolen cattle and restraining the victims" rather than forlornly trying to address the root causes of conflict.
"The key to maintaining peace is to convince people to hand over stolen cattle to the other side. This is much more tangible work than abstract efforts to 'enhance livelihoods' and helps prevent local peace agreements from collapsing as well as laying the groundwork for future agreements."
Until this happens, Mr Eaton argued that "donor funding for peace work creates more problems than it solves and should be cut until new approaches can be adopted and better scrutiny provided.
Mr Mkutu agreed that NGOs were too often not interested in rural areas and "misrepresent the problem to donors." He said that too often "they may be driven by their own financial or political motivations" rather than the genuine need to address a pressing social problem.
But he also argued that a regional approach from the governments of Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Sudan was vital to tackling the issue. In his view, it was pointless to try and engage in disarmament of one pastoralist community if, across the border, the community's traditional rivals remained heavily armed.
Pastoralist communities buy arms because they feel the State does not protect them, Mr Mkutu argued. The result is an endless cycle of arms purchases, where the least armed community suffers the most. But it is not only the amount of arms which is a problem, according to the study.
"One spin-off from the problem of inequitable distribution of cattle due to raids is the creation of a pool of young warriors who are idle, armed and dangerous."
Mr Mkutu said neither Kenya nor Uganda had a policy strategy to deal with either small arms proliferation or conflict.
As a result, cattle rustling has "changed from being a means of survival to a commercial enterprise".
Without tackling the root causes of conflict or engaging in effective policing, governments have instead engaged in arming vigilante groups and local defence units.
But "instead of providing security, this fosters anarchy," Mr Mkutu argued, with arms increasingly used for criminal purposes rather than to provide security.
"The rise of semi-autonomous security forces is at the centre of bad governance and the inability of states to fulfil their responsibilities to pastoral communities," Mr Mkutu argued.
"By using vigilantes, States abdicate their role of protecting life and property. Even in Kenya, where the home guards are embedded in the constitution, they are not paid, which leads to their involvement in raids."
War zones
Such raids are escalating and concerns such as global warming leading to increased drought could increasingly turn whole swathes of northern Kenya and Uganda into virtual war zones if action is not taken soon, both authors argue.
Authorities in both countries must move towards protecting rather than punishing communities as this was the only way to restore confidence in the State.
"The present lack of confidence in the security forces has created mistrust, misunderstanding and hatred," Mr Mkutu says.
With no way to effectively police long border areas, the writer argued that only by engaging with local community groups can peace be restored.
"The community must be the eyes and ears of the security forces," Mr Mkutu concluded.
"Unless their cooperation is sought, attempts at managing small arms and cattle rustling will prove elusive. The solution thus requires a high degree of integration among the local, national and regional actors who undertake it.
"In the long term, the way to mitigate pastoral conflict and small arms proliferation is to develop and strengthen the institutions of governance to give people confidence that their differences can be resolved through peaceful means; a representative legislative process, a legal system that delivers justice without marginalisation of any tribe, responsive local government and the honest and efficient delivery of social services."
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