PASTORALIST CONFLICT, GOVERNANCE AND SMALL ARMS IN NORTH RIFT, NORTH EAST AFRICA:

Kennedy Agade Mkutu (1)

1 Department of Peace Studies [Bradford]

These 50-60% are found in Africa with largest number found in the North Eastern region. Pastoralism depends largely on the availability and access to water and pasture. However, pastoralism is under threat. This is due to a range of factors including weak governance; inadequate land and resource management policies; political and economic marginalization of pastoral groups. These have been initiated by the colonial regimes and continued by postcolonial governments. Increasingly cattle raids have resulted in insecurity fuelled by the proliferation of small arms and light weapons in pastoral communities. The thesis identifies several factors contributing to pastoral conflicts in North Rift, Northeast Africa (Karamoja, West Pokot, Baragoi, and Do! Dol Mukogodo) These include communal resource conflict at the local, district, national and regional levels.The increase in drought has drastically reduced the amount of water and pasture, available, thus escalating the vicious circle of cattle raids and counter raids. The drought has provoked greater need for movement and made clashes more likely. The situation is made worse by the weak governance or no governance in some areas. Official government structures or institutions of justice are conspicuous by their absence. The deficit has been substituted by a proliferation of vigilante groups of armed youth created either by the government or ad-hoc by the community. In recent years the areas have seen the emergence of local businessmen and warlords, whose economic activities span cattle raiding, small arms sales, drugs and who are at the - centre of incipient regional criminal networks linked to national networks Small arms are not the cause of the pastoral conflict; they have simply intensified the conflict. Since 2001 until now small arms have drastically dropped in cost. But the ammunition prices have tripled due to their scarcity. Small arms in the pastoral areas have since the 1980s negatively impacted the communities. Small arms injuries can be counted like the incidence of any disease, and from the figures it is clear that a public health crisis is mounting as the violence continues. The 5000 victims of gun wounds over 18 months in Nakapiripirit area alone should be viewed as a major problem. No common policy on intervention by the states is available. Attempts at interventions have been poorly coordinated and executed, too often taking a narrow definition of security that has focused on more or less coercive disarmament without focusing sufficiently on providing viable economic alternatives to those whose livelihoods have become dependent on the gun. Finally, traditional structures of authority within communities have been gravely weakened, as have some of the cultural restraints upon violence that operated in the past.

Mots clés: Kenya; Pokot; Turkana; Uganda; karamoja; Sebei; Jie; Conflict Small Arms; Vigilante; Disarmament; Security

Mots clés: Kenyan; Ouganda; Securite; Genre; Armes Individualles; Conflit

Domaines: Science politique

Kennedy Agade Mkutu. PASTORALIST CONFLICT, GOVERNANCE AND SMALL ARMS IN NORTH RIFT, NORTH EAST AFRICA: : The cases of Karamoja, Uganda; West Pokot; Dol Dot, Laikipia; and Baragoi, Samburu, Kenya. Political science. University of Bradford, 2005. English. ⟨NNT : ⟩. ⟨tel-01266773⟩