“RESOURCE UTILISATION, CONFLICT AND INSECURITY IN PASTORAL AREAS OF KENYA” Abdi Umar Kenya Pastoral Forum 1997 Contents 1. Conflict in Kenya’s arid areas – an overview 2. Conflicts in pastoral areas, roadside banditry, livestock rustling 3. Historical background to Resource conflicts in pastoral areas 4. Government attitudes to the conflicts, and conflict costs 5. Resolution of conflicts, institutions involved 6. KPF approach to conflict resolution 7. Capacity of local groups in the resolution of conflicts a paper for the USAID Organised Seminar on Conflict Resolution in the Horn of Africa, held at the Methodist Guest House, Nairobi, 27 - 29 March 1997 by Abdi Umar, Coordinator, Kenya Pastoral Forum PO Box 67533 Nairobi TEL 603303/606598 fax 606599 Email:
[email protected] KENYA PASTORALISTS 1 Kenya’s pastoral communities occupy three quarters of the countries total land mass, spreading out over the dry north-east, north-west, southern Rift and inland parts of the coast. Pastoralist’s occupy most of the border areas of Kenya, and pastoral ethnic groups straddle both sides of the borders with Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania. Estimates put the number of pastoralist’s at four million or about one seventh of the total national population of about 27 million. Pastoralist’s are divided into various ethnic and linguistic groups, ranging from the large and famous groups like the Maasai and the Somali, who number each in excess of half a million people each, to small and so far obscure groups numbering a few thousand. Pastoralist areas remain the least developed parts of Kenya. The economic disparity with the rest of the country is striking.