Good governance & peace building

Pastoralists across Africa are trying to find new ways of exerting more political influence. They have resilient indigenous systems of self-governance and judiciary, systems that have in many areas managed to survive despite bad government administration and internal conflict. However they want better representation, more decentralised self-governance, and, most importantly of all, control over their land and access to resources for their animals.

Fighting for resources and land in Mandera District

The Somali pastoralist community of northern Kenya and Gedo region Somalia inhabit a particularly politically fragile and volatile cross-border area and with a long history of tribal conflict and war. Clan conflicts in Mandera District can be traced back to pre-colonial times, however, in 1992 and again in 1997 the local Kenyan government created new administration areas to gain votes from the different clans. This has altered traditional clan boundaries and resulted in major conflicts over management and access to water and pasture between two of the dominant clans in the region, the Murrule and the Garre.

In 2005 fighting between the two clans intensified with over 7000 families displaced and 300 deaths, mainly women and children attacked at their homesteads. Again this year, in October there was renewed fighting in the district between these two clans. This problem was exacerbated by Kenyan government military intervention with reports of military brutality, rape, looting and wide spread displacement of families.

Many pastoralists’ point out that their reliance on mobility makes them particularly vulnerable to conflict, which has cut off their access to key resources and blocked them from important markets. EPAG Kenya estimates that 90% of all inter-clan conflicts are caused by competition for watering points and pastures.

EPAG Conflict resolution and peacebuilding work

EPAG is working with pastoralists to support their access to resources through both political mediation and the promotion of democratic governance and clan stability.

With funding from Comic Relief EPAG Kenya has facilitated various peace meetings between the Garre and Murulle and supported the creation of a cross-clan committee to promote dialogue between the three major clans in the area.

Last year in Rhamu we held a gathering attended by 120 elders from the 3 major clans (Garre, Degodia and Murulle) to discuss ways of creating clan stability and reviving and reforming traditional Somali forms of governance and judiciary. However, renewed fighting this year is preventing EPAG from implementing its long term development work and persistent fighting over resources is undermining pastoralists ability to pursue their livelihood. EPAG is therefore currently sourcing funds to support pastoralist leaders to bring the two warring clans to the negotiating table in order to find a lastly solution to the conflict. We plan to start new negotiations with clan elders based on an approach that uses traditional Somali clan governance practices (XHER). Next year EPAG will organise two large pastoralist gatherings on conflict resolution and resource management. The aim of these gatherings is to review traditional mechanisms of governance and judiciary and bring together local, regional and national policy makers and pastoralists to find ways of working together on resource management and governance.