PEACE INITIATIVE BEARS FRUIT IN MARSABIT

The Marsabit Peace Restoration Committee is optimistic that structures they have put in place will ensure that peace is restored and that inter-clan skirmishes in Moyale constituency will calm down.

So far, the team led by former Speaker of the National Assembly Francis ole Kaparo and Garissa Senator Yusuf Haji, are happy the feuding communities have agreed to shun their rivalries and hostilities for the common good of the society.

As the peace initiative gathers momentum, the government has released Sh397 million for security operations, food relief and the rehabilitation of health and education centres to increase the residents’ access to basic services.

Kaparo says Sh170 million will be spent to help the displaced families rebuild their homes, reinforcing the government’s commitment to end the recurring hostilities among the Gabra, Burji and Borana.

The committee was constituted by President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto to seek ways of returning the region to normalcy so that the inhabitants remain cohesive and tolerant to one another, irrespective of their political affiliations.

Marsabit County has for close to one year witnessed  inter-ethnic  conflict  in  Moyale sub-county, where several lives have been lost, over one thousand homes destroyed, property looted, seriously affecting the communities’ social and economic lives.

Governor Ukur Yatani has thanked the Kaparo-led mediation committee for helping find a moral and political compass for the community even in the midst of adversity and disturbing situations, as parties in conflict are sometimes reluctant to embrace peace.

“I am delighted to note that our people are now slowly rebuilding their lives and re-engaging each other as neighbours, brothers and sisters,” he remarked. He rooted for consistent dialogue to end the skirmishes and ensure lasting peace. “We have set up a department of cohesion and integration in my office  to  support the peace and reconciliation process and relationships between the county and national governments have been strengthened to foster consultation and cooperation,” he says.

Francis Ole Kaparo

Yusuf Haji

This will help the community elders to consistently engage in dialogue and peace building, while resonating to the mechanism to promote cultural and ethnic cohesion as embodied in the Bill of Rights in the Constitution.

He urged the leaders to stay on course to push this process until the people harvest the dividends of full peace, tolerance and harmonious co-existence, so that at all times they will remain blind to ethnic and social divisions and stay tuned to development.

The county authorities, he disclosed, had set aside Sh60 million for reconstruction in Moyale and an additional Sh40 million for security and other infrastructural support to bolster the state’s effort in resolving the conflicts in the sub-county.

The leaders heard of grievances revolving around pasture and water, political representation and unequal distribution of national resources and the peace building team says the negotiations will address all these issues. All the elected leaders in the region have agreed to support the full implementation of the peace plan to empower all communities equally and erase the historical inequalities that sparked the conflicts. 

Insecurity in the two counties has been compounded by the proliferation of small arms through the porous borders between Kenya and Ethiopia and Somalia and the existence of militia gangs, according to the team.

The government has now partnered with the police and deployed the Kenya Defence Forces along the major highways leading to the troubled spots, including the roads to and from Marsabit County. 

President Uhuru Kenyatta recently met with the leaders at State House, Nairobi, where they agreed to pursue peace and tolerate one another for the sake of development. He also pledged to ensure that security is maintained in the region because the state has a social contract to safeguard the lives of all citizens and to ensure homogeneity.

“We remain grateful to the President for his intervention in engaging all political leaders of Marsabit County to nurture peaceful understanding,” says Governor Yatani. He is optimistic that the collective framework of engagement being guided by Kaparo and Haji, which gave birth to the Bomas peace agreement, will improve relations and lead to a healing process between the various communities. 

The Governor also commended all the elected leaders of Marsabit County for their dedication during the entire peace process and expressed confidence that lasting peace shall be attained for the good of all the people of Marsabit County.

According to Yatani, it should not be lost to the residents of Marsabit that sustainable peace is possible if sanity and civility is brought to the region’s politics, adding that it was possible if all the political leaders became acutely aware of the fact that they constitute a critical plank in sustainable peace architecture. 

“It is possible, if political leaders stop engaging in the business of undermining one another. It is possible, if our politicians embrace the wisdom of talking to each other and apply tolerance in their actions and if the political leaders learn to cultivate mutual trust among them and remain true to their calling,” he explains.