Africa, Development & Aid, Headlines, Human Rights, Indigenous Rights, Migration & Refugees, Population, Press Freedom

POLITICS-KENYA: An Intractable Land Dispute Grinds On

Najum Mushtaq

NAIROBI, Mar 19 2008 (IPS) - More than a week after the launch of an army operation to flush out the Sabaot Land Defence Force (SLDF) in Mount Elgon, a district along the border with Uganda, the fugitive chief of the outlawed militia has reportedly urged an end to the campaign, but remained defiant towards government.

"The security officers are looking for something they cannot find. Why are they hurting civilians?" said John Kanai during a phone interview with Radio West FM that received coverage from other media; the station is located in the border town of Bungamo.

He is also said to have called on authorities to push for a resumption of peace talks between the elders of two rival Sabaot sub-clans in the region: the majority Soy group in whose name the SLDF operates, and the Ndorobo sub-clan – a target of SLDF activity.

The radio interview came after the Mount Elgon district commissioner, Mohammed Biriki, gave militiamen an amnesty period of a week to surrender their weapons.

A television journalist based in Kitale, the main city in the adjoining Trans Nzoia district, told IPS that Biriki&#39s announcement meant government believed there was now sufficient pressure on militia members to make them lay down arms; the offer of amnesty expires Friday.

"There has been no noticeable resistance from the rag-tag militia since the start of the operation," said Eric Otieno. "They are either on the run or under arrest."


The SLDF chief&#39s interview, however, suggests that the grouping might prove more resistant than anticipated to the operation, which began Mar. 10 and has seen a door-to-door search for SLDF members in the Cheptais division of the Elgon district – and accompanying aerial attacks by helicopters on suspected militia hideouts along the Lwakhakha and Cheptais Rivers.

Eight people have apparently died in the campaign, while hundreds of families have been forced to leave their homes. In addition, more than 300 suspected SLDF members have been arrested during the operation, which the local media have been barred from monitoring; 150 detainees have been formally charged with having links to the SLDF and promoting violence.

Most of the detainees were arrested on the farm of a former member of parliament for Mount Elgon, Davies Nakitare, who was himself given an ultimatum by police to surrender. Other prominent arrests include those of two local chiefs, a senior police officer and several teachers for allegedly providing support to the militia.

Response from civil society

Human rights organisations and the media have strongly criticised the secrecy and severity of the army operation, as well as the alleged harassment of the civilian population and the detention of newspaper and television reporters who tried to enter Cheptais.

"We have no major issue with the military trying to disarm and capture militiamen," Mutuku Nguli, director of Peacenet, a network of development groups, said in an interview with IPS. "But, we have an issue with the violations of human rights in the process of doing that."

Referring to the denial of access to the media to cover the military campaign, Nguli noted that "What the operation wants to achieve must be within the parameters of transparency, accountability and civility. Secrecy and the suffering of the civilian population will not help achieve those objectives."

He believes that while the military may be able crush the SLDF, it "cannot sort out the problems which ignited this conflict in the first place."

These, he added, stem from historical injustices to indigenous people, use of land for political patronage and neglect on the part of successive Kenyan governments in addressing these issues.

Chronology of the conflict

The seeds of conflict in Mount Elgon were sown in 1965 when the government of founding president Jomo Kenyatta decided to resettle Ndorobo families which had been forced by colonial authorities to move to Chepkitale, near the top of Mount Elgon – this in the 1950s.

Originally, 690 Ndorobo families from Chepkitale were to be settled at Chebyuk farm on the southern slopes of the mountain, an area that previously formed part of the protected Elgon forest. Each family was offered about two hectares (five acres) of land, although they had demanded an acre in Chebyuk for every acre left behind in Chepkitale, which was transformed into a game reserve.

It was not until 1974 that the land was allotted by a government committee. By that time, Ndorobo families from Chepkitale had invited 300 Soy families to the area in a bid to lay claim to the whole of Chebyuk.

Relations between the two Sabaot sub-clans were good initially, with Soy and Ndorobo elders agreeing that the Teremi River in lower Chebyuk would constitute the boundary between the communities.

Under the 1974 resettlement, Ndorobos received 65 per cent of the land, while Soy families were given the remainder. Chebyuk was to be divided into three portions, referred to locally as "phases": land in phase one and two was intended mainly for Ndorobos, phase three for Soys.

However, land tenure remained uncertain and subject to official review which was done in every election year, leading to Chebyuk becoming a political tool in the hands of local politicians and civil servants.

"In spite of the official policy of land privatisation and the issuing of title deeds in Kenya, this policy was never finalised in Chebyuk. The lack of official documents to prove land ownership did not prevent land transactions, however," said academic Claire Medard, author of &#39Indigenous land claims in Kenya: A case study of Chebyuk, Mount Elgon district&#39.

"Those who were given land by the government started in turn to allocate land to others. Some people borrowed, others rented, and others bought land," she told IPS.

With Ndorobos selling or renting their property to Soys, the latter gradually took over much of the land. Many Ndorobos were reluctant to farm their properties, preferring to maintain their hunter-gatherer culture; some even returned to Chepkitale.

Over the next few years, the land changed ownership many times. In addition to Soys, members of other tribes settled in Chebyuk – with increases in population intensifying the struggle for resources, and fuelling inter-clan rivalry.

In 1987, Ndorobo allegations about illegal Soy settlement concerning the first two phases of the Chebyuk scheme led to the re-examination of this initiative by the government of then president Daniel arap Moi.

Two years later, the administration settled Ndorobos in a bid to complete allocation of phase one and two land, which ultimately involved some 1,170 Ndorobo families.

However, Soys were evicted in this process: having bought property informally from Ndorobos, they possessed no records of land ownership that might have enabled them to remain in the areas they inhabited. Land provided to Soys under the third phase of the Chebyuk allocation – and which they had occupied – reverted to the forestry department to be replanted with trees.

Resentment among Soys over the Moi government&#39s refusal to heed their grievances led to tribal clashes in the area in 1992. The violence forced Moi to revive phase three of the Chebyuk scheme and allow a thousand Soys to settle. In 1993, the Soy settlers cleared another square kilometre of the Elgon forest to bring in more families.

Once more, title deeds remained elusive – and yet again, transactions in land continued, amid further enmity and occasional clashes between Soys and Ndorobos.

In 2003, the ruling National Rainbow Coalition of Mwai Kibaki made another attempt to settle the issue. Assisted by Soy and Ndorobo elders the government vetted 8,000 people, but selected only 1,732 as genuinely deserving resettlement in land designated under phase three.

Moves were made to have Ndorobos and Soys share land equally in 2006. However, these were resisted by the Soy, who claimed ownership of the land – setting the stage for the SLDF&#39s formation that year to mount armed resistance against the land allocation. Since then, it has virtually controlled the area with its militant tactics, and expanded its activities into neighbouring districts.

Over the past two years, more than 600 people have been killed in SLDF attacks and over 60,000 displaced, according to United Nations statistics. The conflict is now no longer confined to Soys and Ndorobos, having spread to other clans.

A matter of political will

Peacenet&#39s Nguli claims that decisive political intervention could have prevented the problems at Mount Elgon from escalating into a complicated, many-sided conflict – noting that it was not until as late as 2007 that these difficulties were put on the agenda of parliamentary proceedings.

"Throughout this period, violence in the region was confined to two factions of the Sabaot ethnic group distinguished by their topographical locations: the Soy of the lowlands and indigenous Ndorobos of the highlands. However, since the formation of the SLDF in 2006 demanding eviction of the Ndorobos and other settler communities and resettlement of Soy families, the scope of violence has increased manifold."

"There has been an utter lack of political will and intent to solve the problem," he added. "An amicable settlement could have been reached much earlier had the central government taken due interest. Even now, a political solution is warranted and can work better than the military option."

For Kenya&#39s coalition government, led by Kibaki and prime minister-designate Raila Odinga, the Elgon conflict is just one of many land-related disputes in the East African country demanding attention. Concerns about land rights were amongst the factors underpinning the recent wave of post-election violence in Kenya, sparked by opposition claims that Kibaki&#39s Dec. 27 victory in the presidential poll was as a result of rigging.

 
Republish | | Print |


posthumous memoirs of bras cubas