Conflict Escalation within the Nilotic Pastoral Communities of Northern, Kenya 1. Introduction The study analyses the internal dynamics that happened in Kenya and the impact they had on conflict among pastoral communities. It argues that with the coming of Moi into power in 1978, and with political and economic liberalization happening in the late 80s and early 90's, a trend emerged where traditional pastoral conflict was increasingly being used for political and economic gains. Moi introduced pastoralists to National Politics. This paper provides a critical look at how the Moi regime triggered conflict in Northern Kenya. Moi wanted to protect his community from the Pokots who used to attack their enemies using concealed spears and savagely killed many of them. Moi armed his community with arms and denied the Pokots facilities like a tarmac road which terminates at Loruk (the boundary of Tugen and Tiaty), denial of electricity until the former president Moi, a Tugen retired in 2002. In absence of motor able roads, bridges, few schools, no hospital in East Pokot, two boarding schools in the entire constituency. Yet East Pokot district is one quarter of the total Baringo district land mass hence this is interpreted by the East Pokot as a Tugen revenge for the 1907 humiliation, this was the period the Pokots massacred the Tugen. Moi also introduced KPRs in order to use Government resources to protect and arm his community. The emergence of political entrepreneurs through bad politics also fueled conflict in Northern Kenya. Bad politics is where political leaders continue to marginalize, harass and intimidate other members of different communities in Northern Kenya. Political leaders tended to encourage their people to continue with the age-old cultural practice of cattle rustling. These politicians fear that any attack on the practice of cattle rustling may be politically suicidal. Previous governments have recognized the importance of pastoral communities only when it requires their political support, such as during election time, thus the emergence of the political entrepreneurs. These political entrepreneurs reached their peak in the early 90's especially with the advent of multiparty-ism and the calls for majimboism. The second section of the chapter discusses the emergence of political entrepreneurs. This section argues that, with opening of northern Kenya, to a more capitalist system, there was the emergence of warlords, who took advantage of the readily available arms coming into the region to train and arm local Morans. These Morans were then used to raid for commercial purposes. This form of raiding intensified the scale of raiding in Northern Kenya, escalating conflict in the region.

This article gives a critical look at the genesis of protracted conflict in northern Kenya but more specifically among the Turkana, Pokot and Samburu Nilotic pastoral communities. To achieve this, the article progresses as follows; first, the chapter discusses the communities involved in the conflict. These are the Turkana, the Pokot and the Samburu. Second, the article discusses traditional cattle raiding and the role of age in the conflict sets paying special attention to the institution of Moranism. Lastly, the article discusses traditional coping mechanisms that have been employed throughout generations followed by how this 'normal' raiding was transformed with the advent of the British rule and the independent state to become a deadly affairs where lives are lost and properly destroyed.The conflict among these communities has been attributed to many factors such as;, celebration of a culture of heroism that elevates the social status of raiders, the decline of the role community elders play in the management of raids, competition over scarce and diminishing water and pastures for their animals, marginalization by successive governments and little presence of state security. Among these communities conflict can be seen as a cycle of revenge killings and cattle raids that often starts with Morans from one community raiding a rival community. Consequently, this spirals into attacks and counter attacks that after a while leads to long periods of hostilities punctuated by series of massacres. But has the conflict within these

This article discusses the external dynamics that resulted in the proliferation of arms into Kenya in general and Northern Kenya in specific. The paper has two major arguments. First, during the cold war, there was an arms race in the region because of its strategic position. This resulted in the two superpowers, USA and USSR, to arm specific countries that were considered to be friendly to them. Second, the paper argues that beginning in the early '70s into the '80s and early 90s, a number of countries in the Horn of Africa experienced turmoil or civil strife. Political instability in Somalia made Kenyan Somalis able to obtain guns by volunteering to join the fight for the Ogaden in Ethiopia and then slipped back into Kenya. The current study found that the conflict in North Eastern Kenya is caused by scarcity of resources, economic and political marginalization, active resistance by pastoralist communities to assimilation, resource depletion, and demographic changes, and the growing availability of small arms and light weapons. Livestock has become the triggers and the medium for sustaining conflicts through cattle raiding for wealth accumulation and also for dowry payments. Modern technology has also become a clear instrument of conflict escalation. Pastoral communities in northern Kenya provide an excellent market for firearms. The study concludes that political instability in Somalia made Kenyan Somalis able to obtain guns by volunteering to join the fight for the Ogaden in Ethiopia and then slipped back into Kenya. The rivalry between Ethiopia and Eritrea led to an arms race between the two nations, where each country is involved in the massive acquisition of arms.