Security warning on Tana River worrying
Updated Wednesday, August 7th 2013 at 23:13 GMT +3
What are security teams in Tana River County — and at the national level — doing following a disaster management group’s warning of looming clashes due to reduced pasture and poor harvest.
The severity of the last clashes that left close to 200 people dead in tribal violence between ethnic Pokomo and Orma communities should spur the law enforcement agencies into action to avert a repetition of the tragedy, which the country can do without as it embarks of development in the area.
Now that the National Drought Management Authority has sounded the alarm, other government departments are also expected to join in efforts to avert the conflicts by addressing the two key factors that fuel inter-communal violence.
Although the group says that irrigated agriculture was not doing well in the county, there is need to interrogate the findings to find out the reasons behind the failure and fix them. In the meantime, the local residents must be assured of receiving adequate relief food as they prepare their farms and wait for the next season.
The county government is expected to spearhead these measures which should include the provision of adequate water from boreholes. In the event that the number of the existing boreholes is not enough to cater for all the livestock, the county authority should work together with the all the elected representatives to ensure they raise adequate funds, including those given under the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) to get the job done.
The national government must put its foot down and demand that local leaders do whatever is necessary to restore the area into normalcy to allow the farmers to get back into their land and get on with their job of growing food for the county. No excuses should be tolerated this time round.
Perhaps, the national government could show that it means business by bringing the perpetrators of the previous violence to book because this is the only way others can be deterred from escalating local—even domestic—disagreements into a communal bloodbath.
The severity of the last clashes that left close to 200 people dead in tribal violence between ethnic Pokomo and Orma communities should spur the law enforcement agencies into action to avert a repetition of the tragedy, which the country can do without as it embarks of development in the area.
Now that the National Drought Management Authority has sounded the alarm, other government departments are also expected to join in efforts to avert the conflicts by addressing the two key factors that fuel inter-communal violence.
Although the group says that irrigated agriculture was not doing well in the county, there is need to interrogate the findings to find out the reasons behind the failure and fix them. In the meantime, the local residents must be assured of receiving adequate relief food as they prepare their farms and wait for the next season.
The county government is expected to spearhead these measures which should include the provision of adequate water from boreholes. In the event that the number of the existing boreholes is not enough to cater for all the livestock, the county authority should work together with the all the elected representatives to ensure they raise adequate funds, including those given under the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) to get the job done.
The national government must put its foot down and demand that local leaders do whatever is necessary to restore the area into normalcy to allow the farmers to get back into their land and get on with their job of growing food for the county. No excuses should be tolerated this time round.
Perhaps, the national government could show that it means business by bringing the perpetrators of the previous violence to book because this is the only way others can be deterred from escalating local—even domestic—disagreements into a communal bloodbath.
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