Akiwumi Report - Rift Valley Province

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CHAPTER ONETRIBAL CLASHES IN THERIFT VALLEY PROVINCE

Tribal clashes in the Rift Valley Province started on 29th October, 1991, at a farm knownas Miteitei, situated in the heart of Tinderet Division, in Nandi District, pitting the Nandi,a Kalenjin tribe, against the Kikuyu, the Kamba, the Luhya, the Kisii, and the Luo.The clashes quickly spread to other farms in the area, among them, Owiro, farm whichwas wholly occupied by the Luo; and into Kipkelion Division of Kericho District, whichhad a multi-ethnic composition of people, among them the Kalenjin, the Kisii and theKikuyu.Later in early 1992, the clashes spread to Molo, Olenguruone, Londiani, and otherparts of Kericho, Trans Nzoia, Uasin Gishu and many other parts of the Rift ValleyProvince. In 1993, the clashes spread to Enoosupukia, Naivasha and parts of Narok, andthe Trans Mara Districts which together then formed the greater Narok before the TransMara District was hived out of it, and to Gucha District in Nyanza Province.In these areas, the Kipsigis and the Maasai, were pitted against the Kikuyu, the Kisii,the Kamba and the Luhya, among other tribes. The clashes revived in Laikipia and Njoroin 1998, pitting the Samburu and the Pokot against the Kikuyu in Laikipia, and theKalenjin mainly against the Kikuyu in Njoro.In each clash area, non-Kalenjin or non-Maasai, as the case may be, were suddenlyattacked, their houses set on fire, their properties looted and in certain instances, some of them were either killed or severely injured with traditional weapons like bows andarrows, spears, pangas, swords and clubs.The raiders were well organized and coordinated. Their attacks were generally underthe cover of darkness, and where the attacks were in broad daylight, the raiders wouldsmear their faces with clay to conceal their identities. The attackers targeted mainly theKikuyu, but also the Kisii, the Luhya and the Luo; other non-Kalenjin and non-Masaaicommunities were not spared.The attacks were barbaric, callous and calculated to drive out the targeted groups fromtheir farms, to cripple them economically and to psychologically traumatise them. Manyof the victims were forced to camp in schools, church compounds and shopping centres.There they lived in makeshift structures of polythene sheets, cardboard and similarmaterials.

3They had little food and belongings with them and lived in poor sanitary conditionswith their children who could no longer go to school. There was also a general lack of concern by the Provincial Administration and the Police Force for their security andgeneral welfare.In general, the clashes started and ended suddenly, and left a trail of destruction,suffering and disruption of life hitherto unknown in this country. The causes of theclashes have been given as conflict over land, cattle rustling, political differences andecological reasons among others. As stated elsewhere in this Report, these reasons wereproffered to conceal the real motive or reason for the clashes.The issue of border conflicts between the communities has been discussed over andover again, in various fora; various approaches have been tried but to no significant avail.In 1964, a joint border meeting between the local dstrict leaders from both Narok andKisii led by the Regional Presidents of Nyanza and Rift Valley Provinces, JohnsonKeragori and Daniel Arap Moi, was held to promote peace after the two communities hadclashed, inter alia, because of the unwise utterances by politicians.At this meeting, the making of inciting speeches was not condemned. The leaderspreached only peace. Subsequently, on 5th April, 1967, the question of unsavoury andinciting utterances was raised in Parliament and in the course of the debate, the AssistantMinister, Vice President's Office and Minister of Home Affairs, Mr Matano, remarked,inter alia, as follows:"Mr Speaker, on this question of the clashes between the Maasai and the Kipsigis,there have been some incidents, and we do not want to deny it. There have been a fewincidents here and there and, I regret to say that with regard to a lot of those instigationsand some of the things that have been happening on the boundaries, the blame really lieson some leaders of this country. I would not like to say which leaders because I feel it isirrelevant, but I feel that if we restrain ourselves and try to help our own people to try tounderstand one another more and more, I am sure, Mr. Speaker, we shall have less of these incidents."The importance of the foregoing excerpt is the fact that whilst efforts were made todeal with issues like stock theft and border conflict at local and national levels, wereceived no evidence of efforts made to deal with unsavoury and inflammatorystatements by politicians, who according to the evidence that we received, tend to sidewith their ethnic communities whenever they face a conflicts situation involving them.The re-introduction of multi-partyism, tended to magnify and fuel tribal loyalties andto complicate the resolution of inter-tribal border conflicts not only, along the Trans Mara