ISSUE 014, March 16-31, 2010
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Unfiltered, uninhibited…. just the gruesome truth
March 16-31, 2010
ISSUE 014
A bimonthly on-line newspaper by the Media Diversity Centre, a project of African Woman and Child Feature Service
Disarmament: A tough call Government efforts of mopping up guns may be futile
Police from the General Service Unit examine firearms recovered from the operation.
By Muasya Charles
But is it?
As the Government grapples with the difficult operation of disarmament, the debate on the wisdom and viability of the exercise rages on. The spectrum of opinion, from Pokot and Turkana elders where previous disarmaments have taken place, to the international experts, conclude that disarmament is the solution to the ever increasing insecurity in the under developed pastoralists districts.
Mzee Maiyo Longanyapuo from Murkujit Village near Kapenguria Trading Centre, admits that guns have been around in the Pokot community for a long time and will remain there for security against cattle raiders. ‘’Menelik from Somalia supplied the Turkana with carbines which helped them keep colonial rule at a distance until 1923,” says Longanyapuo through an interpreter.
Turkana cattle raiders continued to be the scourge of security forces through the colonial period up to the early 1980s, prompting the establishment of special Ngoroko paramilitary unit in 1976. To keep off the hostile Turkana raiders, the Pokot armed themselves for retaliation. Today, the Turkana and the Pokot are sworn enemies who constantly confront each other in deadly cattle raids. The Pokot have earned themselves a reputation as Kenya’s most hard-headed
and intractable men, armed with the AK-47 that plays a major role in their daily life. The transformation of the downtrodden community into Kenya’s most militaralised people, makes the Pokot the stiffest test case for regional disarmament. Since independence, the Pokots have seen 18 military disarmament operations conducted to dispossess them of illegal firearms. Continued on page 2