BY CORRESPONDENT
The perennial conflicts between Kamba Community in
Kitui East and pastoralists from North Eastern Kenya is likely to come to an
end after herders accepted to vacate the area in the next ten days following
series of peaceful negotiations between the Cushitic community and the local
leadership championed by area Member of national Assembly Nimrod Mbai and
Mutitu Deputy County Commissioner Banjamin Nzioka.
Accompanied by area security team, Mbai led a series
of fact finding operation in Endau/Malani and Voo/Kyamatu wards of Mutitu
District all in the vast Kitui East Constituency in a bid to find a lasting
solution to the intense conflicts between the two communities, most of which
are occasioned by competition for pasture and water between the two
communities.
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| Kitui East MP Nimrod Mbai confronts a Somali Herder at Endau |
Mbai stated that the local community intends to revive
Nziu and Aithi communal ranches which cover 40Sq Kilometer adding that the limited
resources cannot be shared by the two communities.
“And we are reviving the two ranches, as we speak the
management of the two ranches is in place and part of our resolutions is to get
rid of intruders from other communities who are depleting the limited resources.
The illegal Somali pastoralists have to pave way for the new dispensation, and
that is why we have first adopted the negotiation way” said Mbai.
The leaders and the nomadic elders agreed on a ten
days notice to clear their livestock mostly camels and goats from the expansive
ranch failure to which an appropriate unnamed action will be taken.
“The Kamba Community requests you to leave their
land because of the acute pasture and water shortage “ said Mutitu DCC Benjamin
Nzioka while addressing the nomadic elders at Kinanie, some 10 Kilometer
distance from Tana River –Kitui County border.
He said that the population of the Somali Community
has increased drastically over time, “If they will not have left within 10 days,
we will still insist they leave. There is a lot of misunderstanding between the
two communities because of scramble for local resources available” said Nzioka.
Mbai called on leaders from the neighboring Garissa,
Isiolo and Tanariver counties to take charge and advise their people to leave
the Kamba land as a way of maintaining peace and avert possible future clashes.
Earlier, the Somali elders led by Mowlud Bill Aden
and Mohamed Abdi had objected the
request to vacate within ten days , requesting a longer stay of two months
while decrying lack of water and pasture
in their mother land.
“ our livestock will die if we are flashed from this
area, I request the Government to allow us a duration of two months because
some camels have got young ones who cannot walk for long distances” said Mohamed Abdi.
The Somali Community have set up temporally living
structures and market centers in Kinanie , something which is not going well with
the local community who decry insecurity from the herders who are armed with illegal guns threatening and at some
point killing innocent farmers.
The intercommunity clashes have been evident for
years in Kitui South, Mwingi North and Central sub Counties contributing to adverse insecurity, deaths
and closure of schools for months.
Ends.
MWINGI TIMES for timely and authoritative news.
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