El diseño de la actividad creadora, concepciones educativas y referentes teóricos sobre la creatividad.

The battle to control grazing fields during the drought season in Baragoi is pursued under the discourses of Nkoopang, among the Samburu. It means “owners of the land” in Samburu language. In my meetings with Samburu chiefs, they argued that “Samburu land belongs to the Samburu” and they viewed the Turkana as ‘visitors’ or even encroachers. In many political meetings occasioned by violent raids and deaths in grazing fields that I attended in South Horr,

51_{‘ Samburu state of War’ delves into the gun culture of Turkana and Samburu communities and how violent raids}

using guns have led to massacres and displacements

52

Discussion with Samburu warriors at Bendera village in November 2014

108 Tuum, Baragoi and Ngilai areas, the Samburu political leadership (Samburu County government leaders) spoke of Samburu grazing lands as belonging to the Samburu community. The Turkana’s were advised in these meetings to move ‘beyond the Suguta Valley’ which is euphemism for asking the Turkana of Baragoi to move back to Turkana County, a place they left over a century ago. An illustration of the nature of the contest over space in grazing lands is captured by the following police signal:

“It was reported through phone that today the 25th

August 2013 at about 1200 noon the Samburu and Turkana morans were fighting at Mparah grazing field. During the incident two Samburu morans were injured as follows: one aged 24 years was shot on the left lower leg, while another aged 25 years was shot on the right buttock and the bullet lodged in the body” (Baragoi Police Station Police Signal 25th

August 2013).

While the above quote doesn’t give reasons for the fight between the Samburu and Turkana herders, the fact that it took place in the grazing field implies that contest was about the utility of the grazing field. Access to these productive spaces is therefore highly contested as can be seen in the injuries sustained by the Samburu herders.

A more recent signal from Baragoi Police Station (2014) further captures the central role access to and utilization of grazing lands play in the violent contest between pastoralists groups in Baragoi:

“It was reported by Ag. Chief Baragoi location at about 11.00 AM that there was a fire exchange between the Turkana and Samburu herders in Loworiak grazing field about 14km south of the station. A contingent of police officers drawn from the GSU, AP, ASTU and the regular police rushed to the area and intervened. On arrival they were met with the sound of F.R.G and rifle fire. The police responded by launching two H.E 60mm bombs. Both parties ceased fire and dispersed. One Samburu male adult aged about 35 years was shot on the back left shoulder. The police suspect that the motive of the fire exchange is the scramble for grazing fields. The Turkana’s are said to have invaded grazing field that is ordinarily used by the Samburus” (Baragoi Police Station Signal 14th December 2014).

109 The above quote captures the dilemma of many herders during the dry season where they are forced to move to the few places with adequate pasture for the survival of their animals. To guarantee the safe movement of their cattle in these pasturelands, they have to carry firearms to deter raiders from other communities from robbing them of their livestock. To gain access to the eventual pasturelands in an environment where there is no resource sharing formula, they have to use violence to negotiate access and to guarantee the utilization of the grasslands by their livestock. This is in line with Adem et al (2012), who have argued that drought and the necessity of mobility for herders in Northern Kenya contribute to pastoralists violence and makes grazing lands ‘dangerous geographies’. Further the response of the police is also critical in understanding the production and reproduction of violence in grazing lands. As captured in the police report the police chose to launch a bomb to disperse a group of herders engaged in gunfire, the role of the state security apparatus in violence among pastoralists is seen in the excessive violence it uses which detrimental effect even on the environment and thus affecting pastoralists’ livelihoods as a whole.

The Police Signal from Baragoi Police Post (2005) further places the battle for territorial exclusivity during the dry season at the center of pastoralists’ violence among the pastoralists groups in Northwestern Kenya:

“An intelligence report reaching this post from the Samburu and Turkana herdsmen who are currently grazing their cattle at a place called Nasur in East Baringo just a few kilometers from Malaso escarpement is that on the 21st day of December, they were confronted by Pokot tribesmen and ordered to drive their stock from their grazing field back to Baragoi, the said Pokots warned them that if they fail to abide by their order they will be attacked. Due to a severe drought prevailing here at Baragoi, the Samburu and Turkana refused to vacate the area. There is tension currently at the said area” (Baragoi Police Post Signal 23rd December 2005).

The quote above captures the linkages between drought, the essence of livestock mobility and the preservation of grazing lands as spaces of dominance by specific groups. East Baringo district forms part of today’s Baringo County. The district is inhabited by Pokot pastoralists. The

110 fact that Samburu and Turkana herders moved from Baragoi to Nasur a distance of over 100km shows the intensity of the drought in the month of December. Raids and other forms of pastoralists’ violence in grazing lands are therefore most likely to occur due to drought. The need for preservation of pasturelands for specific group’s exclusive access, mobility of herders with livestock and their concentration in specific rich grazing lands mainly used during dry periods and the sale of arms and ammunition in the grazing fields therefore inadvertently contribute to violent confrontations during periods of scarcity. Raids may therefore occur in places like Nasur during the dry season, when the Pokot who see themselves as the ‘owners of the land’ in Nasur view other herders from Baragoi as encroachers into their socio-spatial spaces of livestock production. Raids in this case are used to gain livestock from resource competitors as well as to create a space of insecurity (Witsenburg and Zaal 2012), that forces these ‘foreign’ herders to move away from the shared and contested pastureland.

Photo 6: An armed Turkana warrior guarding the Samburu-Turkana pasture boundary at Ngoriche along the Baragoi-South Horr highway in October 2014, Source: Author

111 In my discussions with Turkana elders’ over the history of their contest over the socio-spatial space of Baragoi. They pointed out that the violence among the Turkana and Samburu is rooted in the colonial designation of Baragoi area as ‘Samburuland’ that merged Samburu socio-cultural claims to exclusivity in Baragoi space with their administrative and political interests. Mbembe (2000:267 quoted in Kefale 2011:77) noted a similar situation in Ethiopia where the ethnic and political and administrative boundaries were merged resulting into heightened ethnic solidarities that were later used as a basis of organisation and negotiation for political and economic gains against other groups. Similarly, the designation of Baragoi as ‘Samburu North district’ and later as ‘Samburu North sub-County’ was argued by Turkana elders as erroneous as it gives legitimacy to Samburu claims over the territory of Baragoi. As Kefale (2011:77) has noted, in situations where ethnic identities compete over territorial spaces, there exists a “direct equation between territory and ethnicity”. Violence between the Samburu and Turkana of Baragoi is therefore not only linked to contests over water and pasture but also to territorial contests stemming from colonial christening of the space as Samburu territory up to its current designation as Samburu North sub-County.