small arms and light weapons among pastoral groups in the kenya ...

62 AFRICAN AFFAIRS
also an area of interest for private mining companies, of which there
are now six, all of them foreign. This is a major source of conflict between
the pastoralists and the government and has increased the acquisition of
weapons. 76
Pastoralist internal political organization promotes bravery and, if necessary,
violence — for example, for the ascension of young men through the
age-set system from shepherd boys to warriors. Bridewealth is another
major factor with prices ranging from 20 heads of cattle in West Pokot up
to 160 in Jie. High prices are maintained partly by the need to replenish
cattle lost to raiding. In the past when pastoral societies were more prosperous,
parents would provide the cattle for their sons when they marry,
but now young men need to arm themselves and raid. 77
The minister for Karamoja noted ‘Guns are an economic investment
and a convertible currency’. 78 A Catholic father concurred: ‘The people
have come to depend on it as their source of livelihood’. 79 The introduction
of arms into the pastoral areas has allowed influential businessmen or
elders to gain control of the cattle raiding equation, sell cattle out of the
district and thus impoverish the region. Arms are then necessary to enable
one to have a livelihood working for a racketeer.
Marginalization and insecurity
District officers surveyed in Kenya stated that pastoralists mainly
demand arms for protection of animals and people from attacks by neighbouring
groups. A few respondents mentioned the inability of the government
to adequately protect the people, in a situation of porous
international borders through which small arms are flowing, such that
there is a localized inter-communal arms race. 80
Pastoral areas have historically been the victims of marginalization
(political, economic and social isolation), with the absence of effective
governance or, in some places, with the total absence of government and
judicial systems. 81 Colonial governments often appeared to be seeking
not just to end cattle raiding but pastoralism itself, on the grounds that it
was a backward way of life. This contributed to a process of growing
75. Interviews in Nakapiripirit, Moroto and Nikoloro and observation, 2003.
76. Riamiriam, ‘The policy advocacy role of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Karamoja:
The challenges and successes’ (Unpublished report, Riamiriam, Moroto, 2005).
77. Mkutu, ‘Pastoralist Conflict and Small Arms’, pp. 17–18; for numbers of cows paid for
brides, see Mkutu, ‘Pastoralist Conflict, Governance and Small Arms’, p. 167; ADOL, ‘Karamoja
response to disarmament’.
78. Interview with Peter Lokeris, Minister for Karamoja, in Kampala, January 2003.
79. Interview with Father John Bosco who is a victim of a gunshot in the knee, St Joseph’s
Mission, Amudat, 28 January 2004.
80. Interviews in Karamoja and West Pokot in Kenya, 2001–4.
81. Interviews, visits and observations.