2 | NEWSFOCUS October 16, 2018 www.mygov.go.ke Pastoralists mark peace anniversary Communities from Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia last Friday gathered at Lokiriama near the KenyaUganda border BY PETER GITONGA KNA-TURKANA P astoralist communities from Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia last Friday gathered at Lokiriama near the KenyaUganda border to commemorate the 45th Lokiriama Peace Accord, signed in 1973 to bring to an end the killings and raids conducted between the Turkana of Kenya and Matheniko of Uganda. Turkana County governor Josphat Nanok, Turkana County Commissioner Seif Matata and Uganda minister for Karamoja affairs Moses Kizuge led thousands of participants in the event. Nanok said the event has grown to the level where the national governments of Kenya and Uganda are now engaging with a view to sustaining the peace found along the border. “The government of Kenya and Uganda are in the process of signing an MOU that will secure more resources for water, roads, schools, livestock and other livelihood programmes peace we are enjoying is sustained,” said Nanok. Matata said lasting peace is achieved when the local communities resolve to end raids and own peace initiatives. “What happened at Lokiriama is that warring communities were tired of killings and decided to embrace peace. In areas where we have insecurity challenges let the locals agree to end conflicts and own the peace accords,” said Matata. He added that the accord succeeded because it was not imposed on the communities but it was birthed by them. Matata also directed people in possession of illegal firearms to surrender them to government. Turkana central MP John Lodepe blamed politicians for opposing disarmament. “We must decide as leaders to support disarmament even if it will cost us politically for the sake of achieving lasting to ensure the The government of Kenya and Uganda are in the process of signing an MOU that will secure more resources for water, roads, schools, livestock and other livelihood programmes to ensure the peace we are enjoying is sustained -Josphat Nanok peace,” said Lodepe. The Uganda minister for Karamoja affairs Moses Kizuge said the Ugandan government will continue to support policies of peaceful coexistence. “We have plans to set up a secretariat to follow up on the resolutions of the peace accord,” said Kizuge. He added the Ugandan government is also working to ensure Turkana children arrested in Uganda are released and brought back to Kenya. Under-age children are also involved in cattle rustling that have seen some of them arrested and detained in Uganda. Leaders at the event also discussed the Turkana -West Pokot conflict which has undermined development in the region. “I am doubling every effort to resolve the conflict on the border of Turkana East and Baringo County,” Nanok said. Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa and his Interior and Coordination of Naitonal Government counterpart Fred Matiang’i both sent apologies as they were unable to attend due to other commitments. The youth from Lokiriama ward had earlier in the day barricaded the road over claims that they had not been given casual jobs during the event. It took the intervention of county executive committee member for Agriculture and Pastoral economy Chris Aletia to calm them and have them unblock the road. Meanwhile, science based environmental monitoring will be used to end human wildlife conflict, reports Joseph Ng’ang’a. Climate researchers are banking on science-based detection of diminishing pasture to map out human wildlife conflict hotspots and develop mitigating strategies to check such conflicts in the Greater Horn of Africa (GHC). According to IGAD Climate Prediction & Applications Centre (ICPAC) Program Manager Zachary Atheru, the science based environmental management will assist identify human wildlife conflicts. “When there is no pasture you tend to see animals leaving the protected areas and going to areas where there is farming causing human wildlife conflict arises,” Atheru observed. He said that competition of resources led to encroachment to protected areas adding that if such activities are monitored this information can be used for policy making so that the situation is arrested before eruption of human wildlife conflicts. Speaking on Thursday during the kick off seminar of the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) programme in East Africa, Atheru said success lay in early detection of the situation and early warning so that critical decisions can be made. “The problem is that the conflicts are periodic and depend on the season since some places are drier than others, the situation normally occurs during the dry season forcing the animals to go out to look for pasture and thus the need to have a detailed early warning especially for the hotspot areas,” he explained. He said the information will be provided to decision makers to help in the sustainable long term management of natural resources as well as raising awareness to of this information. “Today we are launching GMES and Africa project funded by African Union Commission which is aimed at using Earth observation information for decision making, monitoring and management of environmental resources in our region,” he outlined. Atheru said that the aim of the project is to collect views and needs from the users of the information so that they can develop services for monitoring rangeland and assessment of food and forest security. “The problem in Africa is poor leadership because all the information is availed by the experts but it is not implemented and not used in decision making,” he lamented. Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Forest Programme Coordinator Jane Wamboi said information gathered under this project will assist develop strategies to reduce the impact of human wildlife conflict. “The project will be using technology to predict the areas of human wildlife conflict and it is through this information that we will be able to monitor vegetation, fire mapping and analysing the land use in the adjacent areas which will help us in predicting human wildlife conflict hotspots and come up with measures to counter it,” said Wamboi. “KWS has come to a point where this information needs to be disseminated to the protected areas so that once each park manager gets hold of what is happening in their vicinity and implement the intervention strategies we will have minimal human wildlife conflicts,” explained Wamboi.
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