Isiolo — Can pastoralists, who spend much of their lives itinerant, in search of pasture, become displaced? They can, and up to 400,000 pastoralists in northern Kenya are currently internally displaced persons [IDPs], according to a new report.
“Movements cease to be normal once factors that give rise to them are ‘coercive’ in nature,” Nuur Sheekh, one of the researchers of Kenya’s Neglected IDPs, a report released in October, told IRIN.
“In the case of pastoralists, these could range from violence and conflict over pasture and water resources, inter-ethnic conflict over these resources, and political-economic resources where politics is the underlying cause like in recent cases of Isiolo, Tana River, Moyale, Mandera, [and] Wajir counties.”
Movement is not necessarily forced in the case of drought, provided government ministries and humanitarian organizations are able to supply water, fodder and veterinary services for animals and water and food for people, added Sheekh.
“The displacement of pastoralists in northern Kenya must be considered in the context of many factors, which are often interlinked: the legacy of colonialism; violence and conflict; cattle raiding; natural and climatic disasters; human rights violations; border politics; small-arms proliferation; activities of militant groups, including the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF); and the on-going conflict in Somalia,” said the report, which was published by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).
Overlooked
Though pastoralists are believed to occupy over 70 percent of Kenya’s landmass, census figures of their communities are largely considered unreliable. Their constant movement results in difficulty assessing not only their numbers and locations but their humanitarian needs as well.
“Whereas displacement in other parts of Kenya, such as the Rift Valley, has drawn international attention, in northern Kenya the problem has so far received little recognition and inadequate or no support and assistance,” the report states. “National and international reports on displacement in Kenya rarely mention displacement among pastoralist communities in northern Kenya despite their occupying a large part of Kenyan territory.”