Land disputes cause of clashes
Posted by African Press International on March 14, 2008
Some of the perennial and inter-communal land clashes which have been dogging the country for decades ever since she attained her political independence from Great Britain in 1963 could as well be rightly attributed to the colonialists mistakes and biased judgement..
The white settlers backed colonial administration in Kenya was biased against a certain tribe and communities and made wrong judgment while fixing the provincial district and communal boundaries in 1962. This was soon before the lowering of the British Union Jack a year later.
It is therefore wrong to attribute all the recent tribal skirmishes in various parts of western Kenya in particular and in the rest of the country in general as having sparked off by politics. These were the outcome of long nursed intra-communal grudges dating back to the early settlement of the White European Settlers.es
At the early part of the opening of the 20th century especially during the great settlers rush for land position in some parts of the Rift Valley, the colonial administration had seized some land plots at gun point from some communities which they pushed to semi-arid dry areas. .They then settled (white settlers) in the confiscated farms which are arguably the most fertile and arable from the native with total disregard to the short and long term interest of the native people had lived in those areas or ages,
Unless the government in a modern Kenya get deeply involve and try out how to sort out the masses of inter-communal difference over the endless land disputes the chances of recurrence of these clashes cannot be ruled out.
Let us have a look at the seemingly endless skirmishes between member of the Kipsigis and the Abagusii communities as a study case. Before the arrival of the while settlers at the beginning of the 20th century ,the boundaries separating the two communities had stretched along the Sondu River from Mwitinega,Ekerenyo,Ikonge up to the hills of Mokomoni to only a few kilometers east of the present Keroka Town and went up around Nyamasibi and Nyanturago centres in Nyaribari Masaba.
The entire Manga settlement and an area now commonly known as Borabu district were parts of the extended Kipsigis empire .But due to good weather conditions,fertile land good rainfall in Sotik highlands the colonialists forcefully removed the Kipsigis and pushed across Amalo and Ndanai rivers to the relatively less;fertile land in what is known today as lower Bureti area or Roret Division.
Both the Kipsigis and the Abagusii were later forced to make concessions.And .the two communities later reluctantly under intensive suppressions made the truce, which paved the way for the settlement of white settlers in what was later christined as Sotik white Highlands .This was followed by the establishment of Ngoina Tea plantations Sotik Tea Company and Kipkebe Tea company in the area.
Many white farmers introduced large scale dairy farming in the larger Sotikwhere the first KCC milk processing plant was built.It is where the plant stands today next to Itibo tea and dairy farms which is owned by the lots Mr.Fredrick Laboso and straitching to covering wide area Nyansiongo ,Kijauri and nearby locations
White farmers also extended their farming activities in the plains of Sotik side displacing thousand to indigenant Kispisgis people the same is what they did when the removed thousands of Kipsigis villagers out of their ancestral land in Kericho areas from Chebown, Kerenga,Kericho Estates,Kapsongoi,Kitimbe ,Saosa, Kimugu, Cheymen, Cheboswa, Chagaik,Kipkorech and Kapkatungor.All these names bears the relics of the suclans who lived in the area before the farms were handed to the white settlers .
The same with farm names such as Chemogonday which loosely translates as (Kapchomogondek) a prominent sub-clan of thre Kipisgis sub-tribe and the clan of the fomer ex-Semir Chief Cheborge Arap Tengecha who ruled what was known as Location Three of the old larger Kericho district for close to 40 years. .
But strange things happened .the boundaries commission which was appointed by the Colonial Secretary in 1962 and which was headed by one Professor K.W. MacKenzie to look into details of the tribal land problems with sgreat empasieze to take care of the communal interests had totally ignore the pleas made to it by Kipsigis leaders of the time most of them were colonial chiefs. .The Mackenzie commission fragrantly ignored the claims laid over these areas by the Kipsigis people, who were then led by the late Dr.Taiitta Arap Toweett as a member of Colonial Legislative Council representing Southern electoral Areas covering parts of Narok, Kericho and Trans-Mara districts and Ex Senior chief Cheborge Arap Tengecha (chieftan) and handed the entire Sotik Highlands region to the then Kisii district to the chagrins of the Kipsigis and their leaders. This is the bone of contention and the source of perennial tribal land clashes in the area ever since independence..
Ex-Senior Chief Musa Nyandusi of Nyaribari had told the Commission sitting at the Kisii ADC Hall that the old boundary between the Abagusii and the Kipsigis communities used to be at Kipkatet before arrival of whitemen.But because it was the intransigence of the Kipsigis people which had helped them in seizing more land which belonged to the Abagusii people .Chief Nyandusi was so powerful and influential colonial chief who had a lot of wealth.His views were suppoted by the late Ex-Senior Chief Gideon Magakof Kasipul and was also assisted by the late Chief Zakaria Angwenyi Of Kitutu who was the most enlightened among the colonialchiefs of the days
Nyandusi is the father the former Minister Simeon Nyacgae.He had a lot of influence over the white D.Cs and the entire colonial Provincial administration. Kericho district was still part of Nyanza Province and ruled from Kisumu.
Another forceful eviction from ancestral land took place when the entire Uasin Gishu sub-clan of the Maasai was evicted from the plains around Eldoret and sent with their herds of cattle to the Trans=Mara area of Narok
They became easily adapted to the area .But at the bloody expense of the Siria suba clans who were the native and the indiginant of Trans-Mara.being militarily powerful than their host,the Uasin Gishu were later succeeded in driving the Sirisia out of their ancestral land and pushed them to the interior towards the much more fiercest Lioliondo a and the combatant Moitanik sub-clans.
The government stand at the time was that the Abagusii people were densely populated and therefore needed a breathing space. All able Kisiis moved to the settlement areas of Sotik Highland and settled in nearly all large scale farms which were vacated by the departed white settlers at the independence. .
And thereafter the two communities have fought protracted border skirmishes almost every year.
The recent blood let skirmishes did not come as the result of the shooting death of the youthful Ainamoi MP elect Hon David Kimutai Too who was allegedly shot and killed by a Kisii traffic policeman nor did the clashes had anything to do with politically motivated violence caused by the disputed presidential elections results .But due to long standing ernemities caused by injustices associated with biased and unjust distributionm of the contentious land..The enemities only awaited for the slightest provocation.
Another case study is the removal of the Uasin Gishu sub-clan of the Maasai from their ancestral land in Eldoret and its environs ,in 1922 which show them being driven to Trans-mara with their thousands herds of cattle .This was another scheme to pave the way for the white settlers who moved in and established wheat growing farms and dairy farms in the area.
Fortunately the colonial administration did not know or realize that Transmara has the most fertile and arable land with good rainfall animal pasture.
In a fair judgment the colonials should have divided the Sotik settlement into two equal halves.In my view if such a thing had happens then peace and tranquility would have been restored permanently between the Kipsigis and their neigbours the Abagusii.
What has the government in collaboration with the MPs from the community had achieved in brokering the peace is commandable .But it is only a temporary measure which will not last for too long therefore along lost solution must be found to avoid future bloodshed.
Anyone who dare to visit Chebilat town along the present borders could be able to access the degree of enmities between the two communities and will see the need to end the perennial tribal clashes in the area.
<From Leo Odera OmoloPublished by API africanpress@getmail.no
