Equity is at the heart of the revenue-sharing formula and no one region should benefit at the expense of the other. Kenya as a country will collectively benefit if all regions benefit.
Make Isiolo the capital city. Besides being geographically central, the town has space for expansion and that would open up the north to commerce and settlement. It is the best chance to reduce the pressure on land along the Northern Transport Corridor, opening the region up to rapid investment and helping to fully utilise the new Lapsset corridor. The Elephant in conversation with Darius Okolla, an economist, writer and curator at The Elephant.
The patriarchy’s continued enforcement of the practice of Female Genital Mutilation has transformed Somali women into the “living dead”.
Being from the Ethiopian side of the border, travelling and getting to know my people on the Kenyan side has brought me back down to earth regarding the way I have previously viewed the Borana Oromo.
Pastoralists and other marginalized communities need to closely scrutinize the politics and programmes of the election candidates that are after their vote.
The mushrooming of community radio stations and citizen journalism in Northern Kenya provides a far more nuanced and complex view of the lives in Northern Kenya, thus, providing an alternative framing. Since they use the indigenous language, community radios have emerged as the most reliable sources of information about the region. The Elephant in conversation with Yusuf Ibrahim, a strategic communications consultant.
Garret Hardin’s ‘tragedy of the commons’ thesis published in 1968, became a ‘'masterpiece" upon which environmental and development policies were formulated in the 1970s and 1980s. Pastoralist groups were on the receiving end of some of the policies, including discarding indigenous environmental methods. The Ekwar System in Turkana is seen as optimal for taking care of the trees in Turkana. The Elephant in conversation with Joseph Kalapata, a manager at the Forum for Protection of Pastoralist Development.
True justice demands that perpetrators of violence be brought to book and held liable for their actions regardless of their status in society.
There are multiple causes and forms of conflict in Northern Kenya. In most conflicts, women are disproportionately affected. The national and county governments should work with non-state actors, to leverage the formal and nonformal indigenous conflict resolution mechanisms. In this conversation, Abdia Mahmud provides nuances and insights into conflicts in Northern Kenya. Abdia Mohamud is the Executive Director at Isiolo Peace Link, a community-based network that brings together youth, women, faith-based and other civil society organisations and works closely with the county authorities and law enforcement agencies on security issues.
The casting of the Pokots as a belligerent community in the media is one of the enduring stereotypes. But this framing is banal as it is pervasive. It is taken as a given that few if ever, step back and examine the cost of labeling an entire community as bellicose. The Elephant in conversation with Yobo Rutin,
Of hugs, Ethiopian shoulder bumps, and other forms of salutation in Moyale.
Northern Kenya is a Muslim majority region in Kenya. Because of its proximity to Somalia has been classified as a hotbed of violent extremism and thus subject to an overtop security response. Instead of addressing the root causes, security agencies' response exacerbates the already fraught relations between the community and security agencies and, by extension, the state. But there is a change in response and a realization that a security-only focused approach will do more damage. The Elephant in conversation with Dr Halkano Abdi Wario, Assistant Director at the HORN International Institute for Strategic Studies.