Tuesday August 4, 2015
Plans for a barbed wire fence to separate the often warring Pokot and Turkana communities are indicative of the ossified thinking that often guides policy-making in Kenya.
A fence dividing West Pokot and Turkana counties will offer absolutely no solution to the endemic cattle-rustling, ethnic feuds, and banditry in that neglected part of northern Kenya.
The search for peace in the regions of Kenya prone to such conflicts lies not in walls, but in pulling down the barriers.
What is needed is a combination of strong and effective policing, together with sustained peace-building efforts aimed at tearing down traditional barriers and creating the environment necessary for peaceful co-existence.
Pastoral communities, in any case, will not countenance a flimsy barbed wire fence that tries to limit their traditional treks in search of pasture and water.
Unless you build something like the Great Wall of China or a Berlin Wall ringed with landmines, watchtowers, and machine-gun posts, it will be torn down.
Let us ditch the idea of a fence and the other equally hackneyed plan to build a wall along the entire Kenya-Somalia border.