30 dead in Kenyan village raid, Red Cross says

At least 30 people were killed when farmers raided a village of herders in southeastern Kenya early Friday in renewed fighting between two communities with a history of violent animosity, the Kenya Red Cross said.

Five children and five women were among the dead, the Red Cross said. Forty-five houses were set on fire during the attack, Red Cross spokeswoman Nelly Muluka said.

Anthony Kamitu, who is leading police operations to prevent attacks in the region, said that the Pokomo tribe of farmers raided a village of the semi-nomadic Orma herding community at dawn in the Tana River Delta. He said the raiders were armed with spears and AK-47 rifles.

At least 110 people were killed in clashes between the Pokomo and Orma in August and September.

The tit-for-tat cycle of killings may be related to a redrawing of political boundaries and next year's general elections, the UN Humanitarian co-ordinator for Kenya, Aeneas C. Chuma, said late August. However, on the surface the violence seems driven by competition for water, pasture and other resources, he said.

The Tana River area is about 690 kilometres from the capital, Nairobi.

The utilization of the waters of the Tana River has been at the middle of a conflict pitting the Pokomo against the Orma, according to research by the Institute of Security Studies in 2004, following clashes in the Tana River area in 2000 to 2002.

The Pokomo claim the land along the river and the Orma claim the waters of the river, said the research by Taya Weiss, titled "Guns in the Borderlands Reducing the Demand for Small Arms." At least 108 people died in the 2000-2002 clashes, according to the parliamentary record.

The longstanding conflict between the two tribes had previously resulted in relatively low casualties but the increased availability of guns has caused the casualties to escalate and more property to be destroyed, said the report.

It said a catalyst to the conflict was the collapse of three irrigation schemes at Bura, Hola, and Tana Delta, which influenced residents' lifestyles in terms of employment and sources of income.

"The collapse of these schemes forced the nomadic pastoralists to move during the wet season, while the farmers remained along the river. During the dry season the pastoralists move back to the river in search of water and pasture," it said.

The Tana River area has the characteristics of any other conflict prone area in Kenya: underdevelopment, poor infrastructure, poor communication and social amenities, and social marginalization, according to the report.

"Communities are arming themselves because of the need to defend against perceived attacks," said the report. "They feel that the government security machinery has not been able to effectively respond to violence. Isolation has led to increased demand for guns."

Friday 21 December 2012

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