BY INVITATION ONLY: Feedback/Validation Workshop on Disarmament of Armed Nomadic Pastoralist Communities and the Promotion of Sustainable Development

Date: 2010-05-07 to 2010-05-08

Venue: Waterbuck Hotel- Nakuru,Kenya

Amongst other challenges, the proliferation of illegal Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALWs) play a key role in the continuing insecurity in many pastoralist areas in Eastern Africa. While owning arms per se is not necessarily a major problem particularly to communities with a history of armament – traditional and modern – the indiscriminate misuse of the arms especially by a largely delinquent and idle youth poses unprecedented challenges to communities where government presence is insufficient and with an increasing decline and breakdown of traditional governance systems.

It is true that a rational community will not seek self-armament for the sake of it; this means that there are, in the eyes of the community, genuine reasons for doing so. Once armed however, the monopoly of armament, traditionally held by the state, shifts to the armed groups in the communities. The resultant havoc wrecked by rogue elements amongst the armed communities becomes a threat not only to the communities in question but as well to the state and the region in general. Moreover, there are genuine fears of potential infiltration into these groups by external violent groups with much further reaching political, religious and/or economic agendas.

The knee-jack reaction of many States to perceived threats to their monopoly of violence is to quell it at whatever costs, and, preferably immediately. In practice and for a myriad of reasons, this is never possible. In particular, the failure of addressing the primary causes that lead to ‘genuine’ community self-armament and the disdain of the principle of inclusion and participation of communities renders state-centric disarmament efforts ineffectual and un-sustainable. However, this has not stopped states from embarking on numerous disarmament activities dating back to the colonial period.

The Kenya National Focal Point on Small Arms (KNFP) and the ISS collaborated in research and documentation of three aspects of armament of pastoralist groups in Kenya; thus:

• Disarmament initiatives
• Search for alternative livelihoods for (dis-)armed groups and
• strategies for integrated disarmament and development.

These studies are part of a larger collaborative initiative between the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (IC/GLR) and the ISS in the designated Zone 3 of Eastern Africa. In addition, the three aspects are in tandem with various components under various provisions contained in the Protocol on the Prevention, Combating and Eradication of Cattle Rustling in Eastern Africa.

A Feedback/Validation workshop will be conducted at the Waterbuck Hotel- Nakuru, Kenya from May 7-8, 2010. The workshop will bring together representatives from relevant line ministries, the provincial administration, security, development partners/agencies, civil society organizations, members of parliament, media and selected community leaders from the affected communities and their adjacent neighbours.