“The recent killing of a heavily pregnant mother shows the depth we have sank into and how much we have lost sanctity for human life” writes Ubah Kahiye
Over the weekend an ugly clan conflict reared its head again in Wajir county when bandits attacked a pastoral village near Malkagufu, a settlement that is more than 150km North of Wajir town killing a heavily pregnant mother.
This unfortunate incident is not the only one of its kind as scores of people have died in Eldas and Wajir North constituencies in the last 3 years alone. Simultaneously, several people were injured when members of two brotherly sub-clans fought over water in Bojigaras, 30km East of Wajir .
The unique thing about the Malkagufu incident while it is an isolated case is that the victims have before this event been mostly armed militias and not civilians. That we have resorted to killing an innocent mother who is heavily pregnant is tantamount to being sacrilegious and inhuman.
The actions of this tribal militias and perhaps their financiers if there is any shows the depth we have sank into and how much we have lost sanctity for human life as the silent code of conduct was to never attack children, women and elderly people.
Massages of condolences and condemnation of this barbaric act have come from far and wide. However, we are yet to see any concerted effort from the key actors including the government, elected leaders and the professionals from Wajir.
The usual response from the government has always been to fight fire with fire by deploying incapacitated security officers which actually leads to more harm, casualties, and destructions.
For the political leadership, their effort has been too insincere or too little too late as their intentions are always doubted by the citizens and most locals believe that it’s their dishonesty in the matter that makes conflicts of this nature unending.
The local MPs have come out to condemn the killings and also accused the government of non-interest in the issue. The political class including local elders have been putting lip services on the issue and at best addressed the symptoms of the conflict rather than tackling the root cause of the conflict which by the way remains unknown as hardly has anyone invested time and money to delve into it, there have only been hearsays and accusation and counter-accusation by each group depending on who is the currently aggrieved one.
The professionals of the county have also not been left behind in condemning these conflict, however by looking at Facebook and Whatsapp groups for the last three days and how polarizing this conversation is, only shows how real this tragedy is.
The on and offline discussions seemingly take clan lenses and put a grim reality into how this will continue in the near future unless concerted and consolidated efforts are made by all stakeholders to abide by the rule of law, to go back to our Islamic faith and culture that not only criminalizes these killings but also instructs us to protect the sanctity of life.
It’s really disheartening to see young educated minds resorting to their clan cocoons rather than defending the inviolability of human life further escalating the conflict through calls for retaliation and continued perpetration of the same.
Looking at social conversation on why these conflicts keep repeating, there have been different reasons brought forward including the overarching political motives as elected leaders are trying to outdo each other and being seen as protectors of their clan which give them a leverage for being elected or reelected.
There are those with the view that this relates to border conflicts while pastoralists have traditionally been known to roam as they wish within the vast county, the introduction of formal settlements and locations which give ownership rights to specific clans give these views some credibility.
As politicians who have the power to influence the national governments dish out these locations as a means of punishment or rewards to clans, renewed conflicts such as the one that happened in Malkagufu will be a common occurrence.
The other probable reason is the scuffle over limited water and pasture for livestock which since time immemorial has been a cause of conflict not only in Wajir but across the hinterlands of the Horn of Africa region.
All in all, we need concerted effort towards addressing this conflict once and for all and I call upon the professionals of Wajir to rise above clan connections as displayed in social media. As we play our role, we must also demand from the national government and the local leadership an honest dialogue, fact-finding mission and a lasting solution to this perennial conflict.
Ubah Kahiye is a development worker based in Wajir, the views are her own.
