#Opinion.

On issue of cattle rustling little is known by many,safe for those who grew in it just like me, that it has been a practice of ages among the pastoralist communities.

It was a sign of bravery and wealth accumulation, in fact killing was an act of heroism and being killed was martyrdom.

It was done by firm and strong young boys between the ages of 10 to 25, with a lot of pride and bravery with the blessings of the kinsmen.

With modernization and education, some were left to adopt the new system, others choose to stick to their tradition, some educated got the much intended knowledge but manipulated the unschooled with their ego and bravery to their advantage.

Among the Tugen, Marakwet, Pokot, Ilchamus, Turkana and Samburu,there’s disparity in customs in that nobody believes theirs is lesser of the other. These are 6 communities riding on similar overriding interests; chances of peace without understanding everyone’s story is a mirage and a pregnant undeliverable statement in itself.

Forget about the Administration and these cool guys in suits; their narrative is far and detached from reality – arrest the situation through the elders, giving practical long term as well as short term solutions well! We should not ride on the past injustices rather than the solution itself; arrest the issues of land through demarcation; pick up all illegal arms across board without selective amnesia; have drought mitigation and preparedness unit; bring high end production unit in each of this four counties, that is, Value addition, for example, facilitating development of a class A abattoir, which will give ready market for products and enhance specialization with production of competitive high quality products.

Raise literacy rates by building more schools and increasing the bursaries and scholarship funds and more so opening up access routes. We should have a positive approach, rather than a draconian one with a lot of backwardness that will breed seeds of discord rather than the much intended peace.

There lives a lot of arrogance and too much ignorance among ourselves.

It’s either we wake-up or perish on our egos!

It’s the time now!

I remain a living optimist!

They call it Baringo. I call it Home.