By Eric Wamanji
As far as Kenya’s Wild Wild West go the trio of Turkana, Baringo and Samburu Counties perhaps carry the trophy. It’s a desolate frontier of scorching sun and unforgiving terrain. The boom of the gun, wails and screams are its song. Blood and tears are its fluid.
From media accounts, you get a nauseating impression of a godforsaken people. A savage world of grief induced by marauding militia, too wily for the law apparatuses. It’s the sick man of Kenya.
The poster-child of these atrocities is manifest in such names as Kapedo, Suguta Valley or Baragoi. It is in these areas, our scribes chronicle, where massive blood has been drenched in the thirsty sands and volcanic ashes.
Efforts to pacify the communities of the northwest frontier seem to be futile. The incessant rebound of insecurity has frustrated and confounded all and sundry. As you read this, the Kenya Defence Force (KDF) boots are on the ground. Yet, militias still strike as if KDF is an assemblage of a weak rival.
Recently, even the political class, said to have sway on people’s emotions, was stupefied when, soon after a peace caravan meandered the area, the warriors staged a daring raid. They killed an elder.
So what to do for pax vale?
While the rest of Kenya is on take-of, enjoying all the trappings of a global village, Kapedo is left behind in groan and destitution.
Kenya’s Eldorado
Yet, the panacea to the malady gnawing Kapedo, Baragoi or Suguta lies right there. If you will, folks, this is Kenya’s last Eldorado – brimming with adorable treasures. This is a world of incredible oil, lime, cement, gypsum, wind and geothermal deposits. It is home to countless cattle, world heritage prehistoric sites, and one of Africa’s most spectacular panoramas. It’s a cocktail of fortunes. Yet this mammoth largesse is untapped.
Life here is sweet too and seductive even. Commercially viable Honey flows. Rare fauna and flora flourish.
Now it is this wealth of the region that should be catalytic to the elusive dente. Pacification is not a knee-jerk enterprise. It is a slow and painful endeavour demanding resources and commitment from multiple agencies. It is a multi-approach venture in an intellectually vibrant environment.
And thus, pacify the north, we need concrete and consistent social-cultural and economic engineering. Its official, boots and barrels won’t tame the savagery. There have been dozens of security operations, some even in the books of injustices. Yet the trouble persists. Nor will any peace caravan restrain the youth. In fact, the phantom is too big and has exposed the frailty of the political class to solve social cultural or economic troubles bedevilling Kapedo. Its why recently there was an absurd and desperate call of shoot to kill.
Largest abattoir
Constructing new social and economic dispensation leveraging on the natural resources will orient folks here toward a new lifestyle – of civility.
For starters it defeats logic why vast cattle is hauled to Nairobi for canning. These counties should attract private money under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) framework to construct the largest abattoir in Eastern Africa at the boundaries of the Turkana, Baringo and Samburu counties.
An abattoir will quickly create a hub of meat and related products such as leather industry and glue manufacturing. It will create jobs and keep folks busy and happy. Conservative estimates put the cattle wealth in excess of Ksh. 50 billion.
Now, with massive geothermal, the abattoirs will hugely benefit from cheap energy. Wonks at the Geothermal Development Company have been toying with the concept of using geothermal by-products to convert the north into an industrial valley. They affirm that heat mining from the hot geothermal stuff that has generated electricity will attract industries because it is cheap and reliable.
Sulphur, critical in leather tanning, and a by-product of geothermal, will support the leather subsidiaries. Geothermal heat, will also support honey processing at negligible rates.
Besides, the state and counties should capitalise on the cheap geothermal to attract bulk power consumers and thereby establish industrial parks.
Industrial parks rise at the confluence of water and energy. That is how the Rhine Valley in Germany sprung up, today one of the top world industrial complexes. While Suguta is devoid of coal, geothermal is even sexier and plentiful. But, counties have to create special economic zones and commercialise land to attract investment.
Even the story of California should inspire thinking here. Sun-bleached and dusty, California was reengineered to a key exporter of entertainment, technology, wine, almonds and oranges. We need not talk of the wonders of Israel.
The Lamu Port and South Sudan Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) project ploughing through here should also facilitate the faster wheels of pacification. But it can only succeed if stakeholders are conscious of opportunities available at their disposal. LAPSSET should find everyone prepared.
Suguta, christened “valley of death,” is actually a valley of life. It’s a hanging ripe fruit. Its not only fertile, it’s a touristic magnet. If only a sound water conveyance system could be installed, then, I bet, an agriculture revolution will rise from here exporting fruits and vegetables. No doubt, this battered and parched land will turn lush and seductive.