The Tana River killings are a massacre, a bloodbath that defies normal logic and gains the country international notoriety for the macabre. Close to 50 Kenyans lost their lives overnight on Tuesday, according to the body count yesterday.
Their deaths come as Kenyans eye a transition General Election, Kenya’s most significant since Independence. The overtones are thus not encouraging. Even worse, most of the dead are women and children. Initial reports, at least from the police, suggests the trigger for the killings is the jostling for pasture.
What might have initially been seen as an isolated incident involving the theft of a large herd of cattle from one community has quickly morphed into wanton slaughter of horrible magnitude.
The fact that the top local administrator in the area initially claimed everything was under control yet over 100 families were displaced from their homes is a pointer to the often-fatal collapse in communication between State security officials and those at the epicentre of violence hotspots.
There have also been claims that the clashes are politically motivated, but without any proof such dangerous and irresponsible talk can only spark retaliatory killings in an election year.
What is clear is that the Government must restore its authority as quickly as possible to protect the vulnerable, in this case women and children. Above all those families that have been displaced must be assisted to return to their homes, and combatants should be repelled with a decisive show of force. The families must receive food, shelter, water and medicines.
perennial battles
Next, the State must rethink its security preparedness in such areas where there is a heavy pastoralist presence, if it wants to end the perennial battles over pasture that often result in unnecessary loss of innocent lives.
A good start could be recruitment by the National Security Intelligence Service of informers within the various communities in hot spots to alert the police on brewing conflict.
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