Dialectics of War and Peace: The Pokot Alternate Regimes of War and Peace

Abstract:

For a long time outsider-led conflict interventions aimed at addressing violent conflicts between and among communities straddling northern Kenya and eastern Uganda have been less than satisfactory, only managing to achieve temporary ceasefire and short episodes of relative peace. Given such persistent failure of these efforts, this study sought to establish whether the cultural system of the Pokot people (and her neighbors) is responsible for rendering such efforts ineffective. The study adopted a qualitative approach with interviews and focus group discussions as data collection methods. The study established that the generation-set system of the Pokot people (and her Ateker cluster neighbors) which produces century-long alternating regimes of war and peace is responsible for the unending interethnic cattle raiding. Secondly, outsider-led conflict interventions in the past decades were unsuccessful because of inadequate understanding of the context (generation-set system and conflict), perceiving the conflict as influenced by factors outside the pastoralists’ context and failure to seek working conflict interventions inherent in pastoral cultural systems. To increase chances of success in peace efforts among these communities, peace actors need to look more into the cultural systems for underlying foundations that sustain conflict in particular ethnic and interethnic setting in order innovate culturally-relevant and working conflict interventions. Further research is needed to establish whether these communities have mechanisms to hasten processes of power handover to the regime of peace.