The Impacts of Ethnicity and Conflict in Kenya (North Eastern Province). Case Study of Mandera Distric

ABSTRACT

This study on the Impact of Ethnicity and Conflict in Kenya, North Eastern Province, Mandera District” revolved around the incidence that caused Conflict showing a clear impact of the two intermingling variables (Ethnicity and conflict). The study tried to find out the conflict drivers and the ethnic clashes and finally to establish the strategies on how the existing problems of ethnicity and conflict can be eradicated or limited by the NGOs. To employ a clear and comprehensive work, literature on the main variables was curried out. The study used descriptive and explanatory measures Various methods of data collection were employed which included questionnaires which enabled the researcher to collect non observable aspects; observation which involved visits to the headquarters of the local administration in Mandera district to confirm various interpretations that emerged from the interview; and interviews to verify the information gathered. Purposively and random samplings were used to assist in identifying the local leaders and women group who made the sample. Violent conflicts have had very negative and severe impacts on the communities that are involved in these conflicts. The study highlighted several consequences of violent conflicts, which are negatively impacting on the communities under focus. Loss of human life, property, displacements of large segments of the communities, disruption of socio-economic activities and livelihoods, increased hatred between communities. The government of Kenya with the help of international community tried to reduce the severe problems in the country which the local in Mandera district have experienced so many years.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 Background

The instability which periodically plagues the Kenya-Somalia border area (Mandera) is part of a broader, complex pattern of state failure and communal violence afflicting much of the Horn of Africa. Violence and lawlessness are particularly acute in remote border areas where states in the region have never projected much authority. When they have, state authorities have sometimes been the catalysts of insecurity rather than promoters of peace.The working definition of ethnicity is that it involves the common consciousness of shared origins and traditions. The Greek ethnos is variously translated ‘tribe’ or ‘nation’ and its meaning can be taken as being some way between the two