local news – 18-3-2011 - by Lazarus Epae - Dassanech and Turkana sit together as friends

This morning, members of the Dassenech Pastoralist community, left Todonyang in a climate of friendship and celebration, after having spend the night peacefully among their long-term enemies the Turkanas from Todonyang, Kokuro and Meyen. The previous night the Turkanas had done the same thing in a Dassanech village in neighboring Ethiopia. This comes as a result of the latest peace meetings organized by Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Mission in Todonyang.
The Dassanech and Turkana pastoralist communities along the Kenya-Ethiopia border around the Omo River and Lake Turkana Delta like many other pastoralist communities have been engaging in incessant conflicts for a long time, which have caused human life and livestock losses. Despite the series of previous peace dialogue meetings facilitated by both the Ethiopian and Kenyan governments and NGO’s, conflict had been rampant.
The most recent Peace initiatives were in 2006-2008 and were facilitated by Oxfam through Riam-Riam Turkana peace network. The three-year peace was abruptly broken on 18/11/2008 when three young Dassanech killed a Turkana family of three people, including Naputo the head of the family. Despite the both government’s efforts to restore peace, the conflict took a different dimension defeating all tried previous efforts.
In the struggle many innocent people have lost their lives, especially the Turkana fishermen along the lakeshore. As many people migrated and moved away from Todoyang, a remnant of about 1000 people took refuge in the Catholic Church’s compound, where they still live up to the present day. The Church has been trying very hard to restore some peace between the two communities, as she has continued to provide other developmental project to both communities as well.
In January 2011, Todoyang Mission tried again to start a peace programme. With the help of a facilitator consultative meetings were started and a peace consensus was agreed by both parties.
The final landmark peace meeting was held on 13/03/2011 at the Todoyang Mission dispensary, under the facilitation of the Church personnel and government security forces. The communities genuinely discussed about peace and agreed to leave the past behind and start a new chapter for peace.