LOCAL NEWS - By OKOTH PETER - TURKANA ASK FOR MORE CONSTITUENCIES AND WARDS

Turkana West leaders, through Turkana West Leaders and Stake Holders Forum today, have asked to be given additional Constituency and award.
Giving their views to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) at Anne Nanjala Education Centre, Lodwar, the leaders said that even though they appreciated the decision to split their former constituency, Turkana North, into two, their was need to create another additional constituency to be called Lokichoggio and rename the one which has been created from Turkana West to Kakuma Constituency. They also asked the commission to consider increasing the 8 wards they have been given to 9.
Turkana South leaders who have been awarded a new constituency to be known as Turkana East also asked to additional constituency to known as Tirikwel. They also proposed some of their wards to be split because they were vast and therefore it will not be easy to be managed effectively the way they have been merged.
The issue of mismatched wards played out when Peter Deric Emase Ejore presented his views asking the Commission to correct the areas which have been matched wrongly be corrected. He pointed out Napetet as one of them saying that it had been wrongly moved to Kangatosa in Kerio.

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.