Pastoralist News

The Provincial Commissioner of Upper Eastern Province travelled to Marsabit on 2nd Feburary with the Provincial Security Committee and local MP Hussein Tari Sasura. She spent a few days in the area and met with Borana, Rendille, Gabra, Burji and Turkana community members to discuss their grievances and causes of the current conflict in the area.

Pastoralists from across Kenya and southern Ethiopia attended the second in the University of the Bush series of seminars took place at Malka Bisan Adi. They debated the preliminary findings of 6 pieces of research into different areas of pastoralist innovation...

"Peace is not achieved by holding public meetings and making declarations alone. It is achieved through long, careful work of message-taking, information sharing, surveillance and implementation of the law," states the initial findings of the recent Pastoralist Shade Initiative review of the recent Gabra and Borana peace process in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia.

The Pastoralist Shade Initiative embark on a new review of innovation in peace and security in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia. The team is focussing on the recent peace process between the Gabra and Borana that culminated in the Maikona Declaration in August 2009.

160 pastoralists gathered at Walda in Sololo District, Kenya on 27th and 28th July 2009 and joined the other Borana and Gabra communities living along the Ethio-Kenya border in agreeing a peace declaration.

From 17th - 19th July, 250 people gathered at the Gamura Wells near Maikona, Chalbi in northern Kenya to discuss how to expand peace along the Ethiopia/Kenya border between the Borana and the Gabra communities.

From 3rd - 6th June, 130 people from both Ethiopia and Kenya attended a gathering hosted by the people of Dukana, Chalbi District, Kenya to discuss and extend recent peace agreements made between them and the Borana community at Dillo, Ethiopia...

The University of the Bush is a new initiative that brings together leading pastoralist thinkers from across Ethiopia and Kenya to interact with leading academics on issues with pertinence to pastoralism. The first two seminars covered pastoralist mobility and land tenure systems and the second looked at pastoralist innovation...

"Traditional livestock livelihoods of the Maasai, who do not consume wild animals, helped maintain the abundance of grazing animals in East Africa" said co-Author of a new ILRI study, Robin Reid of Colorado State University in the US, but the growing settlements and the exclusion of pastoralists from development of land policies have made their traditional way of life difficult to maintain. Full BBC story...

The film was shown at a private view at the Hidden Heroes film festival in March 2009 to an audience of around 300 people. Mursi community members, including one of the film-makers, Olisarali Olibui, attended and took part in a Q&A session after the film. "Shooting with Mursi" tells the story of the Mursi comunity through the eys of two of its members, brothers Olisarali and Milisha Olibui...

"If pastoralists resolve conflict cases with traditional negotiations through elders, there won't be a sense of revenge. The Borana, Gabra and Guji set traditional rules for themselves and brought peace to their communities. Their law is not contrary to government law or the constitution and, as long as it's not against the constitution, the government accepts any law set by the people in relation to their culture, religion or lifestyle."

Pastoralists from across Afar Region, north-eastern Ethiopia met at the inaugural meeting of the new Afar Pastoralists Council in late October. They also discussed major issues that Afar pastoralists are currently facing, such as conflict.

A group of pastoralists from the Ethiopian Oromia Pastoralist Association and Oromia Regional Government travelled to Niger this October to attend the 4th General Assembly of the Woodaabe Pastoralists of Niger

Pastoralist leaders from Ethiopia and Kenya met in Koora, Kajiado District (Kenya) from 26th - 30th August 2008. They forged agreements to decrease tension and reduce violence. Several groups agreed that whenever conflict is sparked by raid or rumour elders from each group involved will notify each other and attempt to prevent escalation...

After six years of working as part of UN OCHA Ethiopia, the Pastoralist Communication Initiative became an independent project in May 2008. After extensive discussions with our pastoralist advisory panel, with members drawn from across Africa, PCI has increased its independence and become more pastoralist-directed.

Hudet, Somali Region (28 November): Pastoralists representing all the ethnic groups of Ethiopia's Somali National Regional State have decided to give priority to peace in the region in discussions that started today at a unique event in the region's Liban zone. 

The Gambella Regional Education Bureau on behalf of the Ethiopian New Millenum Festival Celebration Regional Council Secretariat organized a grade 8 students contest in the pastoralist region of Gambella. 87 students from 44 schools participated in the contest.

South Omo - Pastoralists in Ethiopia's Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region are preparing for five days of debate and celebration in one of Ethiopia's most distant and dramatic locations - Nyangatom woreda, South Omo zone.

"Looking at the laws, I prefer to be in Ethiopia, but looking at what pastoralists are doing, looking at what their rights actually are, I prefer to be in Kenya"

Pastoralists Rights are enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. However the articulation of these fundamental rights lacks legal instruments and mechanisms for their realization.