160 pastoralists gathered at Walda in Sololo District, Kenya on 27th and 28th July and joined the other Borana and Gabra communities living along the Ethio-Kenya border in agreeing a peace declaration, based on that made by the Dillo and Dukana communities on the Ethiopia/Kenya border in November 2008. The communities also agreed to start sharing grazing and water resources. By 29th July, around 400 cattle, 1500 sheep and goats and many camels from Turbi were using the water at Rawan, near Walda – a 10km distance rather than the 80km they had been going before the meeting, since the Turbi massacre in 2005.
Pastoralists at the Walda meeting agreed to follow up the peace declaration with regular meetings throughout the area, including Turbi, Bubisa and Marsabit. The meeting was funded by the Walda community with vehicles provided by local NGOs including the Pastoralist Shade Initiative and the GOK Arid Lands project. The Walda meeting comes after two other large gatherings of pastoralists in the area – one in Dukana in June 2009 and the second at Maikona in July 2009 (supported by the DFID funded DGPP project, where the Dukana and Dillo declaration has been fully analysed and discussed. Click here for more information on the Maikona Gathering and the Dukana Gathering.
Some of the declaration signatories
