A Change of strategy

Because of the failure of peace workers NGOs to ease the armed and deadly conflicts among herders’ communities in northern Kenya and Uganda, donors have been invited to cut off their financial aid toward them; at the same time, eastern African authorities were asked to join their effort in order to ensure safety in their area by taking away guns from illegal people. Those conclusions found in Africa News/The Nation and reported in an article (Kenya; Aid Has Failed To End Gun Among Herders), were drawn by Mr. Kennedy Agade Mkutu throughout his book “Gun and Governance in the Rift Valley” and Mr. Dave Eaton in “Oxford journal”. According to Mkutu, some Kenyan pastoralist communities owned a large amount of illegal weapons during the past ten years; during the same period, the amount of cattle stolen was ten times higher. On the other side, Mr. Eaton criticized donors who continued to give money to so-called transient peace groups which are yearly founded back and forth, purposely to satisfy political interests instead of promoting peace. Any real solution to this matter requires a new approach which consists of giving back the stolen animals to their owners, affirmed Eaton. On the other part, Mkutu suggested that governments of the region conjugate their effort to bring a lasting solution to the problem by disarming all the communities and by reestablishing trust, confidence among them instead of using violence through security forces. Without a participatory approach which takes into account all the actors of the crisis, no solution will be possible, he pointed out. Finally Mkutu suggested that concerned governments set up solid institutions which will be responsible for rendering justice to everyone regardless his or her economical and social backgrounds.

Donors always spend a lot of money to solve conflicts in several areas in Africa. However people from different regions in this continent are still fleeing their country because of internal wars. In my opinion, I think that donors should use other strategies regarding this issue.

Many people often put on their mind that money can bring up any problem; such an opinion is delusive. Sometimes money creates more problems than it resolves. For instance, throughout the world some people often take advantage on the disastrous situation of others to make money. In some regions throughout the world, when a flood is coming up, some people rejoice because they will take as their own the aid that is dedicated to the victims. It is not without reason that the bible considers money as the root cause of every harm.

NGOs have no interests that the conflict be ended among herders communities; if so, they will not receive money anymore from donors. That is the main reason which prevents them from solving the problem. Moreover donors encourage them to do so; for in spite of the lack of results from their activities, they still continue to receive money from donors. Obviously, many poor countries are victim of this kind of situation. For example, in Haiti there are a lot of NGOs which are working in several poor regions in the country with the objective to fight poverty; nevertheless the situation of those regions never change. Most of the time, when a project is implemented, the greatest part of the fund is used to buy new brand cars, big houses; only a very slight percentage goes to the population. Thus, I think it is fair that donors stop throwing money down the drain.

As pointed out on the outset of the essay, donors must change their strategies if they really want to obtain better results. Instead of giving money back and forth to NGOs which use it to other end, it should be wiser to find out a means to meet directly people of different communities. By so doing, their request could be taken into consideration. Believe it or not, poverty is the main cause of this situation. Why is violence commonplace in some places in Africa? Does it mean that African people are more violent than people of the other continents? I don’t think so. Violence is due to poverty. Hence, the eradication of poverty among pastoralist communities is the best strategy to solve the problem.

A lasting solution could be found to many problems that humankind are facing today. However, people who could contribute to fix them are often blinded by love of money; thus those problems still remain unsolved. In this case I can not agree more with the authors when they invited donors to cut off money from NGOs until they manifest good will to solve the problem.

Kenya; Aid has failed to end gun trade among herders. ( April 17, 2008). Africa News,
The Nation. Retrieved on January 27, 2009, from Lexis Nexis datadase.