The world’s first armed conflicts due to climate change may be just beginning. In a remote and arid part of northern Kenya, the Turkana nomadic community today brandish Kalashnikovs, ready to kill in defence of their depleting water sources. The district in which they live, herding goats, cattle and camels, borders Uganda, Sudan and Ethiopia. It is a landscape strewn with the carcasses of livestock following a prolonged and severe drought. With rains persistently failing to materialize, the traditional life of the Turkana stands threatened. While droughts are not a recent phenomenon, those that used to happen – and were anticipated – every decade or so have now started ravaging the land every two or three years, throwing the community’s migratory patterns into disarray.
Conflict is the most alarming symptom of climate change. Every drop of water is guarded fervently. Cattle rustling and tribal rivalry have a long history in East Africa and to some extent are an intrinsic aspect of traditional pastoralist culture. An inveterate rivalry has existed historically between the Pokot, Samburu and Turkana of Kenya, resulting in scuffles and encounters. But relatively small internal skirmishes over cattle have now become increasingly destructive and are spreading across country borders, with fatal armed warfare over diminishing water sources and grazing land.
