Turkana people trained on human rights

Young people from the Turkana tribe in Northern Kenya are being trained on human rights. The programme is a joint project between MS Kenya and Danish based international organisation IWGIA working with indigenous peoples

The land is arid in Kenya’s Turkana region bordering with Sudan and Ethiopia. Development on a big scale has not yet reached this area. Apart from a health center and the belonging staff houses, nothing really seems to have changed for centuries in the remote town of Kaikor where the headquarters of MS Kenya partner organisation AKOSI is placed.

AKOSI means ‘ours’ in the Turkana language, and the organisation works with various programmes, all aiming at developing the communities of the region.

Current programmes are categorized under three headlines: establishment of a small scale honey production, livestock management and human rights. The latter is supported by MS Kenya in a joint project with IWGIA (International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs).

Kaikor mainly consists of manyattas scattered aorund a few permanent structures.

So far six people have been on an orientation course on human rights, three from village Loruth near Kaikor and another three from Lokamarnyang, a village futher North next to the Sudanese border. Another three to four people from Kaikor are still to receive the orientation, explained the coordinator of AKOSI, Alexander E. Lama, to a delegation from MS Kenya who in late October visited Kaikor.

For the visit 14 people engaged with AKOSI had been gathered from villages within the area of AKOSI coverage and brought to the dusty town of Kaikor which mainly consists of Manyattas scattered around the permanent structures belonging to the Ministry of Heath.

Among the participants, all of whom were members of AKOSI’s programme committees, a majority of eight were women. Two of them, Martha Rerus and Kevina Edabal, were from nearby village Loruth. They had both received an orientation course on Human rights a few days prior to the arrival of the visitors from MS Kenya.

The aim of the orientation was to create awareness on human rights among the Turkanas of whom the majority still live under traditional political and social powerstructures.

The two young women state that the have learned a lot from the orientation, and that they are ready to use their knowledge for the benefit of their communities.

Among the examples that were used during the course was one about a woman whose husband died. After his death his family came to take away the properties of the household since, according to the Turkana tradition, it all belongs to the man. 

Martha Rerus, left, and Kevina Edabal, right.

“That kind of incident is very common around here. When we see it, from now on we know that the law is being violated, and so we can advise the victims on how to claim their rights. We can help them go to the elders. If the elders do not listen we can forward the case to the DO or connect to human rights groups in the region,” Martha Rerus explains.

The two young women explain that they were selected by their respective communities to take part in the orientation course. When asked why two young women were chosen rather than elderly men who are traditional powerholders, Kevina Edabal immediately replies as she laughs:

“Maybe they chose us because they know that we young people have sharper brains.”

Carrying a machine gun when on the move is everyday life in the troubled Turkana region.