AFRICA/KENYA - State and Church work together to help the people of Lake Turkana

Nairobi (Agenzia Fides) - "We have entered into a memorandum of understanding on service delivery on provision of basic amenities such as health services and water in the county", said His Exc. Mgr. Dominic Kimengich, Bishop of Lodwar to CISA Agency in Nairobi, in presenting the agreement reached between his diocese and the authorities of the County of Turkana, in north Kenya, a desert area where the harshness of the climate is accompanied by a situation of great insecurity, due to the conflicts herdsmen for the control of scarce water resources and for pasture.
Mgr. Kimengich stressed: "when two communities are fighting for water, we build them a borehole on one side so that the conflict is diminished".
Another point of cooperation between church and State concerns the education of children. As the Bishop of Lodwar explains "if these young people do not go to school, they easily become warriors. We often encourage them to go to school. This, we believe will be a solution to the problem" with regards to the instability of the area.
The area of Lake Turkana has long been at the center of tensions and violence between groups of Samburu and Turkana herdsmen, with raids and cattle rustling. The tension is heightened further by the trafficking of illegal weapons that come from the neighboring States. The arrival of military-style weapons has made clashes even more bloody. On 1 November 22 people, of whom 20 were policemen, were killed in an ambush in Kapedo (see Fides 04/11/2014). (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 23/12/2014)