PhD thesis Title Page Final _Richard Juma - Victoria University ...

considerable period of time. He would be able to predict, with some degree
of accuracy, the occurrence of possible future events (Gulliver 1951).
Informants confirmed that diviners became wealthy individuals and were
influential in military and non military matters. After every successful raid,
they received stock from raiders. They also charged a fee in the form of
goats and sheep for the treatment of sick people. The Turkana people also
evolved various cultural institutions to govern resource conflicts that
arose.
5.2.6 Chapter summary.
This chapter has considered some of the salient aspects of the historical
institutional and policy environment concerning the livelihood of the
Turkana people. The discussion has helped us to gain a satisfactory
insight into the related challenges in their attempts to secure a reliable
and sustainable livelihood. An attempt has been made to trace the history
of famine in the Turkana District, and it is suggested that the area has
experienced recurrent food shortages based on a number of factors at both
micro and macro levels. During these periods, although drought appeared
to have been the major determinant of food shortages, other problems
such as history of negative policy environment, animal diseases, as well as
the raids from neighbouring tribes were contributory factors. Various
attempts have been made by the Kenyan government during the colonial
and post-independence periods to exercise a strong level of control over
pastoralists in Kenya, in particular, the Turkana. These inimical policies
were totally at variance with the Turkana peoples’ own understanding of
how their livelihoods could be sustained, and have had a predominantly
disruptive overall impact in terms of food security.
During the colonial period, the aim was to pacify Turkana pastoralists and
to ensure peace and order. This tendency had several implications. It
tended to present the Turkana as an unreliable people prone to violence
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