From ‘Down Kenya’ to the North: A journey from Nairobi to Lodwar.

 Lodwar town, the administrative capital of Turkana County, is located in one of Kenya's most marginalized and remote places. Situated in the North-Western parts of Kenya, the town hosts the headquarters of the Turkana County Government and is a commercial hub buzzing with all kinds of businesses, mainly spurred by the presence of refugee camps in the nearby Kakuma town. It has an airport, usually used by humanitarian workers employed by various NGOs in the Kakuma refugee camp, government officers and others to travel to other parts of Kenya, mainly the capital city of Nairobi. 

One of the buses ferrying passengers from Nairobi to Lodwar

 

To understand Turkana County, a little historical background is vital. It is popularly known as the 'Cradle of Mankind' following the discovery of early human fossils, particularly the 'Turkana Boy’ in Nariokotome near Lake Turkana in 1984, which is the most complete early human skeleton ever found. It is mainly inhabited by the Turkana people and other smaller ethnic communities who are traditionally nomadic pastoralists. Based on a census which was conducted in 2020, the County is sparsely populated with about 926,976 persons and at least 250,000 Refugees and Asylum seekers located at the Kakuma refugee camps and nearby Kalobeyei Integrated Settlement. 

The region is one of the most economically marginalized and underdeveloped in Kenya. According to a 2012 report by Kenya’s Commission for Revenue Allocation (CRA), Turkana has a human development index score of 0.2697 compared to the national average of 0.520 and the lowest literacy rates in the country at 39 per cent. Further, a report by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics published in 2018 ranked the County as having the highest poverty rates, high proportions of self-assisted deliveries at 34.5 per cent, high malnutrition levels, and more than half of the households (64.2 per cent) receiving cash transfers. Put simply, the County is the poorest in Kenya. 

A phot of a street in Lodwar town.

However, these tough economic challenges in Turkana can be attributed to the historical injustices perpetrated through discriminative development policies of both the colonial administration and the post-independence regimes. The colonial government, for example, viewed it as backward and economically unproductive. At the same time, the post-colonial regimes led by Kenyans continued this marginalization by focusing government development efforts in agriculturally productive areas, especially in Central and Western Kenya.

From the late 1950s to independence in 1963, the British colonial government practised various restrictive and discriminatory policies in Turkana, keeping them in closed districts to prevent them from engaging in the anti-colonial struggle and putting them in what was referred to as famine camps used to distribute relief food since the region is an arid area which is prone to frequent famines. These were supervised through various policies, such as getting a movement pass to leave the region and mandatory registration with the police for those who intended to travel. This experience gave rise to the phrase, 'Naenda Kenya', which translates to 'I am going to Kenya' as a reference to the political exclusion, economic marginalization, and discrimination faced by the Turkana people by a government that denied them the privileges of citizenship. 

In addition, the Turkana's coined another phrase, 'downy' or 'down Kenya', to describe the other parts of Kenya, which enjoyed the privileges of inclusion in and being closer to Kenyan government services. The Turkana people were not granted freedom of movement until 1986, two decades after independence. This experience continues to shape the perceptions of the Turkana people towards other Kenyans and refugees whom they feel are treated better than them, and also towards the Kenyan government and refugee agencies, whom they deem responsible for their plight. 

A journey to Lodwar from Nairobi is, therefore, no ordinary voyage. Firstly, suppose one does not opt for a flight from the Wilson Airport in Nairobi to Lodwar, costing about US dollars 150. In that case, the only option left is to take a bus or van- popularly known as 'shuttles' and endure a journey of about 16 hours on the road to a town approximately 500 kilometres from Nairobi City.  

While the journey by road is usually smooth and calm, the situation changes as the bus enters the first town in Turkana County- Kainuk. Located along the border of Turkana and West Pokot Counties, Kainuk is a contested borderland in which both the pastoralist Turkana people (from Turkana County) and the Pokots (from West Pokot County) claim ownership. This contestation usually leads to violent armed conflict between the Pokots and Turkanas, who raid each other occasionally, stealing livestock and killing innocent civilians. So serious is the security situation in the Kainuk area that the Government of Kenya, in February 2023, launched a security operation comprising the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) and the Police to flush out bandits and restore security in the volatile region. In the same month of February, for example, suspected Pokot bandits ambushed and killed at least six civilians and four police officers who were on patrol along the Kainuk- Lodwar highway. Moreover, two security bases have been established within a one-kilometre radius of Kainuk town, made up of the General Service Unit (GSU) and the Anti-Stock Theft Unit (ASTU), all drawn from the National Police Service and supported by the KDF. 

Kainuk centre.

Thus, the journey from Kainuk to the next town (Lokichar) is usually tense. The vehicle carrying civilians has to be accompanied by a police escort to keep off the bandits from attacking public service vehicles (PSVs) transporting people to Lodwar and Kakuma, the majority of whom are employed by NGO agencies working with the refugees and host communities or drawn by the socioeconomic opportunities created by the presence of refugees and the refugee economy. From Lokichar- a town whose rapid growth can be attributed to the existence of large oil deposits discovered in the area- the journey is relatively safer to Lodwar. 

A Kenya police lorry parked along a street in Lodwar.

In conclusion, the journey from Nairobi to Turkana County is characterized by adventure and danger. On the one hand, the journey by road enables the traveller to enjoy the beauty and splendour of Kenyan towns, geographical features like the Great Rift Valley, and Kenyan communities and cultures. It is also a scary experience marked by a perilous drive through bandit territory along the Kainuk-Lokichar highway.