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Drought, Violence and Politics: Inside Laikipia’s Cattle War
A historic drought in Kenya is coinciding with a hotly contested election
Nerves in central and northern Kenya are fraying, as climate stresses intensify intercommunal conflict and amplify electoral tensions.
- ICG
Climate change, politics and resource competition are colliding again in a deadly combination on Kenya’s fertile Laikipia plateau.
When previous rainy seasons failed, in 2011 and 2017, herders from Kenya’s arid and semi-arid regions took their cattle to lush Laikipia, sometimes leading to violent clashes among rival herder communities or between herders, on one hand, and farmers and ranchers on the other.
But the violence in…