Leaders from the pastoralist counties now say there is no political outfit that can dare ignore them.
This they said in Garissa on Sunday after two-day meeting which brought together leaders of 15 pastoralist counties in Kenya.
They included, governors MPs senators, MCAs, community leaders and development partners.
Addressing the press, they resolved among other things to speak with one voice together as a vibrant strong progressive community and help each other tackle issues that are of concern to their people.
“We are pastoralist and that is what binds us together. We are the forth force. We have resolved to move as a team and speak in one voice. No political outfit will be able to ignore us,” Mandera Governor Ali Roba said.
Roba who is the chairman of the Frontier Counties Development council[FCDC] said they were leaving the summit ‘united than ever, fully re-energised and focused.
They discussed peace, security, ethnic extremism and socio-economic development.
“The leadership of pastrolists communities comprising of the 15 counties have resolved to support the government in effective and accountable protection of our country. We want to see an end to conflict by investing time and resources as well as all cross border conflicts,” Roba said in a statement.
He said the counties had achieved a lot in managing terrorism and radicalisation noting the same needs to be cascaded in other counties.
They demanded that the national anti-radicalisation programmes avoid targeting and ethnic profiling border communities as it has proved counterproductive.
"We urge the government to invest in counter-radicalisation. We want an increased cooperation between county governments and the security agencies,” read the statement.
On education, they resolved to propose a bill to establish the National Council for Nomadic Education in Kenya to give a legal framework to champion for education in the pastoralist counties.
They further resolved to develop a coordination mechanism to enhance effective implementation and accountability of education and training programmes.
On census, they resolved to ensure that the Kenya Bureau of Statistics designs and implements an appropriate methodology to enumerate all the residents of the pastrolist zones.
The leaders resolved to invest in ensuring that communities come out in large numbers during the census exercise.
This they said will be done by mitigating issues to do with pasture and water which have over the years made it impossible for most pastoralist to be counted since they have either crossed over to other counties or countries.
They resolved to ensure that KBS reviews the benchmarks of census in other countries with pastoralists population.
The leaders also resolved to invest time, energy and resources to contain the issue of drug abuse that continues to be a thorn in the flesh in the region.
“The issue of youth radicalisation has been catalyzed by drug abuse which has positioned our youth as the most vulnerable targets by al Shabaab. We will do everything we can to protect our youth against such groups,” said Roba.
The leaders said the areas have huge potential and will be the drivers of the economy of Kenya over the next 25-years.
“We value pastoralism to the core because it works for the people and has sustained lives over the years in the absence of government. We welcome investment and commit to providing most valuable and favourable partnership as pastoralist counties,” Roba said.
“We have agreed to work together as a vibrant and strong new progressive communities in Kenya. The pastoralists shall not anymore be referred to as small ethnic groups,” Roba said.