The Walk of Hope

Brief Report on Observations and Recommendations

by the Organizers of Walk of Hope on the State of
North Eastern Kenya
(The Walk of Hope Report)
Team Leader: Noordin Badel Tubeec
Report Author: Salah Abdi Sheikh
Organizers:*
Noordin Badel Tubeec,
Salah Abdi Sheikh,
Abdi Osman Siyad,
Ahmednur Salah
*Participants of the walk listed inside

August 2015

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Executive Summary
The Walk of Hope is an initiative of a group of professionals and youth from North Eastern
Kenya. The walk began on 13 June 2015 with the eventual objective of walking from Tana River
Bridge in Garissa to Border Point One in Mandera. The objective of the walk is to restore hope in
the North East and demonstrate the state of affairs in the region.
This brief report is intended for various stakeholders to get a glimpse of the state of the region. It
is a precursor to a more detailed book-length article to be published in the coming months by one
of the organizers of the Walk and a brief documentary detailing the experiences of the walkers.
The report was prepared from short notes prepared by the participants as they embarked on the
walk. It was not intended to be academic or statistical in nature. The Walkers never intended to
carry out a study or prepare a detailed report for any purpose; this attempt is therefore not to be
taken as the final word on the matters covered.
This brief report list certain observations chief of which are state of education, health, roads,
community organization and security in the region. The report recommends to the Central
Government to build the Garissa-Mandera Road as a priority project because it links all other
deficiencies in the region. The road affects every facet of society and is a symbol of states
commitment to its people.
The report recommends to the county governments to improve the state of health in their county
by improving the coordination of supply of medicines and posting qualified personnel in the
existing health facilities.
It is the recommendation of the walkers that civil society organizations to focus their efforts on
North Eastern Kenya. The Civil Society Organizations need to improve on documentation,
support human rights defenders and profile clan wars as part of human rights violations in the
region.
As a way forward, the Walk Of Hope group is carrying out projects intended to bring the
community together and foster self-reliance; library projects at NEP Girls Secondary School,
Wajir Girls Secondary School and Buruburu Mixed School at Border Point One, Mandera. The
Group is also organizing a peoples conference to discuss the challenges facing the region and
propose the way forward.

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Recommendations
Recommendations to the Central Government
1. Immediately construct the Garissa-Mandera Road: This is a priority over any other
project. This road will open up the region to the rest of Kenya, spur economic
activity, reduce the brain drain that the region suffers and highly reduce insecurity. It
will also lead to improvement of healthcare, education, housing and social services.
2. Localize Security Services: Enhance the recruitment and training of locals into the
Police and enhance the role of Kenya Police Reservists in security. Deployment of
local Police Officers in the region will increase intelligence available for crime
prevention and increase trust between the Police and the public.
3. Enforcement of Individual Responsibility for crimes and Robust Prosecution of clan
militias: Collective punishment of communities in NEP over crimes committed by
individuals has created clan sovereignties in constituencies and countys. It has
spurred nepotism in employment and elections. To reverse this trend, the government
should prosecute individuals who fan, fund and fight in clan clashes. This will
completely stem the perennial clan clashes.
4. Enforcement Land Laws and Implementation of Land Policy: In order to reduce over
access to land and land based resources, all administrative boundaries should be
clearly marked and communicated to communities. Specifically the following
constituency boundaries should be clearly marked: Dadaab/Balambala, Wajir
East/Wajir South, Eldas/Wajir North, Mandera North/Mandera South, Lafey. All
community lands should also be marked and private and public land be given title
deeds.
5. Improvement of management of education: The education system in North Eastern
Kenya has completely collapsed. The government needs to urgently order TSC to
deploy teachers and MOEST provide required facilities in schools. Schools need: (a)
sufficient teachers, libraries, administrative staff and running water. (b) be merged so
that existing meagre resources can be utilized effectively
6. Demilitarization: The military has been deployed in the region to do police work
which indicates a return to the state of emergency that prevailed before 1992. This
needs to be reversed. The military should be deployed at the International Borders not
within the country in order to reduce the tension that has now increased in the three
counties.

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7. Increase in Equalization Fund: To fund the above recommendations Parliament needs

as Marshall Plan to increase the equalization fund for Northern Kenya. This will
increase resources available to the region for speeding up development.
8. Review the qualifications, job descriptions and conduct of Chiefs and their assistants:
Chiefs play an important role in community organization. Where the chief is qualified
and motivated the community gets access to government services as well as gets
organized to support its own initiatives. Where the chief is weak, the community
remains divided and weak too. Individuals who command respect in the community
should be appointed as chiefs.
9. Redress Historical Injustices: This can easily be done by implementing the TJRC
Report. This will enhance the trust between government and its citizens.
10. Issue Identity Cards: The government should speed up the issuance of ID cards to
deserving citizens and in speedy manner. The harassment of citizens over ID cards
should be done away with.
Recommendations to the County Government
1. Improve Health Services especially availability of medical staff and medicines: Many of
the settlements have small dispensaries but they lack either medical staff or medicines,
mostly they lack both. In modern world this is unacceptable. The County Governments
should post more medical staff to villages and towns away from county headquarters so
that the population can access proper healthcare.
2. Stem Wastage Public Resources: There is very high wastage of resources through
corruption, poor construction standards and misuse of staff time. Poor construction
standards lead to abandoned buildings which were intended to service communities as
schools and health centres. The county governments should enforce building standards
and ensure facilities built serve the purpose for which they were built. Fighting corruption
and wasteful spending would also help save the necessary resources for developing the
counties
3. Implement the County Policing Authority Act: The County Policing Authority Act was
formulated to provide guidelines for the engagement of County Governments in the
security of the counties. However, this law largely remains on the books without action
by either the central government or the county government. Implementation of this law
will help in fighting crime in the region.
4. Implementation of Massive Water Projects: County Governments should provide
sufficient fresh water to its possible. A realistic water needs assessment should to be
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undertaken in Northern Kenya in order to initiate programmes for piping water across the
region from Tana River and Daua River to every major settlement.
5. Implement Massive Literacy: County Government should initiate literacy programme to
increase literacy among the population. The county Governments can borrow
international literacy programmes that have been tested and applied by different
countries. Yo! Si Puedo or Yes I can! model was developed in Cuba in 2000 and has been
successfully adopted in over fifteen countries including New Zealand, Argentina and
Timor Leste to increase literacy rates amongst Indigenous populations. This model can be
borrowed and applied in North Eastern Kenya. Alternatively, since most of the residents
understand Arabic Script, it can be used as a basis for literacy by writing the indigenous
language in Arabic Script. That will reduce illiteracy by 75% overnight.
6. Expand Vocational Training: The County Governments of Garissa, Mandera and Wajir
should expand vocational training for youth in order to impart useful skills like Masonry;
Carpentry and Woodwork; Metal Work, Fabrication and Wielding; Plumbing; Wiring and
electrical works; tailoring and dressmaking; computer skills and others.
Recommendations to Civil Society
1. Enhance documentation of abuses in the North Eastern: This region has the highest
number of cases of human rights violations in the past and in the present. There is need
for strong civil society documentation effort to keep records of these abuses especially
state abuses against citizens in this era of war on terror.
2. Support for Human Rights Defenders in the Region: Human Rights Defenders in
Northern Kenya suffer either intimidation or are compromised due to lack of resources.
Civil Society organizations need to provide sufficient protection for these individuals in
order to safeguard their important role in the society.
3. Profile Clan wars and their effects: The human and material cost of clan wars remain
unknown. Civil Society needs to focus on this particular issue as important human rights
violations that need redress.
4. Maintain focus on the region: The nature of the region is that all basic rights of the
residents are in abeyance. The right basic sustenance of life like water is a challenge, the
right to life is completely suspended because of the many threats to life, the right to
education for children is violated and the right to information is non-existent. This creates
a crucible of abuses that has turned the area into a war zone in peacetime.
5. Support Youth Programmes: The civil society should support youth programmes intended
to instill self-reliance on the youth. These includes vocational training and apprenticeship.
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Introduction
On Saturday 13 June 2015,the walk of hope commenced from Tana Bridge in Garissa with the
eventual goal of walking 1000km (the distance on Map is 728km) distance to Border Point One
in Mandera.
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The walk started with fanfare with hundreds walking the first eleven kilometers to Modokarey.
Eventually however, only seven walkers and 3 support crew remained to begin the actual walk.
The walk was initiated to restore hope in a time of uncertainty when insecurity,
underdevelopment, disunity and dependence have enveloped the region used to be called North
Eastern Kenya.
The Objectives of Walk of Hope
The objective was to walk the land, see the people and how they live, meet the dwellers of the
villages and the nomads and communicate a better vision for North Eastern Kenya in a time of
general insecurity, collapse of education system, infrastructural insufficiency and community
division.
The walk was about hope; about courage, about unity, about self-reliance, about empowerment
and about peaceful coexistence. The walkers want to create a movement that will liberate the
people of the North Eastern from poverty, illiteracy and insecurity through unity cooperation and
peaceful coexistence.
The walkers aimed to demonstrate the relative peace that exists in North Eastern Kenya by
walking across the region by foot.
The objective of the walk is to spur volunteerism among the people of North Eastern Kenya. This
is formulated to stem the brain drain that leads to lack of professional and skilled manpower
across the three counties
List of Participants
No.

Name of Walker

Starting Point

Noordin Badel Tubeec

Tana Bridge

Salah Abdi Sheikh

Tana Bridge

Siyad Osman Abdi

Tana Bridge

AhmedNur Saleh

Tana Bridge

Salah Mohamed Abdinoor

Tana Bridge

Fuad Abdirahman

Tana Bridge

Abdirizack Abdullahi Salat

Tana Bridge

Ali Aw Doll

Habaswein

Abdihafid Abdinassir

Wajir
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10

Omar Osman

Wajir

11

Osman Salat Adan

Wajir

12

Abdullahi Bocor

Wajir

13

Abdikadir Abdullahi

Wajir

14

Abdinassir Abdullahi

Wajir

15

Musa Yussuf

Wajir

16

Abdirahman Ahmed

Wajir

17

Abdikalif Abdiqafar Adan

Kutulo

18

Salah Abdi Mursal

Borehole 11

19

Abdinoor Mohamed

Elwak

20

Adan Issack

Elwak

21

M.K

Elwak

22

Ismail Abdi Hassan

Wargadud

23

Jama Hussein

Rhamu

24

Muhumed Adan Kunow

Rhamu

25

Abdikarim Abdullahi

Rhamu

26

Mohamed Korane

Challenges faced
The group faced some challenges in planning and executing the walk of hope. Among the
challenges included:
1. Lack of Resources: The walk of hope was not backed by any organized group government
or non-government, for profit or non-profit. It was organized by activists relying mainly
on their own pockets and donations from their friends. The largest single supporter was
Kenya Red Cross who provided Ambulance and First Aid Services by deploying a fully
equipped ambulance with a paramedic.

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2. Distance: The distance of the walk and the terrain and climate were difficult. The area is
dry, it was the month of fasting and temperatures soared to almost 40 degrees at high
noon. The terrain in some places was rocky and difficult to walk on. The distance of
728km was not easy to cover.
3. Fear of Insecurity: There was fear of insecurity, at the beginning of the walk which
prevented people from joining the walk. In some areas there were clan clashes especially
areas in Garissa County and Mandera County.
4. Misunderstanding of the Message: It was not easy to convince people that the main
objective of the walk was to sensitize the population on challenges facing the region. This
was the first ever walk that was popularized through media in the region. Some political
leaders were scared by the intentions of the walkers. Fear of change also scared others.
5. Expectations of the Community, Supporters and Walkers: Some community members
expected that the walk will erase all the existing problems and the hope will be delivered
on contact. Some of the walkers who joined on the way also misunderstood the objectives
of the walk probably seeking monetary and other personal gains which created issues for
the organizers. The organizers feared that the walked will be hijacked by different groups
to achieve their own ends.
Observations
1. Insecurity
It was observed that the main threat to security in the region is not terror related but clan
clashes that claim lives and displaced people. According to the people living in the
region, this source of insecurity is brought about mainly by politics which promotes
perceived grievances of communities like loss of land to rival clans or creation of
unsustainable settlements inhabited by specific subclans and families. Colonial borders
have created virtual prisons in the region where people cannot travel or settle where they
wish. It was also discovered that clan clashes are an expensive affair, the typical cost of
killing one person in a clan war is sometimes as high as a million shillings. It was also
observed that nomadic herdsmen have no capacity to maintain a militia and nearly every
member of the community blames Nairobi-based clan members including politicians,
professionals and businessmen for funding the menace. People say clan clashes can be
prevented through free association of clans, creation of standing peace committees
consisting of all clans and amicable sharing of resources.
2. Education
It was observed that the perceived insecurity in Northern Kenya has driven the education
system to the ground even before the latest spate of attacks in the region. Schools were
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terribly understaffed even prior to the latest killings of non-local Kenyans. The fear of
more attacks drove away the few number of TSC employed teachers from schools in the
region. Two important matters stand out from the state of affairs, first there were almost
TSC teachers in many schools in the first place and second non-local PTA teachers have
stayed in their stations in spite of the perceived insecurity. It is also worth noting that
most non-local healthcare workers, builders, artisans and businessperson have not been
scared away by fear of insecurity. There seems to be a particular problem with the TSC
teachers.
3. Health
It was also observed that generally many settlements have functioning clinics and health
centres. The cross-cutting concern in all the villages the group visited was lack of
coordination in the supply of drugs, shortage of personnel and scarcity of space. It was
also observed that there was low uptake of hospital delivery and many centres lacked
HIV testing kits. People believe these are not insurmountable challenges if county
governments put a bit of resources and time in resolving this issue. The team
acknowledges that tremendous efforts have been put into trying to improve the healthcare
system but gaps are inevitable under this kind of environment. In Habaswein the walkers
were shocked to happen on new hospital wards that have already been condemned due to
fear of collapse. Enquiries revealed that such occurrences were common place with many
new health centres and dispensaries being condemned for fear of collapsing due to poor
construction standards.
4. Water
It was observed that in many of the settlements in the three counties lacked fresh drinking
water, in many places, the water is saline and not suitable for drinking. Some settlements
were purely dependent on water trucking which makes their life too expensive. A notable
settlement the walkers sampled was Hungai Village in Tarbaj Constituency which existed
for 24 years but still suffers complete lack of water leading to its eminent collapse unless
rescued through piping water from another locality.
Fresh drinking water is completely absent from the region despite being the land between
two rivers. It is shocking to note that areas within 25km of Tana and Daua Rivers have no
fresh water. Such areas include Nunow in Garissa County and Bambo in Mandera
County.
5. Community Organization
We were rather pleased to observe that the more organized a community is, the more
proactive it is in attempting to solve its problems. Communities have employed teachers
to fill the shortfall resulting from the existing shortage of teachers. Communities have
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built staff quarters for their teachers and communities undertake policing and justice
system in areas where governmental authority is absent.
6. Citizenship and ID cards:
The walkers observed that communities equated citizenship with IDs which they had no
access. The issuance of ID cards in NEP is rather haphazard. People told us that this issue
was politicized and that it is difficult to obtain the important document. Records show
that slightly less than 30,000 ID cards were issued in the North East since 2013.
7. State of the Road
The state of road in three counties can be described as pathetic. The road is 728km long
from Tana Bridge to Border Point One. Only about 17km are tarmacked. In Wajir and
Garissa Counties the road is just sandy paths marked vehicle tyre marks. In Mandera the
road is impossible rocky outcrops. The most difficult stretch of the road is in Mandera
where even walking becomes very difficult. Community members at every settlement say
the state of the road is linked to everything else. It is linked to state of schools, the
provision of water, the insecurity due to clan clashes and the state of health sector.
Community members believe that the state of the road is intertwined with their own
feeling of being citizens of this country; nothing connects them to Kenya with that state
of the road.
8. Farming and Markets
It was observed with water the region can become a leading player in fruit farming. In
Garissa, the farms of the river bank produce sufficient vegetables and fruits which are
even exported abroad. There even large commercial farming along the Tana River.
However lack of Water hampers farming activities in the interior. In Wajir, irrigation
efforts have led to production of watermelons and other fruits and vegetables. Lack of
fresh water hampers farming activities in this county. In Mandera large farms exist on the
banks of river Daua which produce sufficient fruits and vegetables for the town and its
environments.
It was observed that markets constructed by county governments largely remain idle. The
markets were built to organize the residents trading activities especially for fresh produce.
Residents say the markets are not fit for their activities because the space allocated to
each person is too small, they were not consulted in building the markets and no
mechanism for managing the markets was put in place.
Way Forward
Hope Projects.
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After the Walk of Hope, the organizers of Walk of Hope have conceived what they dubbed as
Hope Project. These are projects intended to create unity and promote self reliance. A hope
project is carried out with the resources of the community both material and skills. Community
members donate building materials and come together to build the project. The initial projects to
begin in November 2015 are libraries in three schools in the three counties. These initiatives are
intended to demonstrate freedom from dependence where communities can be motivated to come
together and own their progress.
Hope Conference
In order to discuss the challenges facing the people of North Eastern Kenya and agree on a way
forward, the organizers of Walk of Hope will hold a major conference in October 2015. This
conference will bring together different stakeholders in the community including elected leaders,
traditional leaders, Religious leaders, Women leaders, Youth leaders and leaders of PWDs. The
question to be tacked will be the future of North Eastern Kenya in terms of security, social
services, community relations with the rest of Kenya and economic takeoff. This conference will
be billed as the most important gathering since 1963. The difference between this conference and
others is that the organizers have no overriding interest other than the interest of the people of the
region. The conference participants will be hosted by Garissa residents in their homes in order to
create networks, foster understanding and communicate the deliberations of the Conference
directly to the people.

Appendix One
Sample of Schools visited in Garissa and Wajir County
Name of Settlement

Name of School

No. of Pupils

No. of TSC
Teachers

No.
of
BOG
Teachers/Volunteers

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Abdisamad

Abdisamad
Primary School

200+

Dertu

Dertu
Girls 200+
Secondary School

Shanta Abaq

Shantaabaq
Primary School

663

Abakore

Abakore Primary

460

Habaswein

Dadajabula
Secondary School

300+

Qanjara

Qanjara
School

Primary 125

Guticha West

Guticha
School

Primary 100+

Lagboqol

Busbus
School

Primary 100+

Lagboqol

Lagboqol Primary 629

School

Boji Yarey

Boji
Yarey 400
Primary School

Leheley

Leheley Primary

380

Leheley

Kukala
School

Primary 500

Appendix: Major Settlements on the Garissa-Mandera Road

1. Nunow
2. Abdisamad
3. Bahuri
4. Dertu
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5. Shanta Abaq
6. Abakore
7. Dhilmanyaaley
8. Habaswein
9. Qanjara
10. Gutcha
11. Lagboqol
12. Boji Yarey
13. Leheley
14. Wajir Town
15. Lafaley
16. Tarbay
17. Hungai
18. Wargaduud
19. Kutulo
20. Kutulo II
21. Dabacity
22. Borehole 11
23. Elwak
24. Eresuki
25. Wargaduud
26. Sukelativa
27. Garri
28. Bambo
29. Jabbi Baar
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30. Rhamu
31. Sala
32. Qumbiso
33. Hareeri
34. Khalaaliyo
35. Neboi
36. Mandera Town

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