Life among the Marakwet

Life among the Marakwet

W
Anthropologist Wilhelm e visited the lowlands some four Wilhelm Östberg
Östberg spent two and a to five times a year and stayed for
half years living among about two weeks on each occasion.
the Marakwet in the For two and a half years we were engaged
1970s and has visited in anthropological research in the highland
periodically since then. part of Marakwet in the Rift Valley, while
He describes life in the also having a comparative study going in
Kerio Valley then and the lowlands. The contrast to the Marakwet
now. highlands, where we lived with our two
young children, was extraordinary. The
highlands were lush, extensively cultivated,
market oriented. As we descended the steep
escarpment, the car bouncing with screeching
brakes over rocks and through narrow
Above: passages, we arrived to heat, stillness, thorn
Marakwet homes on the
hillside, overlooking the bushes, acacias, cicadas, termite mounds, dik-
Kerio Valley (1998). diks, and a much slower pace of life.

From Kenya Past and Present issue 42, published in 2015 by the Kenya Museum Society 53
KENYA PAST & PRESENT ISSUE 42

Tot, the main centre in the valley, was in the sold on the outskirts of the markets. There
1970s a sleepy place with a chief ’s office, were a few peddlers, but on the whole the
a police station, an understocked health trade was local. Elderly women addressed
centre, two churches, a few shops and a us in whispering voices, wishing us well:
kilapuu, a club where locally-made beer was Chamgei chamgei gogonyuun (“Greetings,
sold from drums — when I now go through my grandchild”), Iyomunee (“How are you
my old diaries I am surprised to read how doing?”). We bought fruit, and talked to
common it was that men were drunk a lot people who seemed to have all the time in
of the time. It has passed from my memory, the world for us.
but it is there in the notebooks. The
government eventually banned the kilapuun I recall once when two elderly women asked
[pl.]: certainly a wise move. The kilapuu us for a lift. They closed their eyes and held
at Tot was owned by the senior chief so each other’s hands. When I asked if they
ironically the government’s representative were okay, they answered, “We do not know
had to close down his best source of income. if we shall die now”.

In the valley our car was usually the only The banana gardens were a pleasant
vehicle on the road. Women wore skin contrast to the dry lands. The soil was
capes, livestock moved freely, and children moist, irrigation water passed slowly in the
were playing in the streams that descend furrows, and a light breeze swayed the large
the escarpment. The market places in the banana fronds. The fields on the hillsides
small valley centres were emblematic of showed as green patches in a greyish-brown
picture-book Africa: light filtering through landscape. Shiny goats. It appeared an Eden,
the foliage of big shade trees, women in fine and in some ways it was. But there was, of
Heading north
jewellery, smoke from fires where cassava course, also poverty, poor health services,
in the Kerio
Valley (1973). A and tea were being prepared. Highland few schools, and landslides.
pleasant drive in and lowland produce were bartered. Pokot
the dry season
but a difficult women from across the Kerio River brought Today life in the valley has all changed,
passage during soured milk in gourds and Marakwet and yet it has not. There is electricity in
the rains. Few
women offered millet, cassava, tomatoes, Tot centre. Two streets with well-stocked
cars passed in
the early 70s and pawpaw, mangoes and bananas. There shops, regular matatu minivan transport to
they were always was honey, tobacco and snuff, but also both Kapsowar and Biretwo and onwards to
overloaded with
passengers and winnowing plates, stools, cowrie shells, Eldoret and Kabarnet. Cell phones and the
goods. blacksmith products. Sorghum beer was M-Pesa money service, rectangular houses,
TV sets and motorbikes. There are two
secondary schools. In the 70s young people
had to climb the escarpment to the boarding
schools in the highlands to get a secondary
education.

The churches were prominent in village

life then and they remain so today. The
Marakwet look upon church and school as
gateways to an improved life, and both are
associated with progress and development.
Today traditional socialisation processes
have to no small extent been replaced. In
1973 American missionaries drove a small
group of girls who were to be circumcised

54
 Life among the Marakwet

Women cultivating
on the valley floor
(2000). Methods of
cultivation have not
changed much in
the past 40 years.

in Chesegon out of the district. Their mangoes they produce, and are paid low
intervention led to strong reactions. The prices for those they do because of the costs
district administration was alerted, and in traders have to incur to get the produce out
the end the missionaries were reportedly of the valley.
asked to leave the country. Today, by contrast,
local leaders are actively campaigning against What has not changed in 40 years is the
female genital mutilation and advocate feeling of relief, of exhaling, on arriving in
alternative forms of initiation.1 the valley. Stretching the legs after the long
drive, one’s eyes follow the glossy superb
Looking back at the Tot area as it was 40 starlings, the bird the Marakwet say wears
years ago provides a measure of the changes a ceremonial apron. And there, the voice
in an outlying part of the country — less of the dull-coloured honeyguide, leading
dramatic of course than the total re-shaping people to honey, so important as it produces
of Nairobi and other major cities, but the mead that lubricates all ceremonies
nevertheless a parallel trajectory of changing in Marakwet. The Cherangany range in
conditions of life in Kenya and equally the west is veiled in cloud; the east shows
significant changes in the country. immense open areas with scattered hills
here and there. My ears catch the sound of
Nowadays the road through the valley has hoes working the soil, leading me to people.
improved but is still miserable when it Greetings are exchanged. I say that I used
rains. It is the major hindrance to exporting to move in the area with Kassagam some
grain, vegetables and fruit from the area. years back. “Oh yes, of course, but you
A permanent road has been promised have grown old” and “How is the family?”
for decades, and is listed in the new I meet an old man on his way back from the
County Development Plan, but has yet to kano, the goats’ enclosure further out on the
materialise. Farmers cannot sell the prime plains, a red blanket over his shoulders, a
battered slouch-hat, shoes made from old
tyres. We exchange greetings and come to
1 Moore (2009:214-216).

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KENYA PAST & PRESENT ISSUE 42

realise that we both had roles at a wedding Cherangany Hills down into the Kerio
for a teacher at Chesongoch some years Valley more than 1,000 metres below. Water
back. He had led the blessings while I took is led through headworks, dams and sluices
the wedding photographs. We talk about into kilometre upon kilometre of canals,
people we both know. carefully levelled and embanked along
the escarpment face and utilising, where
I still have miles to go before I reach Tot, necessary, aqueducts made of hollow tree-
my destination, where work awaits, but I trunks and shelves supported by wooden
needed this brief stop to know that I have scaffolding along almost vertical cliffs,
arrived and to take a first walk along paths eventually to reach the valley and to irrigate
criss-crossing each other between fields the fields. The canals are constructed and
and irrigation furrows: the serenity of the their path defined by rocks, boulders, logs
landscape, the heat, the insects humming. and brushwood, reinforced by soil and grass.
Now I am ready for the meetings at Tot: In the early 70s concrete and plastic pipes
interviews, questionnaires, tracking people, were important additions in difficult places,
requests, and emoo — the friendly talk and today such enhancements are extensive.
between people who have not met for some However, it is still local knowledge and in
time and who update each other on what places local materials that keep the water
has happened since then. I walk back to my running. The statistics are staggering:
vehicle and proceed to Tot. along a stretch of about 40 kilometres of
the escarpment, there are 91 main canals
totalling 315 kilometres.2 Several accounts
describing various aspects of the spectacular
The irrigation complex
irrigation system are available, including its
physical layout, history, labour organisation,

F ields are cultivated today with the same

implements and in much the same way
as in the 70s, as industrially-produced hoes
water distribution, gender issues, rules, and
practices.3

and machetes were already commonplace My colleague Johnstone Kibor Kassagam,

then. Most families owned two to three and at times also Andrew Kite arap Cheptum,
machetes, two to four hoes and an axe. All and I used to join people maintaining the
farm work was done by hand, as it still is canals or working on new extensions, and
today. In the 70s men irrigated the land by spent long hours recording the histories
moving water with the help of long-shafted of the different canals. We also interacted
hoes to all corners of the field. Today women with people from development agencies
have also taken on this activity, but the work who were eager to rescue a system they
on the canals remains a male preoccupation. considered on the verge of collapse — trying
The most remarkable feature of the area, the to influence that they did not, with their zeal
pre-colonial irrigation complex, is managed and money, kill the social dynamics that kept
essentially in the same way as it has been for the system running. We sat in at meetings
300 years. This is an exceptional record by where maintenance and repairs were
any account, but particularly so given the planned, where water was divided between
considerable problems with salinisation of different kin groups, or where water thefts
soils and misappropriated funds that plague were sorted out.
contemporary irrigation schemes.

It is a tricky operation to take water out

2 Davies, Kipruto and Moore (2014:492).
of the rivers that hurl themselves down
3 for references see Davies, Kipruto and Moore
the precipitous escarpment, from the
(2014); Östberg (2014).

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 Life among the Marakwet

It is in these ever-recurrent meetings that The decision-making pattern is the same The irrigation complex
(1973): Inspecting
the key to both the origin of the canals for a neighbourhood, for a village, for an
one of the shelves
and their remarkable resilience lies.4 The area. The extraordinary achievement of carrying water along
Marakwet mode of organising labour, leading water down the steep escarpment a steep passage in
the hills. The photo
arranging a marriage ceremony, clearing does not require a centralised political body on the right shows
new land, resolving a conflict, putting up or a dominant class or elaborate planning a hollowed-out log
placed to guide
defences against raiders — they all follow charts. And it is this very same procedure
the water flow. The
the same pattern. Whether enlisting the that has allowed the system to survive whole construction is
cooperation of a handful of people or of and continue to expand. The pre-colonial supported from below
by scaffolding.
50 or 200, the same procedure is followed. irrigation system is still expanding. Since
People meet and discuss. No chairman or the 1980s no less than 30 new canals have
judge is appointed. Elders and young men been constructed.5
take their positions, and people reason. They
listen to evidence, they compare the case But the water in the canals does not run by
with previous cases, they quote proverbs, gravity alone. Water is perceived as given by
they recount particular events and again they Iilat, the spirit of lightning, thunder and rain.
reason. This mode of organising and taking The irrigation canals are part of the farming
decisions is useful in solving small, everyday system, but they are also metaphysically
problems, but it also allows the possibility of charged arteries flowing through the
deciding on grand schemes like constructing Marakwet landscape. Traditionally people
a new irrigation canal. found it safe not to cultivate land near rivers

4 Östberg (2004). 5 Davies, Kipruto and Moore (2014:518).

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KENYA PAST & PRESENT ISSUE 42

shells was found close to the “House of

Iilat”, situated where the Kapiisyiyo canal
is led off from River Embobut. They
concluded that it was a female iilat that had
taken the belt. And then they proceeded to
discuss different people who had fought
with male iiloot and lost.

Children learn in school that lightning and

thunder are electric discharges. This does
not quite block the idea that rains are visits
by Iilat. The spirits of lightning constitute a
meaningful reality to the many Marakwet
who volunteered stories about iiloot when
we interviewed them about the irrigation
canals. The message was that people should
behave well so that Iilat continues to provide
rain and the irrigation water on which they
all depend.
Two women at
a celebration
(1973). The
woman on the
Livelihoods
right wears a
leketyo, the

T
cowrie shell belt he Tot area, and the Marakwet part
mentioned in
the text. of the Kerio Valley more generally,
was in the mid-70s an area of some
so as not to annoy Iilat. He might disappear, agricultural potential, as it still is today.
which would mean that the rains would Soils are moderately fertile,6 and rainfall not
stop. We listened to accounts of how women insignificant,7 reinforced by the substantial
must be careful when passing waterways hill canal irrigation complex.
so that they are not snatched by Iilat, who
is reported to have a very special liking for For a semi-arid area the population density is
young women. If they wear leketyo, the belt high, thanks to the irrigated agriculture, and
decorated with cowrie shells (associated the population is increasing. However, the
with water and fertility, among other things), 1960s, the decade before our account starts,
they had better remove it so that Iilat is not had seen people leaving the valley to clear
unnecessarily attracted. land in the Cherangany hills. It was mostly
men who left, as testified by the recorded
A group of elders at Kabakire village, near sex ratio in the Tot area.8 Kenya had become
Tot, entered into a discussion on whether independent in 1963 and the previous
all iiloot [pl.] are male or not. They recalled colonial policy to prevent people living in
accounts by people who have observed the water catchment areas in the hills was
iiloot in rivers, and concluded that women’s no longer upheld. There had been previous
snuffboxes, earrings and other objects “invasions” of the highland forests in the 40s
had been snatched by female iiloot. They
remembered an incident when a leketyo
6 Dietz et al. (1987:14-16), Davies, Kipruto and
was lost in the river. A sheep was sacrificed
Moore (2014:4).
and Iilat asked to return it. The following
7 Cappon et al. (1985:26-27).
morning the belt decorated with cowrie
8 Cappon et al. (1985:36-7).

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 Life among the Marakwet

and 50s but now it was on a much higher connecting highlands and lowlands in
scale. Land was also becoming available Marakwet there was a steady traffic of maize
in the neighbouring former white settler and beans descending into the valley and of
areas of Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia and fruits and sweet potatoes being carried up.
a number of people from the valley acquired The Kerio Valley is a harsh environment
land there. The acreage under cultivation in and diversification a wise strategy — as
the valley fell.9 characterised by irrigated farming, fields
in both the valley and the highlands, crop
Towards the end of the decade things variety, livestock husbandry, bee keeping and
changed and instead there was a movement seasonal labour migration, together with
of people down the escarpment into the petty trading and handicraft production.
valley,10 perhaps attracted by the introduction
of cotton, rumours that land registration Even today a sizeable farm in the highlands
might be under way, and new prospects makes economic sense. However, the valley
offered by the establishment of the major retains its attraction. Living in the residential
development intervention, the Kerio Valley areas on the slopes of the Cherangany,
Development Authority (KVDA). maintaining the irrigation canals, keeping
goats, and cultivating finger millet and
Seasonal migration was also important. sorghum using the short, small hoe called the
Half of the men below 50 years of age left mokompo, suitable for the loose soils of the
temporarily for the maize harvest on the valley (rather than the ordinary industrially-
Uasin Gishu and Trans Nzoia plains. This produced hoe), is for some quintessentially
was from October after the grain crops what Marakwet life is about. The two types
had been harvested in the valley. The men of hoe, the commercially-produced jembe,
commonly stayed away for about three found all over Kenya, and the much smaller
months. Work could also be found most and locally made mokompo, could be said to
of the year in the Marakwet highlands capture the difference between highlands
with the planting, weeding and harvesting and lowlands. The jembe is straight, heavy,
of maize, beans and pyrethrum. Male efficient and used with both hands, while the
migration shows up in the uneven sex ratio mokompo is light, versatile, supple and held
in the censuses, but also reflects that more in one hand. You can twist the mokompo in
and more men established an additional any direction so that it reaches everywhere;
household with a second or third wife on you turn it to crush a clod of earth with the
a plot in the Marakwet highlands. This back of the shaft and have made ten moves
meant that a wider range of crops could be with it in the time you hit once with a jembe.
cultivated, and the conditions for milk cows When a woman leaves home for the fields
were better in the highland zone than in the the mokompo hangs over her shoulder, as if
valley. The family became less exposed to the it were part of her, while the commercially-
vagaries of weather, disease and cattle raids. produced hoe has to be carried. (Writing these
sentences makes me recall the voices of women
The irrigation farmers of the lowlands had descending from the residential areas on the hillsides
acquired one more economy to cooperate in the mornings en route to the fields on the valley
with. When crops failed in the lowlands floor. They had kilometres to cover before they
there were additional possibilities through reached the fields, and singing together shortened
markets, relatives and acquaintances in the journey.)
the highlands. Along the roads and paths
If a first subjective impression of the valley
in the 70s might be one of a stagnant
9 Dietz et al. (1987:87).
God-forsaken out-of-the-way corner of
10 Dietz and van Haastrecht (1982:48).

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KENYA PAST & PRESENT ISSUE 42

the country, the population statistics tell It is moved by sheetwash and trapped by
of dynamic changes, decade by decade. rubbish and stone lines. At the field level
Change was also true of the farming there is likewise continuous movement.
system where large communal fields were Seeds are broadcasted by hand and buried
cultivated on the valley floor for about three in soil as women move through the field
years and then moved as fertility declined; with their short-hafted hoes. Hoes move
meanwhile water rights rotated between water and soil during irrigation so that
different lineage groups. At the beginning moisture, nutrients, different types of soils
of each cultivation season the lower parts and vegetation may serve the growing
of the canals were redirected to reach the crop best. Marakwet fields are mosaics of
new fields. Cultivation areas could also be standing crops, bushes, trapped sediments,
abandoned after attacks by cattle rustlers, micro ponds, low earth banks to slow down
and later reoccupied. This has not happened the water, vegetation litter that serves the
recently but was a reality over long periods same purpose, and small heaps of drying
of time. New canals are regularly being and mulching weeds. In the fields you may
constructed. also find minute furrows, pebbles, sticks
Lines of
vegetation litter —remnants of games children played while
arrest sediments Fields and waterways are thus not static their mothers worked the land. Bushes
in a cultivated
field on the valley but moving through the landscape and so and scattered trees are left to support re-
floor (2000). does the soil itself, as the Marakwet say. vegetation of the land after harvest and to
provide shade, while clumps of trees allow
people who are working far away from the
village to discreetly answer the call of nature.

Watering the fields engages all the farmer’s

senses. You feel with your feet how deep
the water has entered the soil, or measure
it with the rendur, the forked stick used
for removing thorns from the land when
clearing it. If you are still uncertain, a single
stab with the hoe will disclose the truth.
Water should move gently through the field,
reaching where it is needed without causing
erosion. The farmer moves with the water.
It looks choreographed. The farmer tastes,
tests, experiences when the land is saturated,
“when it has the smell of rains, of a cool
place”. This is when it is time to allow the
water to proceed to your neighbour’s field.

Life and livelihoods in the 1970s were

dynamic rather than static. At the same
time there was a permanency, a stability
derived from the substantial investments
made over generations to construct the
canals, in the farming knowledge built up
over time, and in the firm conviction that
whatever problems arose could be handled

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 Life among the Marakwet

A homestead in the
residential zone on
the hillside: The wife’s
house, with the fireplace,
to the left and the
husband’s house to the
right, in between the
goat house and grain
store (1973).

in the neighbourhood meetings of peers

who sit down to reason over water business, The houses on the escarpment
marital strife, thefts, the planning of future
communal activities, etc. The irrigation
system has survived droughts and warfare,
landslides and development agencies. P eople lived on the slopes of the
escarpment in homesteads, which in
the mid-70s typically consisted of two round
Its resilience lies in this combination of
flexibility and permanence. People returning thatched houses facing each other, and grain
after the warfare of the 1990s revived the stores. If the household consisted of more
structures, and today there are more and than one wife, or if an adult son or a relative
longer irrigation canals than ever before. lived in the compound, extra houses were
built behind one of the houses or adjacent
In an interesting historical study William to the compound. The standard household
Adams11 identified a paradox: the colonial comprised a man (often seasonally absent),
administration both recognised that the a woman, and three to five children.
irrigation complex saved the Marakwet from
famine and yet argued in favour of “settled Very few rectangular houses were found on
permanent agriculture” with a limited the escarpment, but these were standard in
number of permanent canals “correctly the trading centres along the valley road.
aligned and protected”. Ironically, the A count in 1980-81 registered only three
administration wanted to put an end to the rectangular houses, and newly constructed at
flexibility and adaptability that had seen the that, in Sibou village adjacent to Tot, which
system survive for centuries. at the time consisted of 288 households.12
Salaried men owned these houses. The

11 Adams (1996:161f). 12 Moore (1986:30,132).

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KENYA PAST & PRESENT ISSUE 42

difference between households with access families have moved down to live on the
to job incomes and those without was valley floor, in the small centres along the
considerable. road, and have also established permanent
gardens there. This was strongly advocated
The furnishings in most houses was simple: by the administration in the 1970s. People
sleeping skins, a couple of stools, clay and lost hours every day moving between the
aluminium pots, gourds, skin bags, enamel residential zone upland and the fields
cups, plates and bowls. Eating skins were still on the valley floor. Social services were
in use. Some households had a radio, bed also concentrated in the valley. However,
and mattress, a table and chairs. Most people people preferred the slightly cooler climate
owned few items made of cloth. Women and in the hills and wanted to get away from
children often dressed in skins. mosquitoes. They also felt less exposed to
cattle raiders in the hills. But now there is
One still finds this kind of house on the a definite move down to the valley floor.
slopes of the Cherangany today, but about The new permanent gardens require more
half the houses now are rectangular with intensive care, and water must be able to
metal roofs. There are solar panels and gas reach the fields at all times. When land
To hinder soil cookers, TV sets and sofas. Another major adjudication eventually reaches the valley,
erosion, lines difference is that the residential areas give a these families will have already safeguarded
of stones are
arranged across much greener and livelier impression today. their interests.
the slope on Fruit and shade trees have been planted,
hillside fields. Land
and the plots are smaller. There are more Mobile phones, TV sets, motorcycles… in
here is ready to be
cultivated (1984). people around. At the same time some the midst of such contemporary realities, I
recall an old woman back in the 70s who
asked me if we had blacksmiths back in my
country producing the money that is used
in Kenya. She saw me paying salaries and
school fees, contributing to fundraisings,
buying soft drinks. I seemed to have access
to inexhaustible resources. Today’s cash
economy means that many in the valley can
afford what in earlier times appeared to some
as unattainable.

The agricultural landscape

F inger millet and sorghum were the main

crops in the 70s, with maize becoming
increasingly popular. Many families had fruit
trees, particularly banana, and some grew
vegetables (kale, cabbage, onions, peppers,
tomatoes). The main fields for sorghum
and finger millet were on the valley floor
where a family commonly farmed half to
one hectare of communally-controlled land,
often in more than one plot. At the onset of

62
 Life among the Marakwet

the planting season a group of people would

agree on cultivating a particular area, clear
and fence the land together, and take water
to the land.13 Internally, these large fields
were divided between the participating
households. The farms on the valley floor
were cultivated for about three years and
then fallowed. Some families had a field
or two by their compound on the slopes
of the escarpment. Here it was advisable to
terrace the land and this was done with the
help of stone lines placed across the slope.
The captured sediments gradually built up
forward-sloping terraces, allowing water
both to infiltrate there and to slowly proceed
to the next terrace. Many families also had invited raiders, which was definitely deadly. Children outside the
entrance to a goats’
a maize field of up to half a hectare in the Nevertheless, in the early 70s one could see
enclosure on the
higher reaches of the hills, usually growing herds moving in the valley and there were valley floor. Above
a hybrid variety. All in all a farm added up to people who identified with their livestock, the gate is a beehive
waiting to be hung in
two hectares at most while some cultivated who talked about the satisfaction of seeing a tree (2000).
about three-quarters of a hectare. However, animals coming home from grazing and
there were also parts of the valley where who wanted others to say about them,
arable land was scarce and landless people “There comes so-and-so with his livestock”.
had to offer labour, goats, and/or water rights All the same, goats were, and still are, much
to get land to cultivate. more important.

About half the men had beehives, and honey Settlements are made with goats. You pay
was an important product. It was common for water with goats. You pay fines in goats.
to have about 20 beehives but not that You provide goat’s meat to people who
unusual to have 30 to 50. Most households have helped with farm work. Marriage
kept poultry and had goats. In a herd of settlements are counted in goats. Goats are
25 goats some 10 goats could be milked in slaughtered at initiation celebrations, and
the wet season and each would provide a at marriages. Goats are seen as active, goats
cup of milk, which was given to children. “are tools to boost life”. They are like farm
Goats were both cash and meat, and were implements, people say.
needed for ceremonies. Some families had
sheep and cows, but more or less all kept a Sheep are different. They are said to be
small herd of goats. Keeping cattle was never humble creatures. They do not jump over
important in Marakwet the way it is among fences to eat crops. If irrigation canals have
the neighbouring East Pokot or the Turkana. been breached, a sheep is sacrificed to heal
And in the last decades of the 20th century the wound. When pests destroy crops a
it was just too dangerous to keep cattle. You sheep is sacrificed to restore the land. A
landslide requires that sheep be sacrificed.
When someone has been killed, a sheep is
13 Land distribution, like water, is complex and has slaughtered at the place were blood was shed
been analysed in several studies (e.g. Adams et on the land. But the compensation for the
al. 1997:715-727, Critchley 1979:10-11, Dietz
et al. 1987:49-51, Ssennyonga 1983:102-110),
loss is paid in goats. Sheep are for healing
and new studies are just now being prepared for wounds and goats for building the future.
publication.

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KENYA PAST & PRESENT ISSUE 42

was limited to fallowing, while manure could

Crop histories
be added to the more permanently cultivated
fields on the slopes of the escarpment.

T he Marakwet have grown finger millet

and sorghum as far back as memory
goes. The first trials with maize in the valley
Labour parties were common and participants
remunerated with goat’s meat, other food, or
were initiated by the British in 1918, but local beer. Sometimes a small amount of
did not attract much interest. By the mid- money was offered, often spent on beer.
1930s maize was still hardly grown at all.14
However it slowly gained in popularity and Yields were low. Finger millet and maize
in the 70s most households had a maize field. produced about 600-800 kg/ha, sorghum
Hybrid varieties were available, particularly a bit less. Hybrid varieties and additional
Coast Composite maize, and the sorghum weeding easily doubled the production.
variety Serena gained in popularity.15 There Families counted on getting about ten bags
was a local market for maize, particularly of grain to live on for a year. “Only in bad
among teachers, traders, agency staff and years will there be a clear food deficit, but
other modernising groups. for some the stores of millet and sorghum
from former good years, the food exchange
The colonial agricultural service introduced relationship with highland relatives, and the
cassava in the 1930s, which by the 1970s was money available can form a buffer against
grown by most families. Cassava constituted famine.”16 In plots closer to the river good
a valuable backup if the cereals did not harvests of maize could be expected. A
do well. Bananas and sweet potatoes had pioneering farmer who went further west
long been popular and other successful and planted near the Kerio River harvested
introductions were groundnuts, cowpeas, over 2,000 kg/ha.17 There were signs that
sugar cane, chilli peppers and mangoes. things could quickly change.
None, however, were a commercial success.
The markets were too far away, and the roads Cash was derived from selling animals,
deplorable. Farmers drew the conclusion fruits, vegetables, tobacco, hides and skins,
that since there was nowhere to sell finger honey, handicrafts and home-brewed beer,
millet, there was no point extending the with additional income coming from day
fields. A typical remark from valley farmers labouring and the remittances of family
at the time was that they cultivated “for the members living outside the valley. Bananas
family, not to sell. It is not like the highlands were a steady provider of petty cash and
where people open new lands all the time”. were also bartered, as were cassava and
Cash crops did not take off, and lowland sweet potatoes, for maize and beans (in the
Marakwet remained basically a subsistence highlands) or milk (with the Pokot).
economy. Very few people had salaried
incomes.
Development initiatives
All farm work was by hand, as is still the case
today. Fields were cleared using a machete
and an axe. Thorns were gathered with large
wooden forks and burnt in the fields; some
were used for fencing. Fertility management
T he colonial period was only a decade
distant in the mid-70s, and much more
a living reality in people’s minds than it is

14 Dietz et al. (1987:82). 16 Dietz et al. (1987:33).

15 Critchley (1979:12,14). 17 Critchley (1979:17).

64
 Life among the Marakwet

Resting outside a
homestead on the
hillside (1973). The
man holds snuff in his
left hand, ready for
a pinch. Most adults
used snuff. The horn
suspended from the
woman’s necklace
served as her snuffbox.

today. It was still possible to interview men and lorries from the Cotton Board came
who had fought in the Far East for the British to collect. People were paid KSh 2/kg.
during WW2. Other elders reminisced about Things worked. It was suggested that the
expeditions to Lake Turkana to load donkeys society should open an account with the
with a type of salt used in preparing the Cooperative Bank. This meant that payment
snuff that most men and women used, was no longer cash on delivery directly to
and which was a standard item at the local the producers, but went to the cooperative
markets. The Somali traders at Chesegon office at the district headquarters in Iten.
represented a link back to the times of the A representative for the Tot society was to
caravans. The churches, secondary schools collect the money. This proved difficult. No
and the hospital at Kapsowar were still money reached Tot and the cotton project
largely managed by Europeans. However, collapsed. A new start was made in 1983.
major changes were just around the corner. And so it continued, with ups and downs.
Two agricultural extension workers and an Today cotton is not a priority in Tot.
animal health assistant were posted to Tot,
and the Catholic church at Chesongoch Investments in rural development rose
hired an agriculturalist for a three-year sharply, largely financed by foreign donors.
period who came to initiate demonstration One buzz project succeeded the other:
plots, provide agricultural inputs, start soil and water conservation campaigns,
educational programmes, tree nurseries and water development, rural access roads,
a host of other activities. afforestation, the Arid and Semi-Arid
Lands Project, and so on. The Kerio Valley
Cotton was introduced, and an Endo Development Authority, established in
Farmers Cooperative Society was formed. 1979 by an Act of Parliament, was to
Tractors arrived to plough 200 acres on cater for a major transformation of the
the valley floor. The harvest was good, valley, including new permanent irrigation

65
KENYA PAST & PRESENT ISSUE 42

canals and drawing a railway line through has not been studied. Exports will depend
the valley to be able to export on a large on whether a permanent road to Eldoret is
scale. More schools and health facilities constructed. However, a local committee of
were to be provided, as were improved farmers has been formed and expectations
agricultural extension services, new cattle are high.
dips, tree nurseries, provision of improved
seeds, veterinary medicine, large-scale Among all the well-meaning interventions,
conservation efforts, green belts, mineral what have so far shown to improve livelihoods
exploration, and many other initiatives.18 in the valley are on an altogether different
In 1982-83 the KVDA opened an irrigated scale: fruit tree nurseries, improved seeds,
experimental farm employing 100 locally- and mobile phones. Everyone benefits, and
recruited casual labourers.19 In 1989 the there are no accounts to manage.
Kapiisyiyo clan provided land for another
KVDA farm. A nursery was established at
Embobut River and a wide range of crops Acknowledgements
was planted: finger millet, white sorghum, The information in this essay was to a
maize, cassava, watermelons, tomatoes, large extent collected in collaboration
onions. The harvest was good and some of it with the late Johnstone Kibor
was displayed at the Kaamariny Agricultural Kassagam (1952-2003), conservator
Show. in the Department of Ethnography,
National Museums of Kenya. His
But then came the large-scale cattle raiding skilful and committed contribution
that plagued the area in the 1990s, which was greatly appreciated, as were his
forced people to retreat to the hills for good company and friendship. His
safety. Fields were abandoned and schools, passing away in the middle of his life
dispensaries and shops closed. Trade came and career was inexpressively sad.
to a standstill. For some time the valley was This essay is written as a tribute to his
basically deserted and the KVDA left. By inventive and competent contributions
2002 there was again peace in the valley. to anthropological fieldwork, how he
The irrigation system was restored, the was instrumental in the development
valley fields could again be cultivated and of some of Kenya’s regional museums,
life returned to normal. The violence during and his tireless conservation of
the 1990s was extreme, but cattle raiding has ethnographic materials from across
a long history in the Kerio Valley and was the country.
also present in the mid-70s.
Later I had the good fortune to
Development interventions have succeeded cooperate with Florence Jemutai
each other. KVDA is again a presence but its Cheptum, M.A., an equally brilliant
grand plans are yet to materialise. The most f i e l d w o r k e r. S h e i s m o r e o v e r
recent large-scale project was initiated in competent in the recently standardised
2012 by the Red Cross, with the intention orthography of the Marakwet language
to permanently cultivate 500 hectares and undertook the transcription of
on the valley floor. The scale has already Marakwet terms and quotations in
been reduced by half, and the long-term this text.
ecological viability of this major project
Peta Meyer corrected my ‘Swenglish’
manuscript with great skill and
18 Were (1983). sensitivity. I am most grateful.
19 Dietz et al. (1987:63).

66
 Life among the Marakwet

Dietz, Ton and Annemieke van Haastrecht

ABOUT THE AUTHOR (1982). Market Integration in Elgeyo
Wilhelm Östberg, Ph.D, is Associate Marakwet and West Pokot: Comparing
Professor in Social Anthropology, currently Households and Locations. University
an affiliated researcher at the Department of Nairobi: Institute of Development
of Human Geography, Stockholm University. Studies, Working Paper No. 392.
He has been curator of African Studies in
Dietz, Ton, Annemiekke van Haastrecht and
the Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm,
Henrietta Moore (1987). Endo, Mokoro,
and co-editor in chief of Ethnos: Journal of
Anthropology. After a first visit in 1971 he did
and Embobut locations, Elgeyo Marakwet
field work in Marakwet from 1973 to 1975, District. Iten: Regional development
complemented by follow-up visits in 1976, research for the Arid and Semi-Arid
1984, 1998, 2000 and 2013. Lands Programme, Elgeyo Marakwet.
Moore, Henrietta L. (1986). Space, text
and gender: An anthropological study of
the Marakwet of Kenya. Cambridge
ALL PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR University Press.
Moore, Henrietta L. (2009). “Epistemology
and ethics: Perspectives from Africa.”
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