Kenya Boran

By Author: Anthony W Bills
Total Articles: 158
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Kenya Boran
Introduction
The Boran community is made up of about 4 to 5 million people. There are about one million Boran individuals in Kenya and the rest are found in Ethiopia. In Kenya, the Boran community live in central North Kenya. This community is related to Oromo in Somalia. The highest of the community population of Boran in Kenya live in Marsabit district and the rest in Tana River district and Garissa. The Borana people are pastoralists and had owns large heads of cattle, goats, sheep and camel.
The Borana people are the resultant of the Oromo people who emigrated from the southern highlands of Ethiopia in the 16th century. Most of the related groups of Boran people lives in Ethiopia. During the time of emigration, as they were emigrating heading east, they were piushed back by the Somali community that lead to the south expansion of this community.
The Boran people are also called Borana though the last vowel is silent. The word Borana, in their language, refers to a good person and the language spoken by this particular group of people. These people are from the Cushite speakers of Kenya.
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... The economy of these people is organized around cattle, sheep, goats and camel. The main responsibility of young men is to herd these animals while women are responsible for home chores. Borana community live in home groups and can move three to four times a year to a distanced of about one hundred kilometres in search of green pastures and water. They build temporary houses that are thatched from top to the ground with grass in contrast with their closely related counterparts Gabbra who weave some parts of their houses as the would move with the woven parts to new location, the carrying of this parts is done either by women or by camel. (Sylla,1994)
Effects of modernization, mechanization, modern education, and the central government on the townspeople of Marsabit
Modernization- this has an effect on the Boran community as they have already began to have a evolution pattern that slowly changing the Boran’s community way of living. Comparing the Boran people who live in the rural areas of Marsabit and those who are living in town, there is a notable difference between the two families. The family that live in the urban areas has been introduced to the need of having new and modern way of living and adopting a new method of economy. Comparing the family that lives in the rural areas, it has no reason to allow their children to attend school, have more modernised way of living like acquiring a modern house, engaging in business but will insist on retaining their tradition method of living and would value animals than anything else especially the poor grade of livestock that has been existing among the pastoralist communities.
The family from the same Borana community that live in Marsabit town would be open to the new opportunities that would be brought about by modernization. In most cases only the families in town takes their children to school and involve in modern activities like rearing dairy cattle that would have more milk production than having boran cows that would produce less that a litre per day.
Though there has been conflict between the modern and the tradition method of living, most of the town dwellers have completely compacted with the modern living pattern and have either .partially or completely done away with the traditions.
The conflict that has been brought about by modernization is that the town families have let the traditions and involved themselves in more modern life like taking children to school, allowing women to take up leadership roles, and doing away with female genital mutilation.
Mechnization- The Borana community that live in the up country have not yet goner mechanized. Most members of this community still perform their duties manually and through the use of animals. For example, during immigration, a rural family would use camel to carry their loads as compared to town family they would use vehicle to carry their loads. The Borana community in the rural areas have not made any effort in going mechanised as they stick to their tradition way of doing things. This makes the two families look completely differently even if they come from the same community.
The rural people don’t have a vast knowledge on the use of machinery that would help the in improving their living standards. If the rural community would use machinery in doing some of the chores, they would expand their economy for they can grow crops and improve their food availability therefore reducing the level of poverty among themselves.
Modern education- modern education has also effected the living of the Boran community in Kenya. As most of them have started realizing the need of education, they are sending their children to school. Modern education has contributed to a number of positive impacted to both town and rural dwellers. This has reduced the number of early marriages, early pregnancies and has also reduced the number of young men who involve themselves in cattle rustling.
Modern education has also contributed to the involvement of this remote community in the office jobs, political issues and other nation building activities. Comparing the formal and informal education that was given to the children of this community, the formal has introduced the community to more modern lifestyle and have managed to leave some of the traditions that were not fair to the community, like girl genital mutilation, women restriction in involving them selves is some activities like leadership and office work.
Central government- The central government of the Marsabit town, through the help of the government of Kenya have worked together and closely with people of Marsabit town. The Boran people who live in the town have to follow strict rules that have been set by the government, these rules are like, no child should be at home who have attained the age of school going as the primary education is offered free through the help of the state government. Children from the families that live in town and families that live in rural areas have a unique difference as the town child can read and write. (Walker,1995)
Conclusion
The Boran community are trying to adopt the modern methods of living by adopting the current requirement in ones life. Education has gained value to the community especially the families that live in town.
Mechanization would be of great benefit if it would be implemented to help the community in achieving some of the benefits that would be brought by the use of machineries like cultivating and adding more food as well as tapping and making effective use of the available rain.
Modernization has on the other hand helped the community attaining and reaching the modern method of living. This has been of great advantage as most of the community members have already adopted the modern standards and done away with the baseless traditions.
Reference:
Sylla, D. (1994). Pastoral Organizations for uncertain environments: Living withUncertainty: New Directions in Pastoral Development in Africa, London, Intermediate Technology
Publications Ltd,
Walker R. (1995). Kenya: Recent History, Africa: South of the Sahara 1996, London, Europa Publications,

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