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Stock theft and moral economy in colonial Kenya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

David Anderson
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Extract

From the earliest years of colonial government in Kenya, cattle raiding by Africans against their neighbours, and in particular livestock thefts from European farmers, presented the administration with their most persistent policing problem in the rural areas of the colony. As the period of colonial rule in Kenya was drawing to a close, reported cases of stock theft were once again showing a sharp increase, climbing from 1578 cases in 1955 to 4243 in 1962 (Kenya Police Dept, 1955 and 1962). In a pattern by then familiar to the Kenya administration, this prompted the renewal of demands from the European settler community for more extensive and concerted government action to deal with the activities of the thieves. Settler opinion held that the continuing prevalence of stock theft had much to do with the ‘social prestige’ attached to the crime in many African communities. The unwillingness of the African public to assist in the prevention and detection of stock theft had long been interpreted as a tacit sanctioning of such theft, leading to the conclusion that, within the ‘moral economy’ of many African communities, stock theft was not thought of as a crime at all. ‘After all,’ commented the Provincial Commissioner of the Rift Valley Province in 1959, ‘stock theft is the traditional sport of the young men of many tribes, and the elders cannot be expected to act as kill-joys and stamp it out unless they themselves are liable to suffer.’ This view was applied most readily to the pastoralists of the Rift Valley and western Kenya, the Maasai and Kalenjin, who were commonly involved in crimes of this sort. The belief that stock theft was an acceptable form of accumulation within Kalenjin and Maasai society determined the nature of the legislation put forward by the colonial administration to deal with the crime. Policing and punishment were accordingly based upon the notion of collective responsibility for acts of stock theft, with wide powers to extend collective punishments to families, villages and even entire locations found to be implicated in thefts.

Résumé

Vols de betail et economie morale au Kenya colonial

Cet article examine les changements constatés dans les actes de vol de bétail parmi la population Kalenjin des régions montagneuses du Kenya occidental au cours de la période coloniale. Dans ‘l'économie morale’ des Kalenjins, le vol de bétail commis par des étrangers était considéré comme un moyen légitime d'accumulation. Ce principe pouvait être très clairement constaté dans l'organisation et l'exécution du raid traditionnel. De tels raids furent supprimés en 1920, mais les vols de bétail de fermiers européens et de résidents africains commis dans les fermes et dans les réserves continuèrent d'une manière plus diffuse. La législation coloniale s'efforça de cultiver l'opinion publique parmi la population Kalenjin contre les vols de bétail en utilisant la menace de châtiments collectifs envers les communautès qui abritaient ou soutenaient les voleurs ainsi que les localités de chefs qui n'apportaient pas leur coopération aux mesures de prévention et de détection des vols. Ces pressions accentuèrent les tensions entre les chefs Kalenjins, les anciens et les chefs rituels qui étaient fortement impliqués dans ces vols de bétail. Les voleurs couvrèrent davantage leurs activités, opérant dans les régions boisées et frontalières des montagnes occidentales, à une certaine distance des communautés où ils habitaient. Les restrictions et les contrôles imposés sur l'économie de cheptel africaine par l'état colonial ne fit qu'encourager davantage les vols de bétail. Dans les années 30, incités par ces mesures, les pressions de la législation et un système de police renforcé, les voleurs Kalenjins opéraient en bandes et organisèrent des réseaux de vol. Ces réseaux reliaient les forêts, les fermes et les réserves Kalenjins et permettaient ainsi de transporter rapidement et de cacher facilement le bétail volé dans les régions montagneuses de l'ouest.

Type
Crime and colonialism in Africa
Information
Africa , Volume 56 , Issue 4 , October 1986 , pp. 399 - 416
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1986

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