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Warring communities in the banditry prone North Rift are set to converge for Tugenin Cultural Festival, an annual fete aimed at fostering peaceful co-existence and celebrating the region’s rich culture and traditions.

Event, guided by the theme Peaceful Coexistence for Prosperity, will be held near Kerio River on December 12.

The event will bring together among others the Tugen, Marakwet, Keiyo, Pokot, Ilchamus, Samburu and Turkana communities in a colorfully well-crafted presentation of their cultural music, traditional food, artefacts, sports and folktales.

According to Kiberur Tomno, the founder and brainchild behind the initiative, peaceful coexistence is a requisite to development.  “It is time our people make deliberate efforts to discard retrogressive cultural practices that have over the years derailed development,” Tomno stated.

This year’s event, for the first time, will see the presentation of “Kerio Peace Award” to individuals and institutions whose long-standing activities have promoted peace in the region.

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“Culture is both an enabler and a driver of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of development. We want to empower our people to leverage their diversity as their comparative advantage,” Tomno added.

“Through culture and music, Kerio Valley has been identified as a tourist destination. The economic interactions have been enhanced and dialogue on matters of peaceful co-existence has been established. In the years ahead, culture will play a big role in human and social development,” added Tomno. He regretted that violent conflicts along the vast Kerio Valley for the better part of this year dealt a blow to peace efforts. He, however, expressed optimism that this will change for the better following the introduction of the cultural component.“We want to use culture in engaging communities through such events with the objective of diversifying the economic activities focusing on common cultural events, sports and eco-tourism,” said Tomno. “Our region is endowed with a lot of resources but this will not be of much help if our people don’t co-exist peacefully. That is why we want to use culture to reach out to these communities,” he added. Elders from the warring communities have welcomed the initiative, which they noted will go a long way in preaching peaceful co-existence in the region.

“Never again will we witness bloodshed in this region. We should live as brothers if addressing many challenges affecting us in anything to go by,” said James Kisang, an elder from Marakwet.

Baringo Central MP Joshua Kandie said the event will even be made bigger next year to attract more investors.

“This is a very worthy initiative. Culture is a crucial ingredient to foster peaceful co-existence and encourage unity of diversity,” said Kandie.

The choice of the venue of the event near Kerio River is also significant as it was historically used as a meeting point for barter trade between the Tugen and Keiyo communities.

“The main objective of the initiative is to redeem the fading traditions and harness culture to promote eco-tourism and peaceful co-existence between the Kerio Valley communities and her neighbours,” Kimosop Bolony, a resident, noted.