Draft:1992 Rift Valley ethnic conflict

1992 Rift Valley ethnic conflict
Part of Ethnic conflicts in Kenya
Date October 1991 - 1993 Location Former Rift Valley Province,Kenya Result Ongoing sporadic ethnic tensions
Belligerents
Kalenjin people Maasai people KANU supporters	Kikuyu people Luhya people Luo people Others
1.500+ killed 300.000+ displaced

The 1992 Rift Valley ethnic conflict occurred within the context of the country's transition to multi-party democracy, which along with longstanding issues related to land and resources exacerbated anxieties within the Kalenjin population, to which President Arap Moi belonged. This led to attacks on the other ethnic groups living in the Rift Valley, such as the Kikuyu, Luhya, and Luo who were considered non-indigenous to the area.

The first recorded attack took place in a collective farm called Miteitei located in today's Nandi County on 29 October 1991, the tensions that set the ground for the attack were centered on a disagreement between the shareholders of the collective farm. The Nandi people part of the broader Kalenjin people pretended to have 5 acres each at the expense of the shareholders from other ethnicities. Prior tensions existed, when a group of Kikuyu women wanted to buy the farm but the Nandis resisted the acquisition through intimidation tactics.

In this event, the hand of the government led by Arap Moi was evident when a meeting between shareholders took place, and local chiefs from the KANU party were present without title to the deliberations, presented a list of shareholders comprising mainly only the Kalenjin shareholders, and disrupting the event when Christopher Mwashi, District Officer and an ethnic Kamba, tried to avoid the KANU meddling. The situation became so tense that Christopher Mwashi and the shareholders among the non-Nandi left and the Nandis continued to deliberate by themselves. Inquiries by the Judicial Commission later brought testimonies about how Nandis had already reached the unanimous view that non-Kalenjins were to be driven out.

The clashes initially quickly spread in the area and since early 1992, the attacks spread into multiple areas of the province giving the conflict a regional character with the Maasai also aligned with the Kalenjin, participating in the looting and raiding activities against the civilians of other communities.