Livestock Raiding Among the Pastoral Turkana of Kenya: Redistribution, Predation and the Links to Famine

It is now recognized that violence plays a decisive role in the breakdown of coping strategies leading to famine in Africa today This is especially the case where armed conflict magnifies trends already discernible as a result of enviro-economic factors such as drought. Nevertheless, as de Waal (1993: 33) cautions, "the glib commonplace, 'war plus drought equals famine' grossly understates the complexity and intimacy of the links between the two". Greater awareness of these links is needed for more effectïve famine prevention strategies, but is itself dependent on a much deeper understanding of why violence erupts in the first place.