Envisioning incentives for community participation in natural resource management: A case study of northwest Kenya

Often times the discovery of oil and oil drilling comes with mixed outcomes. In many countries, this activity has far reaching implications beyond sharing oil revenues. The announcement of oil discovery in March, 2012 in Kenya led to lots of speculations, theories, ideas and revelations especially on what Kenya will be in the near future. This sets a base for the discourse on community participation in natural resource management. For Kenya, this is the first time experience coming at a time when the nation did not have a consistent and comprehensive agricultural, environmental, and mining policy. Recent studies have indicated that majority of the Northwest population believe that oil discovery in Turkana county will be a blessing and not a curse. In pursuit of strategies for mitigating natural resource related conflict and improve local governance. The study explores the following questions: (1) What factors are likely to contribute to natural resource related conflict in Northwest Kenya? (2) How do these factors impact the society? (3) What strategies can be used to mitigate natural resource related conflict and improve local governance in Northwest Kenya? This study recommends mechanism to create local avenues for accountability and fair resource distribution and management in order to combat inequality.