Administrator devises ingenious way to summon locals to barazas

Mark Nawoto's daily routine demands that he lives to the adage, necessity is the mother of invention. [Mike Ekutan, Standard]

Mark Nawoto, 49, is a tall man. Standing at six feet, he embodies the mien of a soldier and the calmness of a spy.

As assistant chief of an outpost sub-location near the Kenya-Ethiopia border, his daily routine demands that he lives to the adage, necessity is the mother of invention.

When The Standard caught up with him, he was implacably dressed in his official uniform with a traditional Turkana stool and trumpet hanging from his left shoulder.

Located 155 kilometres from Lodwar, Ekicheles village in Nalita, Kibish sub-county, has a limited roads network and sparse population.

Nawoto, who has been an administrator for 24 years, has mastered the trumpet, which he blows on different occasions to summon locals for barazas and other important engagements.

He says in case he wants to call for a meeting of locals, he makes various sounds depending on the agenda of the meeting.

“Whenever I get some information from local leaders at late hours, I always make sounds that notify them that there will be a meeting in the morning and everyone at his or her home will come early in the morning to hear what message I have for them,” he narrates.

A dedicated man with four wives, Natowo says he was first appointed in 1998 and since then, serving his people has been his passion.

Mark Nawoto. [Mike Ekutan, Standard]

“This traditional device has really helped me to reach my people in the shortest period of time. If it was not this trumpet, I would have been using many hours to mobilise them to come and attend my meeting,” he says.

The sound of his trumpet reaches people living within a 10km radius of his residence.

The assistant chief says he had several of the trumpets, but he distributed them to some youth and village elders who sometimes help him to give services to the community.

The device, though overtaken by modern technologies, is crucial to the people of Kibish, which is facing threat from cattle rustlers suspected to be from neighbouring Ethiopia.

It is a borrowed device from Nyangatom of Ethiopia whose function is the same.

According to a culture expert who is also Deputy Director for Policy and Culture in the Department of Culture at Turkana County Titus Lokorikeju, Turkana people in the past years were using smoke and horns to pass messages.

He explained that the tools that were used were mostly derived from wild animals that died as a result of the severe drought that struck Turkana around 1981. The drought was renamed ‘Lopiaro’, meaning sweeping away.

“The Turkana people were mostly embracing ancient communication tools, that is the use of horns from different animals. So when these tools disappeared, they borrowed and also bought from their neighbours in Ethiopia through barter trade”, said the culture expert.

The Nyangatom of Ethiopia is still using a similar metallic device to communicate danger and to notify the community what will happen in various meetings.

Mark Nawoto uses a trumpet to call villagers for a meeting. [Mike Ekutan, Standard]

Lokorikeju lauded the assistant chief for embracing the past forms of communication despite being overpowered by the fast-growing technology in Kenya and Africa as a continent.

Kaikor Nakali, a vocal woman in the Ekicheles village, says the chief’s instrument has been of great significance to them because it reaches them so fast compared to the door-to-door mobilisation.

“When the chief climbs the hill that is near his home and blows the trumpet, it reaches the villages of Loyopokou, Lokoopus and Lotirae in Kaikor/Kaleng Ward in the shortest time possible,” she said.

She added: “We normally go to chief’s meeting knowing the kind of meeting we are attending because the sound usually tells us the theme.”

Margret Kare, 34, says in most cases, they are keen to listen to the trumpet in case it makes the sound so that they don’t miss the call from the chief.