UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBIINSTITUTE OF DIPLOMACY AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES BACHELOR OF ARTS IN INTERNATIONAL STUDIESKOYIER HILDA MILKAR67/34206/2015RESEARCH PROJECT.TOPIC: BUILDING PEACE IN ELECTION VIOLENCE HOTSPOTS INKENYA: A CASE STUDY OF KIBERA 2008-2013.DECLARATIONThis project is my original work and has not been submitted for a degree to any other University.…………………………… ………………………Koyier Hilda Milka DateR67/34206/2015……………………….
.Adm. NoThis project has been submitted for examination with our approval as University supervisor.…………………………… ………………………Dr. Rosemary M. Anyona DateSupervisorDEDICATIONTo my family and friends for their continuous support and patience that helped me in the completion of this proposal.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTI thank the Almighty God who gave me the strength to write this paper . Secondly I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor without whose continuous guidance and correction I would not have managed to complete this paper . I finally thank my family and friends for the support they gave me while searching for information to put down on this research paper.TABLE OF CONTENTAbbreviations………………………………………………………………………………Pg. 7-8Abstract………………………………………………………………………………….
..Pg. 9CHAPTER ONE…………………………………………………………………………
Pg. 10-241.0 Background to the Study…………………………………………………………….Pg. 10-111.
1 Statement of the Research Problem………………………………………………….Pg. 12-131.2 Objectives of the Study…………………………………………………….
…………Pg. 131.3 Literature Review……………………………………………………………………Pg. 13-201.
5 Theoretical Framework……………………………………………………………..
..Pg. 20-211.6 Hypotheses…………………………………………………………………………..
Pg. 221.7 Methodology………………………………………………………………………..
.Pg. 22-231.
8 Chapter outline………………………………………………………………………Pg. 242.0CHAPTER TWO…………………………………………………………………..…………………
Pg. 25-392.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………….Pg. 25-262.1.
1 Concept of peace building…………………………………………..………..……Pg.
26-27 2.1.2 The Evolution of Peace building……………………………………………….…..Pg. 27-282.1.
3 Definition of peace building according to other scholars…………….……..….….Pg. 28-302.2 Components of Peace building…………………………………………………….
…Pg. 30-362.
2.1 Activities of Peace building………………………………………………..………Pg. 30-332.
2.2 Actors in Peace building……………………………………………………….…..Pg. 34-352.2.3 Timing in Peace building……………………………………………………….
….Pg. 35-362.
2.4 Issues in Peace building…………………………………………………….……Pg. 36-372.2.5 Peace building in the International System…………………………………………
Pg. 37-382.2.6 Peace building in Africa…………………………………………………………….
Pg. 38-39CHAPTER THREE…………………………………………………………………..Pg. 40-593.0 Peace building in Kibera……………………………………………………..
……..Pg. 40-593.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………….
………..Pg.
403.2 Kibera as a violence hotspot……………………………………………………..……
Pg. 41-423.3 Peace building activities in Kibera………………………………………..…….
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.…Pg. 41-593.
3.1 Security Dimension…………………………………………………………..
..…..
.Pg. 42-443.
3.2 Political Development Dimension……………………………………….………….Pg.
44-543.3.3 Social and Economic Development Dimension………………………….
.….…..Pg. 54-59CHAPTER FOUR……………………………………………………………………
….Pg. 60-644.0 Challenges and prospects of peace building in Kibera……………………………….
Pg60-644.1Introduction……………………………………………………………………….
..…..Pg. 604.2.
1 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….…Pg. 63-64CHAPTER FIVE………………………………………………………………..………Pg.
65-735.0 Findings and Recommendations……………………………………………………Pg. 65-735.1Findings…………………………………………………………………………….…Pg.
65-695.2 Recommendations……………………………………………………………………
.Pg. 69-73REFERENCES…………………………………………………………….………..
……Pg. 74-78ABBREVIATIONSAMISOM African Union Mission in SomaliaAPSA African Peace and Security ArchitectureATT Arms Trade TreatyAU African UnionCFK Carolina for KiberaCSO Civil Society OrganizationDDR Disarmament, Demobilization and ReintegrationDPCs District peace CommissionersECKElectoral Commission of KenyaECOSOC Economic and Social CouncilECOWAS Economic Community of West African StatesFBO Faith Based OrganizationHNP Human Needs ProgrammeICTJ International Center for Transitional JusticeIDP Internally Displaced PersonsIDPR Inter-ethnic Dialogue and Peaceful ReconciliationIGAD Intergovernmental Authority on DevelopmentIMF International Monetary FundIOM International Organization for MigrationIRF Inter-Religious ForumKANU Kenya African National UnionKNDR Kenya National Dialogue and ReconciliationKNFP Kenya National Focal PointKPTJ Kenyans for Peace with Truth and JusticeKWPF Kenya Women for Peace and FairnessLYN Langata Youth NetworkMSF Médecins sans FrontierNASLA Nairobi Slum Leaders AssemblyNCCK National Council of Churches of Kenya.NCIC National Cohesion and Integration CommissionODM Orange Democratic MovementPEV Post Election ViolencePF Peace FundPNU Party of National UnityRECSA Regional Centre on Small ArmsRECS Regional Economic CommunitiesSALW Small Arms and Light WeaponsSHOFCO Shining Hope for CommunitiesTJRC Truth Justice and Reconciliation CommissionUFK Undugu Family KiberaUN United NationsUNEP United Nations Environmental ProgrammeUNESCO United Nations UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for RefugeesUNICEF United Nation Children’s FundUNIFEM United Nations Development Fund for WomenWASH Water, Sanitation and Hygiene.
WFP World Food ProgrammeABSTRACTConflicts are an expression of tensions and incompatibilities between different, mutually independent parties with regard to their respective needs, interests and values. They are liable to lead to crises and destructive escalations affecting whole societies primarily during phases of profound socioeconomic change and political transition. The problem is not the conflicts per se, but the way in which they are managed and resolved.
The goal must be to help prevent or transform violence as a means of pursuing conflicts, and to support constructive forms of conflict management. Fundamental to this view of conflict resolution seems to be the idea that only arrangements that fully satisfy basic human needs can bring about any final resolution of the conflict-one which ;deals fully; with the issues in dispute and establishes a new, self-supporting relationship between the adversaries.The terms “peace-building „and “conflict transformation” are largely connected. Both emphasize the need for long-term work, the need to overcome the root causes of conflict, and the need to strengthen elements which link the parties to each other. In addition, conflict transformation also accentuates more the structurally-related measures, and peace-building more the process-related measures. “Track 3” embraces all levels of leadership, although it is increasingly being focused on activities at the grass-roots levelPeace building, today, is one of the well-established sub-fields of international peace operations and has become especially interesting as it has had the distinction of being located in a so far uncharted terrain of post-conflict activities. As of now, peace building does not yet have a precise agreed definition other than that it locates itself in the unique ‘post-conflict’ context where the traditional peacekeeping was expected to come to an end.CHAPTER ONEIntroduction to the StudyBackgroundWhen violence comes to an end, an agreement is usually reached at with the aim of reducing tension between the warring parties and re-establishing the relationships between them.
However, considerable work needs to be done to achieve positive lasting peace. It is therefore important to work on reintegration and the rebuilding of trust to avoid the recurrence of violence. Conflict resolution involves two major stages: “war termination and peace building” the former is designed to end violent conflict, while the latter is intended to address the causes of the underlying conflict that gave rise to the armed violence as twin processes, each is dependent upon the other. Peace building efforts work to repair damaged relationships with the long-term goal of reconciliation between conflicting parties.
Post conflict peace building involves a number of different tasks. Both the physical infrastructure and the social fabric need to be repaired Peace building is a term, which started to attract interest in the beginning of the 1990s in circles of international organizations. The former UN Secretary-General, Boutros-Boutros Ghali, put it firmly on the UN’s agenda by including it in the document Agenda for Peace which came out in 1992. In it, Ghali, who responded to a demand from the UN Security Council on how to improve peacekeeping and peace-enforcement, identified peace building as post conflict social and political reconstruction activities, which are aimed at strengthening and solidifying peace in order to prevent a relapse into conflict.
The term is distinguished from peacekeeping and peacemaking by its insistence on society-wide reconciliation in combination with state building In 2000, the UN’s Brahimi report confirmed this definition of peace building as a more profound and long-term activity than its predecessors peacekeeping and peacemaking, by stating that peace building “involves activities undertaken on the far side of conflict to reassemble the foundations of peace and provide the tools for building on those foundations something that is more than just the absence of war” Peacemaking and peacekeeping operations, to be truly successful, must come to include comprehensive efforts to identify and support structures which will tend to consolidate peace and advance a sense of confidence and well-being among people. As stated by Boutros-Ghali, the success of peace operations practices relies on the strengthening of institutions, which in turn result in a more stable stateIn Kenya, the peace building process was carried out by the state and the civil society after political violence engulfed the country after the disputed December 2007 general elections. The dispute over the results, led to unprecedented violence, ethnic animosity and mass displacement in what was considered a peaceful and stable country. The rapid escalation of the crisis provoked swift reactions from the international community. When all efforts to halt the violence failed, the African Union mandated a Panel of Eminent African Personalities, to find a peaceful resolution to the crisis. Under the auspices of the panel and conducted through the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation Committee (KNDR),negotiations between the two parties started on 29 January 2008. A four point agenda for the national dialogue was agreed upon at the outset of the negotiations and comprised four main items .
Kenyan Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and their networks also generated and sustained domestic pressure to end the violence. A grouping of Kenya’s finest civil society minds participated in international and regional advocacy to highlight the crisis and to ensure the international community had objective information about what caused the crisis and its consequence. They lobbied international donors and governments to bring pressure to bear on the two parties to resolve the crisis. This study will look at the peace building measures that were carried out by the government and Civil Society Organizations in several hotspots of the country such as Kibera which was highly affected. Statement of the Research ProblemPeace building is a very vital process after the occurrence of violent conflict. The growing significance of post-conflict peace-building in practice, and its disciplinary and professional range, is reflected in the number of organizations in the UN System that explicitly consider post-conflict peacemaking to be a dimension of their traditional missions. Rothstein emphasizes that a peace process is not so much what happens before an agreement is reached but what happens after it. Annan posits that conflict resolution calls for a comprehensive approach in which parties emerging from conflict require assistance not only in negotiating peace agreements, but also in building and consolidating peace.
Tschirgi also points out that people of the war-torn society must own the process and be actively involved and notes that reconstruction requires local, national, regional and international responses.Nation states at times do not take the initiative to effectively deal with the root causes of conflict so as to restore peace in a society and prevent its recurrence. The problem around which this study focuses on, is that of restoring and rebuilding peace in war torn societies that have been frequently hit by violence. Kibera still grapples with a desperate need for the restoration of relationships across the several ethnic communities.
Just because the situation in the slum at the moment is calm, doesn’t mean that peace building now prevails in the region.It is hard to escape the impression that local communities such as Kibera, after post-violence situations are left alone on the margins of the national process to lift themselves up by their own meager bootstraps. Different form of violent activities have been common in Kibera slum due to the existence of several militia and vigilante groups. However, the focus given on the region by multiple actors has not been very effective to improve the stability of the area and promote positive peace among the residents.For instance, the power sharing agreement in Kenya after the 2007 PEV was designed and agreed upon at a high level of political leadership, yet the act of peace building and reconciliation did not effectively flow down to the citizens of Kibera who were highly affected by the violence. If only for this reason, local peace building deserve our fullest attention. Most of the peace building initiatives carried out by different actors were not successful while others were poorly implemented because of mismanagement.
. The projects were also riddled with suspicion over claims of government partisanship along party lines. Even among the civil society, there was a lot of duplicity, replication and lack of coordination which served to reduce the general effectiveness of the initiatives in the slum. 1.3 Objectives of the Study.The objectives of this study include: 1. To assess how peace building is carried out in post-conflict societies.2.
To examine how peace building was done in Kibera3.To analyze the challenges encountered during the peace building process in Kibera.1.4 Literature Review.The literature review of this study is organized in four parts :The concept of peace building, Election conflict and mediation, Peace building in Kenya and Peace building in Kibera.1.4.
1 The Concept of Peace buildingPeace building is an intervention technique or method that is designed to prevent the start or resumption of violent conflict by creating sustainable peace. Peace building activities address the root causes or potential causes of violence, create social expectation for peaceful conflict resolution and stabilize society politically and socio-economically.The Secretary-General modified his position in the 1995 Supplement to An Agenda for Peace and suggested that peacebuilding can also be preventive.
The term is distinguished from peacekeeping and peacemaking by its insistence on society-wide reconciliation in combination with statebuilding. In 2000, the UN’s Brahimi report confirmed this definition of peacebuilding as a more profound and long-term activity than its predecessors peacekeeping and peacemaking, by stating that peacebuilding involves activities undertaken on the far side of conflict to reassemble the foundations of peace and provide the tools for building on those foundations something that is more than just the absence of war.The foundations of the contemporary concept of ‘Peace building’ were laid formally in 1992 in UN Secretary General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s report, An Agenda for Peace. This UN report defines peace building as actions to identify and support structures which will tend to strengthen and solidify peace in order to avoid a relapse into conflict. Even though the UN peacekeeping forces had been engaged in similar responsibilities since the early 1960s, this new mandate has since made peace building both a specialized field as also an integral part of international peace and conflict resolution thinking and practices around the world.
The aim or purpose of peacebuilding is to create peace. Galtung suggested two different concepts of peace: negative peace, and positive peace. He called the mere absence of violence, negative peace. On the other hand, positive peace is a stable social equilibrium in which the surfacing of new disputes does not escalate into violence and war. It is generally agreed that the task of peacebuilding is to promote positive peace.As of now, peace building does not yet have a precise agreed definition other than, that it locates itself in the unique ‘post-conflict’ context where the traditional peacekeeping was expected to come to an end.
Nevertheless, even at the end of conflict, peace building seems to comprise of a rather expansive mandate that involves a whole range of activities associated with capacity building, reconciliation, and societal transformation all aimed at building and strengthening norms, behaviors, and institutions for sustaining post-conflict peace. This makes peace building a rather long-drawn process that begins when violence, in a given conflict, either ends or at least begins to slow down, allowing these efforts to be made for establishing a lasting post-conflict peace.The report “An Agenda for Peace” notes that successful peace building process must create space for a wider set of actors including women, Youth, marginalized groups, the civil society, private sector as well as the government to participate in national post-conflict peace building.Both the secretary General’s report and the new deal clearly establish the scope of peace building.
That is, it encompasses activities ranging from politics and security to social service and livelihoods.As suggested by Tschirgi is that the peacebuilding process cannot be imposed by actors in the external forces, military or otherwise, but must rather be nurtured through patient, flexible strategies carefully calibrated to the domestic political context.Scholars including Diamond and Stiefel attach primary significance to local actors in peacebuilding processes.
Their arguments are based on the premise that unique resources that local actors bring to the process makes it imperative that meaningful participation takes place and peace must be built "from the inside out" and that interventions may only hope to catalyse change that must be brought about by local peacebuilders .Interestingly the UN and the OECD also reinforce the central role and significance of internal actors in the peacebuilding process.At an aggregate level, one could distinguish four broad issues that peace building focuses on; Firstly, addressing drivers and root causes (horizontal inequalities), secondly, building institution and capacities of individuals, communities and authorities to manage conflict and deliver services(political, security, justice and government institutions that deliver social services), thirdly, enhancing social cohesion and building trust among social groups(society-society relations) for example reconciliation processes and finally, building trust in and legitimacy of governments(state-society relation) for example political dialogue.The timing of peacebuilding has been debated over time. Most scholars have come to the agreement that peacebuilding can take place during all the phases of conflict.
One notable exception is mentioned in An Agenda for Peace, which states that preventive diplomacy seeks to resolve disputes before violence breaks out; peacemaking and peace-keeping are required to halt conflicts and preserve peace once it is attained. If successful, they strengthen the opportunity for post-conflict peace-building, which can prevent the recurrence of violence among nations and peoples. “Thus, according to this document, peacebuilding sequentially follows peacekeepingPeacebuilding as a concept, practice and strategy suffers from several shortcomings as a result of which it has been able to achieve only limited success. Peacebuilding is built on the premise that political and economic liberalisation will promote stability and consolidate peace in states emerging out of conflict. However this liberal economic model has the potential to cause more harm than good.
According to Sens, this model can widen inequalities, create economic dislocation and consolidate the power of those who benefited from the black market activities during the conflict. Furthermore political liberalisation can reinforce and entrench political differences and divide people. 1.4.2 Election Conflict and Mediation In KenyaThe election violence that Kenya experienced in 2007/2008 has been recorded as one of the worst in the country’s history. The lead up to the election was tense and hate speech was based on ethnic stereotypes.
Vernacular radio stations were particularly problematic as some used their broadcasts to call for violence against or the displacement of specific ethnic groups. One of the informal campaign slogans of the election was “41 against 1,” an indirect reference pitting the Kikuyu against the countries remaining 41 ethnic groups. Political parties were intimidating voters and planned forced displacements around the country. After months of tension, the official voting took place on December 27.Voting was peaceful, but confusion and delays in announcing the result created unease, then unrest, and eventually violence. The tallying process, took longer than anticipated which led some to speculate that the election was being tampered with.
Three days later, on December 30, the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) announced behind closed doors with only the state-run media present, that Kibaki was elected president. The ODM refused to accept the outcome and rejected the Electoral Commission’s declaration that President Kibaki had been legitimately elected to the presidency. They claimed that Raila Odinga was the winner, on the grounds that rigging had occurred in polling stations, the Constituency Tallying Centers and the National Tallying Centre.
This triggered a political crisis. Kenya became engulfed in violence that lasted for almost a month. For more than a month after the election, riots and protests continued around the country.
Protests, arson and looting, and subsequently politicized ethnic violence, caused the deaths of several people and displaced over multitude of citizens across the nation. Recognizing the gravity of the situation, the international community decided to intervene. The method used to resolve the violence and settle agreements between the two major conflicting parties was mediation.Mediation is a voluntary party centered and structured negotiation process where a neutral third party assists the parties in amicably resolving their dispute by using specialized communication and negotiation techniques. In mediation, the parties retain the right to decide for themselves whether to settle a dispute and the terms of any settlement. Even though the mediator facilitates their communications and negotiations, the parties always retain control over the outcome of the dispute.
In political conflicts, mediation is aimed at conflict resolution. When conflict is resolved, the parties’ needs are met. There is autonomy since the parties are allowed to agree on the choice of the mediator, the conduct of the mediation process as well as the outcome. Mediation as a method of resolving conflicts can be useful in different ways to ensure that atrocities do not occur. It can be used to facilitate talks between parties to bring violence to an end. It can also be used to ensure that in places where there has been violence, it does not occur again. There was a mediation framework formulated by the AU (African Union) which was accepted by the parties in conflict. Eminent personalities representing the AU came to the country to help in the mediation of the conflict.
Ghanaian President and African Union Chairman, John Kufuor, intervened to try to negotiate a settlement between the two parties.Kenyan stakeholders mounted pressure on the parties as well as the mediators to restore peace in the country. From the outset, in the first session of negotiation, the Panel invited the negotiating teams to consider giving civil society an opportunity to make submissions to the mediation process. The Panel felt strongly that it needed to listen to civil society and other stakeholders and to take account of a wide range of views.The AU intervention included good offices employed by Kufuor and mediation chaired by Kofi Annan.
The use of good offices by Kufuor was to facilitate negotiations between the parties in conflict. Kufuor put forward a panel, to be led by Kofi Annan, with President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania and Graça Machel of Mozambique, ‘to assist the Kenyan brothers and sisters to find a peaceful way forward’.Based on his United Nations’ experience, Kofi Annan was familiar with the danger of rival mediation processes. From the start, he insisted that the Panel would be the only mediation process and that this was to be made clear to both parties.
This was part of his strategy to prevent the parties from “forum shopping”The Panel had the responsibility of helping the parties to the conflict ensure that an escalation of the crisis was avoided and that the opportunity to bring about sustainable peace was seized as soon as possible. The first major breakthrough in the mediation process came on 24th January 2008 when the Panel brokered a face-to-face meeting between President Kibaki and Odinga followed by the launch of The Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation (KNDR).1.4.3 Peace building in KenyaPeace building begins after the signing of a peace agreement. Peace agreements are contracts intended to end a violent conflict, or to significantly transform a conflict, so that it can be more constructively addressed.In Kenya, after the 2007 Post Election Violence, a peace agreement was signed between the two conflicting parties under the intervention of the international community.
This intervention resulted in an agreement to seek settlement with mediation by a Panel of Eminent African Personalities, under the Chairmanship of former UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan Through this mediation process, the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation Agreements were signed including four agenda items, one of which was a power-sharing arrangement. Importantly, Agenda item 4 recognized “the need for ‘tackling poverty and inequity, as well as combating regional development imbalances’; the need for addressing ‘unemployment, particularly among the youth’; and the need for undertaking land reform” The KNDR framework gave an in-depth national peace building process.The government put in place various government agencies to work on peace building and national reforms besides the civil societies and international organizations. In the core was the National Steering Committee on Peace building and Conflict Management which was established in 2001 under the ministry of state for Provincial administration and internal security in the office of the president. Ministry of justice and constitutional affairs through the National Cohesion and Integration Commission(NCIC) and the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) are also government departments that worked directly on peace building across the country mostly through transitional justice activities.The civil society also played a major role in the peace building process after the post-election violence especially within communities of different regions. They facilitated coordination of trainings on mediation and conflict management, the establishment of platforms and systems for distributing objective information and inter-cultural and inter-tribal events where new partnerships could be forged for a better social cohesion and neighborhood. They also lobbied for the poor and disadvantaged people in the society and used methods such as demonstrations to put pressure on politics to push the process of peace and reconciliation forward.
Other groups comprised of faith based organizations and the Church,both Anglican, PCEA and Catholic.The Church’s engagement in peace building activities was twofold: internal and external. Internally, the church established peace building, conflict and disaster response departments as part of its strategic plan and correspondingly undertook training of its leaders in peace building and reconciliation so as to prepare them in reaching out to the society so much crying for peace and reconciliation.
Externally, through unity in Christ peace and reconciliation project, the church reached out to its congregants and the wider Kenyan society with a goal creating constituencies of peace and reconciling individuals and groups.1.5 Peace building in KiberaFollowing the Post-Election Violence of 2007-2008 an array of peace building efforts took place in Kibera, a slum where the bulk of the violence took place. This is an informal settlement that was a stronghold for Raila Odinga who had a strong relationship with Kibera’s residents. Over this period, artists used various forms of visual art to prevent, reduce, transform and help people recover from violence.
These included initiatives such as Picha Mtaani and Kibera Walls For Peace among others.The Civil Society also played a big role in the peace-building process after the 2007 Post Election Violence. Non-government organizations sought to promote a culture of peace and respect for human rights in communities through research and capacity building. They were dedicated to building communities of peace using gender and human rights based approaches. Therefore the goal was to empower communities for effective participation in the agenda for peace, justice and equality at all levels of society. Different government initiatives as well, that had been discussed through the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation Framework of 2008 were implemented in Kibera with the aim of dealing with root causes of the violence in the slum and restore peace in the region. Residents who no longer trusted establishment officialdom.
On aggregate, the strategy succeeded only after the restoration of a modicum of normalcy.The residents of Kibera also realized the need to work together, to coexist peacefully and to mobilize themselves. People organized meetings, sat down together to create a committee to address the youth and peace messages were written everywhere. In order to prevent similar incidents in the future, trainings on active peace were carried out.
Leaders from the community, who are said to have a big influence on the residents, tried to be engaged and trained in mediation.1.6 Justification of the StudyThere is so much literature on how the post-election violence that occurred in Kenya in 2007 was resolved through the intervention of actors from the international community . However, there still lacks important literature on how peace building was carried out in the most sensitive parts of the country that were badly affected by the violence such as Kibera. Kibera offers a good example of a society destabilized and torn apart by ethnic violent conflict as was the case with the 2007/2008 post-election violence, that destroyed relationships along ethnic lines, whereby to this date, the habitants continue to rebuild themselves.It is against this background that this study has sought to conduct an analysis of Kibera so as to provide more information on the peace building activities that were carried out in such a PEV hotspot, and also assess the effectiveness of the approaches taken to rebuild peace in the slum. This study is expected to generate new information in the academia of conflict management and provide missing information on the peace building strategies supposed to be applied so as to restore the structures of broken societies.1.
7 Theoretical FrameworkThis study is anchored on John Burton’s Human Needs Theory.Peace building is about meeting certain needs of individuals. Post-conflict peace building is connected to peacekeeping, and often involves demobilization and reintegration programs, as well as immediate reconstruction needs.Meeting immediate needs and handling crises is no doubt crucial.
But while peacemaking and peacekeeping processes are an important part of peace transitions, they are not enough in and of themselves to meet longer-term needs and build a lasting peace.To be successful, post-conflict peace building must address the underlying causes of conflict. As argued by Evans, at the heart of the notion of peace building is the idea of meeting needs: for security and order, for a reasonable standard of living, and for recognition of identity and worth. This focus on satisfying human needs is derived from the conflict resolution theories of Burton.
The Human needs theory operates on the premise that a pre-condition for the resolution of conflict is that fundamental human needs be met. In order to live and attain well-being, humans need certain essentials. Human needs theorists argue that conflicts and violent conflicts are caused by unmet human needs. Violence occurs when certain individuals or groups do not see any other way to meet their need, or when they need understanding, respect and consideration for their needs.
Rosenberg states that violence is a tragic expression of unmet human needs, implying that all actions undertaken by human beings are attempts to satisfy their needs. If we are able to connect with our needs and those of others, we will therefore be able to look at other ways of meeting such needs, avoiding violence and destruction.Burtonhas been applying human needs theory more actively to current social and political conflicts. In his work on protracted, social conflicts, he looks at how universal human needs often are neglected, leading groups to use violence to claim their rights and satisfying their needs.
In what is really a compatibility of human needs, Burton argues that education and culture make parties manipulate the issues and dehumanizing the other parties.In Rosenberg’s approach, human needs are universal and meeting them is essential to human survival and well-being. Rosenberg groups the needs in sub-groups, and is open to the existence of needs beyond what he has defined. He states that our education and culture often alienate us from connecting with our real needs, and through Nonviolent Communication, he proposes a model for connecting with our own and others’ needs, an approach he applies in all levels of society and which he has used in mediation in several countries.
In this study, violence was perceived to have resulted from unmet and unresolved needs of the Kibera residents such as land issues and poverty. 1.8 HypothesesThis study will test the following hypotheses:1.Recurrence of 2017 post-election violence in Kibera is because peace building was not carried out properly in the region.2.Improving the living conditions of Kibera’s will promote peace during and after election periods.
3.Focus of the peace building process on the coalition government,limited and slowed down peace building activities in Kibera. 1.9 MethodologyData CollectionThis study will be conducted with the main aim of finding out how peace building activities were carried out in Kibera by different actors, after the 2007 post election violence. The study will rely on both primary and secondary methods of data collection.
Primary DataPrimary data will be collected through face to face interviews so as to allow for more in-depth data collection and comprehensive understanding of the issue of violence in the slum and how it was dealt with afterwards. The interview approach will also permit the researcher to monitor and observe the body language and facial expressions of the different respondents and their answers will be more clearly identified and easily understood. The data will be collected from 4 major villages of Kibera that were immensely affected by the violence. These were: Gatwikira, Makina, Olympics and Kianda villages.The respondents from which the researcher will obtain information from will include: administrative points in the slums such as the chiefs, District commissioner offices as well as police posts as these are representatives of the government in the region.
The researcher will also interview an approximate of 20 habitants each from the 4 villages. Civil Society Organizations mainly NGOs will also be a point of the researcher’s interest of gathering primary data.Secondary Data.Secondary data in this study will be obtained from Official government publications such as internal records of the National Steering Peace building Committee, Technical Reports, as well as Scholarly journals and books.Data AnalysisIn this study, content analysis will be used for data analysis. This is a research tool used to determine the presence of certain words or concepts within texts or sets of texts.
According to Krippendorff six questions must be addressed in every content analysis:Which data are analyzed?, how are the data defined?, From what population are data drawn?, What is the relevant context?, What are the boundaries of the analysis?, What is to be measured?To conduct a content analysis on any such text, the text is coded, or broken down, into manageable categories on a variety of levels–word, word sense, phrase, sentence, or theme–and then examined using one of content analysis’ basic methods: conceptual analysis or relational analysis.This research will make use of content analysis to analyze text data from books, newspapers, journals, reports and web pages. I will carefully read each text and highlight text that appears to explain the peace building measures focused on by different actors in Kibera. Consequently, the findings of content analysis will be used to provide knowledge, understanding and correlation of conflict resolution and peace building in war torn societies. Chapter OutlineThis study comprises of five chapters.Chapter one contains background of the study, statement of the research problem , objectives of the study, literature review, Academic justification of the study, theoretical framework, hypotheses, methodology and chapter outline.
Chapter two entails an overview of the concept of Peace building concept. This chapter analyzes the meaning of the concept of peace building and its evolution as well. The chapter also consists of the components of peace building which are the activities carried out during the peace building process, the actors involved and the timing at which peace building is carried out. The issues facing peace building is also discussed in this chapter. Lastly the chapter also entails information about peace building both at the international level and Regional level.
Chapter three examines peace building in Kibera. This chapter offers a deeper description as to why Kibera is an election violence hotspot and further outlines in details the peace building measures that were carried out and implemented there after the 2007-2008 post election violence in the country. The peace building initiatives have been divided into 3 dimensions that Boutros has categorized in his Agenda for Peace Report.Chapter Four is an analysis of the challenges ( and prospects) encountered during the peace building process in Kibera. This chapter explains in details the exact situation of the residents livelihood in the slum and the difficulties hindered both the government and civil society to properly carry out and implement the peace building initiativesChapter Five entails the conclusion of the findings of whole research study and recommendations that need to be implemented so as to improve and sustain positive peace in violence hotspots such as Kibera.
CHAPTER TWO2.0 The Concept of Peacebuilding; An Overview2.1 IntroductionThis chapter is divided into three sections. The first section which is about the concept of peace building gives us a small history of the term peace building and thereafter, how the term came into formal use in the field of security.
This part widely offers the description of peace building according to the Former UN secretary General, who introduced it in the Agenda For Peace Report. With more references from the report, the chapter constitutes of more information on what peace building really is about, the activities covered in the peace building section as well as the inter-connection of the term with other commonly used terms such as peace-making and peace-keeping.The next part of the first section gives us an explanation on how peace building has evolved over the years since 1992. With the evolution of the term peace building, the next part offers the description of the term in regards to how multiple scholars view it and also some critics against each other’s definitions The second section of this chapter is about the components of Peace building which explains in detail the activities that the peace building process entail, When peace building begins in the conflict cycle, the different actors that are involved in the peace building process and the issues encountered during the peace building process.The last section informs us on how at the International level, the UN has played a massive role in engaging in peace building activities all over the world.
Still in this section, this chapter provides information on how other multinational actors, mostly the UN agencies, have incorporated peace building activities in their Institutional policies and agendas. Lastly, the chapter also focuses on regional peace building and much attention is given to the role the African Union has played in building sustainable peace in different countries of the continent that are often affected by violent conflict as a result of various factors. In addition to that, the section also consists of what Regional Economic Communities have done in an effort to promote peace building in Africa.2.1.
1 Meaning of Peace building.The term "peace building" was first introduced in the field of peace studies by Galtung who defined it in his pioneering work as the process of creating self-supporting structures that remove causes of wars and offer alternatives to war in situations where wars might occur. Galtung’s work emphasized a bottom-up approach that decentralized social and economic structures, amounting to a call for a societal shift from structures of coercion and violence to a culture of peace. Traditionally, even before the formalization of the term peace building, the act of post-war rebuilding existed.
States intervened in the affairs of other states as part of their foreign policy with the aim of restoring peace. The practice of external countries assisting war-tom societies in reconstruction after war goes back to the post World War II period, when the United States played a central role in helping the reconstruction of Europe and Japan. The Marshall Plan involved the U.S. in a long-term commitment in the development of Europe by bringing the U.S. financial and investment resources to Europe and the post-war European countries to rebuild their economies. In the case of Japan, the U.
S. provided large-scale humanitarian assistance in the earlier phase of reconstruction followed by support for political reform and economic reconstruction Likewise after the end of the Cold War several countries including Cambodia, Afghanistan, El Salvador and Sierra Leone received external assistance for the purpose of post-war reconstruction.However, it was in 1992, that the foundations of contemporary concept of peace building were formally laid down by Boutros in The Agenda for peace report where he defined peace building as an action to identify and support structures which will strengthen and solidify peace in order to avoid a relapse into conflict” and which will consolidate peace and advance a sense of confidence and well-being among people” Peace building, as Boutros saw it, aimed to address the deepest causes of conflict: economic despair, social injustice and political oppression.
In other words, the idea of peace building according to him was to help states move from a merely negative peace; the absence of violence, to a positive peace marked by the deeper social, political, and economic features that help make a society work. While Boutros recognized the interconnectedness of preventive diplomacy, peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peace building, he identified peace building as a unique and specifically post conflict concept. According to him, preventive diplomacy is to avoid a crisis while post conflict peace building is to prevent a recurrence of violent crisis. Since the introduction of the report, both the practice and study of peace building have emphasized a “liberal peace,” or the idea that building peace is largely an exercise in building a liberal democratic society with open elections and free markets. The agenda for peace also emphasized the importance of building democratic institutions. As Boutros put it, there is an obvious connection between democratic practices, such as the rule of law and transparency in decision-making, and the achievement of true peace and security in any new and stable political order. These elements of good governance need to be promoted at all levels of international and national political communities”Definitions of Peace building According To Other ScholarsThe term peace building has been used widely and diversely by different actors and therefore lacks a standard meaning.
As a result, peace building has emerged as a very confusing term in the field of international relations and peace research as over the years, various efforts have been made to critic and elaborate further on the definition of peace building by different scholars. This blurred nature and definition of peace building has been acknowledged by several scholars who have tried to bring clarity to the concept by attempting to redefine peace building. For example,Paffenholz explains that the understanding of peace building in the Brahimi report was rather narrow as it concentrated on post-conflict building to prevent a return to physical violence.He later on introduced his notion of peace building and sustainable peace , with a focus on social relations and reconciliation as means to attain sustainable peace in war-torn societies. Barnett et al on the other hand, looks at intergovernmental bodies and donor governments’ peace building focuses, highlighting that some put more emphasis on security and military activities such as demobilization processes and demining, while others emphasize socio-economic development and yet other focus on the political dimension of increased democratization, institution building and respect for human rights.Knight defines peace building as a complex and multi-dimensional exercise that have tasks ranging from the disarming of warring factions to the rebuilding of political, economic, judicial and civil society institutions. Therefore, according to him, peace building seeks to prevent, reduce, transform and help people to recover from violence in all forms, it also empowers people to foster relationships at all levels that sustain them and their environment.
Bush states, that peace building refers to those initiatives which foster and support sustainable structures and processes which strengthen the prospects for peaceful coexistence and decrease the likelihood of the outbreak, recurrence or continuation, of violent conflict. The process entails both short-term humanitarian operations and long term developmental, political, economic and social objectives. Anan, once a UN secretary general, outlined that peace building involved more than just preventing renewed fighting and securing physical reconstruction.
A core task was to build effective public institutions, within constitutional frameworks and the rule of law, particularly since, all too often, war-affected populations raise their hopes for new, more equitable governance arrangements, only to see exclusionary social, economic and political structures left untouched, perpetuated, or inadvertently strengthened.Ian Spears’ contribution, considers peace building as any action taken in the pursuit of peace, including those that fall under the “agenda for peace” rubrics of peacekeeping and peacemaking. In my understanding, the meaning of the term peace building is the long-term strategies designed and applied to address the underlying causes of conflict so as to rebuild a society , with the aim of helping it recover from war and prevent the recurrence of violent conflict.
I strongly believe in the act of meeting the population’s basic human needs during the peace building process as strongly outlined by John Burton. He indicates that conflict resolution must aim at determining human needs and values and then assisting parties to deduce what alterations in structures, institutions and policies are required to enable the fulfillment of needs.My analysis is also supported by the more comprehensive and normative definition of peace building provided by Rebecca Spence who says that “peace building includes those activities and processes that focus on the root causes of the conflict, rather than just the effects, support the rebuilding and rehabilitation of all sectors of war-torn society and encourage and support interaction between all sectors of society in order to repair damaged relations and start the process of restoring dignity and trust.The Evolution of Peace buildingThe concept of peace building has evolved continuously since 1992. In the early 1990s, the concept of peace building became more inclusive of other factors, primarily due to the growing awareness of the importance of the post-conflict transitions along with the increasing number of actors including the UN, governmental bodies and NGOs who became involved in the peace building process.Thereafter, in 1995, Boutros’ document; "Supplement to An Agenda for Peace" he dismissed the notion of phases in peace building and extended the term across the conflict field of pre-conflict prevention, actions during warfare and post-conflict measures. By the end of the 1990s, it became common to view peace building as a means of preventing and mitigating violent conflicts within societies as well as helping them recover from such conflicts. The Brahimi Report from 2000 defined peace building as “activities undertaken on the far side of conflict to reassemble the foundations of peace and provide the tools for building on those foundations something that is more than just the absence of war.
“Further in 2001, the UN Security Council clarified the expansive notion of peace building, by stating that peace building ‘aimed at preventing the outbreak, the recurrence or continuation of armed conflict’. Thus peace building involved not only keeping former enemies from going back to war, but also addressing the root causes of conflict and even fostering development and the promotion of democracy in countries not affected by conflict.In 2007, the Secretary-General’s Policy Committee described peace building as the range of measures to reduce the risk of relapsing into conflict by strengthening national capacities at all levels for conflict management and to lay the foundation for sustainable peace and development..2.
2Components of Peace building2.2.1 Activities of Peace building. Boutros envisioned a range of activities in the aim of building peace. In the peace building literature, these various activities have been integrated into three major dimensions or challenges most states emerging from violent conflict must face: These include stability creation(security dimension), restoration of state institutions,(governance and political dimension) and the dimension of addressing the socio-economic aspects of conflict. The security dimension of peace building encompasses both the security of a country and individual security for its citizens. Its main aim is to reinforce stability and discourage the combatants from returning to war.
It consists of the following activities:Disarmament, demobilization, reintegration programs- reintegration includes psychosocial, medical, counselling, training and/or job creation programs, and often special programs for reintegrating women and child soldiers. These programs require long-term engagement and local ownership. Control of small arms and Light Weapons, is another aspect of the security dimension of peacebuilding.These weapons constitute a serious threat to peace, reconciliation, safety, security and sustainable development. Thus control of these weapons is essential for preventing and halting conflicts and maintaining peace in post-conflict situations. The security system reform is also an important task in peace building whose purppose is to ensure that civil and military security actors are accountable to the civil authorities in accordance with democratic norms and the principles of good governance. Stronger focus should be given on the security system which include the armed forces, paramilitary groups, civil police, the judicial and prison system, intelligence services and private security firms.The second dimension of peace building activities is about helping to build or restore key state functions that have the capacity to generate basic public goods. However many states, especially those emerging from conflict, are hard-pressed to deliver such goods. Combating the underlying causes of conflict requires measures in the following political areas:Support for political and administrative authorities and structures- when the conflict has been prolonged, key public functions may have more or less broken down. Thus it may be necessary to provide support to political and administrative authorities and structures during a transition period in order to consolidate the position of peace- and development-oriented governments and maintain public order. Reconciliation- Reconciliation involves building or rebuilding trust and friendly relations between individuals and between peoples and institutions. Achieving lasting and sustainable peace depends not only on decisions at political level but also on popular acceptance of the peace settlement. Reconciliation can be promoted through dialogue and targeted projects, but it must also be mainstreamed into peace building as a whole. Healing the physical, psychological and psychosocial wounds inflicted by violent conflict is an important aspect of peace building.Good governance, democracy and respect for human rights- Political oppression and poor political leadership may be a strong contributing factor in violent conflict. In societies marked by good governance, democracy and respect for human rights, there is little occasion for violence as a solution to conflict. Good governance, which involves democracy, respect for human rights and sound economic management, must come from within.Judicial processes and truth commissions-Judicial processes and truth commissions are a particularly sensitive area, and a number of different approaches should be considered in every post-conflict situation. A balance has to be found between truth, justice, reconciliation, punishment and impunity that will help consolidate the peace. The third dimension of peace building activity is the attempt to build not only the states but also society’s ability to manage conflict peacefully and develop the socio-economic infrastructure necessary to underpin economic development. Efforts to promote peace must deal with the following initiatives:Repatriation and reintegration of refugees and internally displaced persons-The repatriation of refugees and IDPs is very essential to finding durable solutions of long lasting peace. These people need legal assistance, physical protection and material support so that they can become productive members of the community. Reconstruction of infrastructure and important public functions-Establishing or reconstructing infrastructure and important public functions is usually an essential step in post-conflict situations and to some extent while the conflict is going on. People feel that peace brings benefits when roads and buildings are repaired, electricity and telecommunications are restored, houses are built, schools and health services resume their activities and the local administration begins to function again.Social development: education and health-The work for lasting and sustainable peace must also include long-term education and health programmers with an emphasis on quality, accessibility and non-discrimination. It is especially important to reach out to children and young people as they are the most vulnerable and they are the leaders of the future. Economic development: private sector development, employment, trade and investment-lasting and sustainable peace requires economic development and growth. Peace building should thus include measures to stimulate private sector development, employment, trade and investment. 2.2.2 Actors In Peace buildingThe actors involved in peace building are as diverse as the measures and activities adopted in the peace building process. Peace building actors can broadly be divided into two main groups: namely internal and external. Internal actors (governmental actors) include all the actors which are a part of the conflict inflicted state. This group essentially consists of political actors including leaders of the main political parties, governments, legislative bodies and all the agents of these entities, military actors including leaders and members of constituted armies or paramilitary groups of different nature, economic entrepreneurs, and members of formal social organizations such as trade unions, community and religious actors.The external actors (Non-governmental actors) on the other hand primarily include foreign governments (through their embassies and different cooperation bodies), international and regional governmental and non-governmental organizations, civil society, international financial institutions, multinational corporations and transnational churches and other religious movements.The report” An Agenda For Peace” notes that successful peace building processes must create space for a wider set of actors including but not limited to : Women, Youth, marginalized groups, civil society and private sector to participate in national post conflict peace building. The Brahimi Report pinpoints that effective peace-building requires active engagement with the local parties, and that engagement should be multidimensional in nature. Fisher and Zimina define peace builders as “all those who see themselves as working for peace, justice and development” Later, they write that a host of actors are peace builders, including government officials as well as civil society organizations. Furthermore, they focus their discussion upon INGOs which adhere to the ideas and practices of contemporary conflict resolution. This usage is perfectly fine, but problems arise when that is not made explicit and not applied consistently.2.2.3 Timing Of Peace buildingThere are four stages of conflict through which any armed conflict is supposed to evolve through. Stages are distinguished by significant changes in the nature of interaction between the parties. In the conflict cycle, peace building is categorized among the activities done so as to de-escalate conflict.According to Kriesberg, the most critical period for any peacebuilding action is immediately after a violent conflict. A continuing maintenance of “processes, approaches, and stages needed to transform conflict toward more sustainable, peaceful relationships”. Peacebuilding measures have to be continued and should not cease after international peacekeeping comes to an end because social dynamics require a permanent and ongoing adaptation of peacebuilding action to changing local contexts. Thus, local capacities should be strengthened in order to ensure that peacebuilding efforts continue after the resources of international and intergovernmental organizations are withdrawn. This recommendation not only takes into account that the peacebuilding resources of intergovernmental organizations are limited, but also points out that local capacities and local conditions have been underestimated as peacebuilding assets.The above statement is justified in the typical life cycle of a conflict when there is a natural decline in tension after the violence has ended. Lund’s diagram of the Life History of a Conflict illustrates that peacebuilding occupies the later stages of a conflict, both simultaneous and contiguous with peacekeeping efforts . This stage focuses on the failure of usual efforts to shift conflicts to a stable situation and reduce re-escalation probability.Rather than examine the relationship between two different states, peacebuilding aims to reduce the need for conflict by addressing the problems and damage within a state. It is also important to note that peacebuilding focuses on reconstruction of the state and its internal functions. By reducing a need to resort to violence to solve differences and inequality, the desire to war on either neighboring states or internally within a state should also be reduced. 2.2.4 Issues In PeacebuildingOne of the problems that the practice of peacebuilding has faced from the very beginning is the lack of coordination among the diverse actors engaged in attempts to rebuild durable peace. It’s not surprising, then, that one of the core objectives of the UN peacebuilding commission was to develop common approaches among external actors and to develop rational divisions of labor among actors, domestic and international.Peacebuilding is also crippled with the issue of too much of Government involvement, making the process to be considered as a government “project”. In order to ensure the participation of the broadest possible spectrum of individuals in peacebuilding, it is important for a peacebuilding programme to have wide ownership and involvement. Enhancing citizen participation and ensuring that they gain ownership of government policy formulation and implementation are recognized in all consultations as important components of a renewed governance system and of the social contract underpinning it. Past attempts at peace-building in the state have been seriously undermined by a lack of strategic planning prior to intervention, particularly the failure to understand the local context in which it would be undertaken. Little attempt has been made to reach out to the local community and manage its expectations for international interventions, let alone good faith efforts to properly consult with and involve locals in important decisions about the future of the state. The international community withdraws too early, leaving weak institutions not sustainable over the long term.Mistaken assumptions on the part of the international community have also contributed to ineffective peace-building. For instance, Roland argues for a slow and controlled peace building strategy, a state needs to focus more institutionalization before liberalization. In other words, it is critical to establish domestic institutions “capable of managing the transition from war, while avoiding the destabilizing effects of democratization and marketization.” One of the other most persistent obstacles to more effective peacebuilding outcomes is the chronic inability of international actors to adapt their assistance to the political dynamics of the war torn societies they seek to support; economic and political liberalization are particularly ill suited and counterproductive in post conflict peace building since they promote economic and political competition at a difficult and fragile stage.Another challenge that peacebuilding faces is the involvement of spoilers during the peacebuilding process. It is possible that influential individuals such as warlords, Commanders or politicians perceive peacebuilding as a threat to their positions and try to impede or influence work in this sector.Poor institutional architecture also affect the success of peacebuilding. As already noted, there are diverse actors at the governmental and intergovernmental levels involved in peacebuilding without an effective mechanism for better alignment of their collective efforts. For example, despite its pioneering role in promoting peacebuilding, the UN remains poorly organized to deal with the challenges of post conflict peacebuilding.2.3 Peacebuilding in the International SystemThe United Nations is the central actor in international efforts to resolve armed conflicts and to try to ensure that post-conflict peace is sustained.. More than any other organization or state, the UN has become deeply and increasingly involved in post conflict peacebuilding. Such involvement is manifested in virtually all recent missions such as South Sudan, DRC, Haiti, Liberia, Kosovo, in special political missions like Libya, Yemen, and Somalia; and in less visible engagement in places like Guinea and Guatemala. All of these have been supplemented by a modest UN peacebuilding “architecture” consisting of a Peacebuilding Commission, a dedicated Peacebuilding Fund, and a Peacebuilding Support Office in the UN Secretariat.The growing significance of post-conflict peacebuilding is also reflected in the number of organizations in the UN system that seriously consider post-conflict peace-building to be a dimension of their traditional missions. For example, UNDP plays an active role in peace operations and peacebuilding and its activities generally target civil society and state institutions with capacity building programs. UNICEF has sought to build a peacebuilding approach into its field activities by providing education facilities to children in war torn regions.. UNEP has been providing environmental assessments to peace operations and advising the Peacebuilding Commission on environmental best practices. Similarly, UNHCR and the IOM have sought with some success to insert their perspective on displacement and conflict into UN discussions of peacebuilding and frequently participate in integrated peace operations.The IMF expanded its policy to cover countries in post-conflict situations financing can help a country directly and by catalyzing support from other sources since fund support must be part of a comprehensive international effort to address the aftermath of the conflict.The World Bank explains the inclusion of post-conflict peacebuilding in its traditional mission of poverty reduction. Many of the world’s poorest countries are locked in a tragic vicious cycle where poverty causes conflict and conflict causes poverty. UNESCO has played a leading and high profile role internationally in coordinating complex operations to safeguard heritage damaged or threatened by conflicts with the assistance of many different partners, both public and private.2.3.1 Peacebuilding in AfricaThe African Union has made significant progress toward building the African Peace and Security Architecture since its founding in 2002. The organization has performed mediation and deployed peacekeepers in multiple settings, including Sudan (Darfur), Comoros, and Somalia. The AU has also advanced new norms in peace and security by banning coups and permitting humanitarian interventions in extreme, emergency circumstances.The continental peace architecture provides an institutional framework for implementing the concept of a comprehensive peace that encompasses conflict prevention, peacemaking, peacekeeping, post-conflict reconstruction and peacebuilding. At the pinnacle of this architecture is the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) which is the AU’s standing decision-making organ for the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts body and the cornerstone of the APSA. Regional Economic Communities have also recorded an increased involvement in the peacebuilding process in Africa, although they have been primarily set up to promote economic integration. The intervention of the ECOWAS in the Liberian crisis was the first experiment by a sub-regional organization in post-Cold War Africa.More recently, other regional economic communities on the continent have replicated the example of the ECOWAS in peace mediation, peacebuilding and peacekeeping. For example, the IGAD has played important roles in the resolution of conflicts in the Horn of Africa. IGAD had initially been set up to address natural resource management and development in the Horn of Africa, before taking on board conflict management, peace and security roles on a regional basis.It was also involved in peace mediation and peacebuilding processes in Sudan, Somalia, and South Sudan. IGAD contributed to the negotiations that culminated in the independence of South Sudan, in July 2011. Its mediation succeeded in Sudan because the government in Khartoum allowed it, whereas in Somalia there was no state that could either oppose or accept the IGAD’s intervention. Due to international pressure and economic problems, the Bashir government conceded to the demand for the right of self-determination of south Sudanese that culminated in the independence of South Sudan (de Klerk, 2007). Apart from being involved in UN-led peace support operations in Sudan and South Sudan, IGAD has supported the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in peacekeeping since 2007. In the remaining restive regions of Sudan, notably Darfur, Blue Nile, South Kordofan, and Kassala State, IGAD was either not involved or not successful.CHAPTER THREE.3.0 Peacebuilding in Kibera3.1 IntroductionThis chapter focuses mainly on firstly giving a brief explanation as to why Kibera is a common political violence hotspot. As much as Kenya was engulfed in violence after the 2007 general elections, it is worthy to note that not all regions of the nation were entangled in the ugly situation. In Nairobi, what was classified as the ‘Urban poor’ were the regions identified to have been the unfortunate victims of the violence. This was due to particular reasons such as poverty, desperation and existence of ethnic militias that easily made such areas vulnerable and linked them to the violence. It is very important to understand, that the major force behind the political violence was due to negative ethnicity that the politicians took advantage of so as to promote their own interests. However, as a number of my interviewees outlined, the violence never seemed to affect the people from Runda, Muthaiga and such similar places yet these are areas where people from different ethnic communities still live together. It is for this reason that this study in general and this chapter in particular has sought to offer an understanding as to why some regions such as Kibera fall prey of violence yet others do not.The second part of this chapter gives a summary of what peacebuilding activities entails and this is in reference to what has been explained in the previous chapter, according to Boutros . Peacebuilding activities try to fix the core problems that underlie the conflict and change the patterns of interaction of the involved parties. They aim to move a given population from a condition of extreme vulnerability and dependency to one of self-sufficiency and well-being. The major focus the researcher gives to this chapter is that of assessing the three dimensions of the peacebuilding activities that were carried out in the slum after the 2007 post-election violence. It is essential that all levels of a society, come together in resolving socio-political problems so as to build sustainable peace. This is exactly what the researcher tries to include in the core part of this chapter. The actors that played a role in the peacebuilding activities , the effectiveness of the activities and the duration within which the activities were carried out are discussed as well.3.2 Kibera As A Violence HotspotThe devastating effects of post-2007 election violence were most severe in the informal settlements in urban areas; most up-market neighborhoods were hardly touched. Kibera, one of Nairobi’s largest slums, experienced some of the worst violence during Kenya’s post-election crisis in 2007. With the poor slum dwellers living on the hope that their ethnic political leaders will someday save them from the hunger, ill-health, poor shelter and sanitation, and the general lack of opportunities for self-improvement that define life as they know it, Kibera slum remains among the regions often inflamed with the most violence especially during election periods. The other factor that singles out Kibera as an easy target of violence, especially post election violence, is the existence of overlapping street organisations such as vigilantes, criminals and youth wingers that come as a result of unemployment, which is a determinant of intensified criminal violence in the area. These groups have had a way of promoting a violent kind of nature among the youths in Kibera.Due to their unemployment, the youth have found other ways of finding their sources of income by joining criminal gangs.By easily knowing their vulnerability, politicians take this opportunity to recruit these youths and mobilize them with the aim of directing them to form violence against an opponent provided the terms of the engagement are acceptable.The hype generated prior to general elections, and boosted by incessant campaign promises for job security and prosperity, drew in these idlers immediately.This is also the season when the idle youth find work to do.Upon the invention of the notion of political youth wingers, most political parties have incorporated this in their parties too.This suggests that members of the political wingers are some kind of goons who are always ready for hire. These political wingers, also being in the know of the problems of their fellow youth, take their grievances, disguised as party affiliations, to the streets, making a higher percentage of unemployed youths to fill the streets in the name of fighting to protect what they feel is not rightfully provided to themPoor landlord-tenant relationship has been a major factor that has created a tense environment in the region which usually worsens and culminates into violence during the election period. The higher percentage of most of the tenants in Kibera, who originate from the western part of Kenya are the Luos and the Luhyas. Locals from these two communities view their situation as unfair since their fellow habitants from the Kikuyu community who are mostly landlords, seem to have “made it in life” whereas they are always living in misery. The bitter wrangles between these communities have been intensified over the years and became worse, when the retired president Moi visited the slum during the 90’s and stated that there was no need of paying monthly rent, if someone was living in a carton or mud formed house. This statement gave the tenants a powerful excuse to draw back from paying their arrears, something which really angered the Kikuyu landlords leading them to come up with ways of forcefully evicting those who were not complying with the house policies.The most notable instance of clashes between the luo tenants and the Kikuyu landlords was in 1992 when a notable number of kikuyu landlords evicted the luos from Kisumu Ndogo and Gatwikira.The post election violence was just a climax of some of the negative feelings against the Kikuyu about what was seen as the unfair distribution of land that seem to have started during Jommo Kenyatta’s era.The year 2007 was a good chance for the western communities to reclaim back from the Kikuyu what they believed was once theirs,through violence and forceful eviction, similarly to what was being done to them. This situation in Kibera, that had happened over a long period of time, had already bred the environment of violence to loom and this is why, when the country was entangled in the violence, it was a point where the violence easily flourished unlike other most regions in the country.Ethnicity is also another tool that has been well used by politicians in Kenya to achieve their political ambitions. Having noticed the desperation among the poor residents and their hope for miraculous salvation by the ‘larger-than-life political’ personalities, they manipulate the thoughts of these slum residents and play on their emotions with wicked skill. Kibera’s habitants always fall prey of the politicians actions and end up as victims of violence.The slum was hardly hit by election violence majorly in 2007, a period of devastating moments that left many habitants killed and others widely displaced. This is because, it is a stronghold area for Raila Odinga, opposition leader who has always had a strong relationship with the habitants. Following the results that Raila Odinga had lost the presidential elections, people in Kibera came out in large numbers to protest. Some began committing arson and looting. Violent confrontations took place between ODM supporters, and the police forces and supporters associated with incumbent President Mwai Kibaki and his Party for National Unity (PNU).In the general elections that followed,(2013), the slum was relatively peaceful. This is because the habitants themselves had seen the need of not engaging in violence after they had seen the grave consequences of conflict. In addition, a lot had been done in the country to prevent a crisis that had affected many regions of the slum in the former elections. However, chaos broke out again during and after the 2017 general elections as the habitants, mostly from the Luo ethnic community felt that they had been deceived again and the votes of their political savior: Raila odinga had been rigged for the second time. 3.3 Peacebuilding Activities In KiberaThe activities included in peacebuilding vary depending on the situation and the agent of peacebuilding. Barnett et al. divides post conflict peacebuilding into three dimensions: stabilizing the post-conflict zone, restoring state institutions, and dealing with social and economic issues. Activities within the first dimension reinforce state stability post-conflict and discourage former combatants from returning to war (disarmament, demobilization and reintegration, or DDR). Second dimension activities build state capacity to provide basic public goods and increase state legitimacy. Programs in the third dimension build a post-conflict society’s ability to manage conflicts peacefully and promote socio economic development. This study will look at how each of the dimensions were applied to the peacebuilding process in Kibera.After the signing of the peace agreement on March 4, 2008, Kenya embarked on a process of fostering long lasting peace. In the period that followed, the nation’s sensitivity to matters of peace could be seen in the number, nature, and quality of peace initiatives that were set by the government, civil society, the private sector, and even individual citizens. In Kibera, the government played significant role in some sectors with the aim of ending the violence in the region and maintaining good relations within the slum dwellers. However many of the respondents stated that they never felt much of the government’s presence during the peacebuilding process.The non-governmental organizations and the wider civil society also played an increased role in the recovery process in the slum. At the onset of the violence, some community-based organizations (CBOs) intervened by urging parties in the con?ict to dialogue and cease hostilities. However, the period following the restoration of normalcy witnessed the mushrooming of civil society initiatives. In general, the interventions were aimed at reconciliation and capacity building of slum leaders to respond to challenges brought about by con?ict. The residents of Kibera too realized the need to work together, to coexist peacefully and to mobilize themselves so as to enhance peace in the region. They therefore, came up with different strategies of promoting and building peace in the slum…These activities included the following explained below.3.3.1 Security Dimensiona) Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration –remove unnecessary subheadingsThe type of weapons used during the violence were the kind that were easily disposable like stones and others that were difficult to disarm from the people like pangas and machetes. Very few youths were armed with weapons such as guns . These were those who were already part of certain gangs Therefore, there was no particular official disarmament project that was carried out in the slum as peacebuilding initiative. However, different political leaders who were ethnically aligned to the groups of the vigilante groups took the initiative to encourage the armed youth to peacefully surrender their weapons particularly the militia groups that were supplying the rowdy youth with pistols. This was because they saw no need of letting the youth continue to engage in the violence anymore and destroy more property, especially since an agreement between the two main leaders of the warring parties had been signed. The armed youth were also mobilized by their fellow community members to surrender their weapons. These youth members had even formed a group whereby, the armed population were enticed to surrender their weapons without being forwarded to the police for arrest and if they did not adhere to this simple policy, that is when they would be handed in for arrest. The first option was definitely easier to follow. The Community Elders as well, who had already seen the damages that had been done caused in most parts of the slum advised the armed youth to stop fighting and surrender . They were advised to also surrender their weapons. b) Control Of Small Arms and Light WeaponsThe proliferation of SALW has always been rampant in the slum of Kibera especially among the various vigilante militia groups. During the post-election period, the situation was worse. The post-2007 election violence increased the urgency of small arms reduction efforts. The government of Kenya demonstrated its sincerity in addressing the problems of small arms proliferation, in creating the KNFP and enabling it to coordinate small arms control efforts across all branches of government,In collaboration with the Regional Centre on Small Arms (RECSA), UNDP and the Government of Japan, KNFP conducted awareness raising forums in various parts of the Country and in Kibera too. The main objective of the public awareness campaign was to sensitize and create awareness amongst the major stakeholders and communities on the dangers of proliferation of illicit SALW. The programme also supported voluntary surrender of illicit SALW and their disposal. It also facilitated the participation of the Kenyan delegation at the proceedings that led to the formulation of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).c) Security System ReformThe Commission of Inquiry into the Post-Election Violence (CIPEV, or the Waki Commission, documented widespread allegations of attacks, including killings and rapes, committed by the police, and allegations of deliberate negligence where the police failed to respond to situations of violence. A National task force for police reform was created in 2009 and subsequent laws passed in 2011 and this contained a comprehensive framework for police reform. In December 2014, there was a documentary produced by the ICTJ: From a Force to a Service: Police Reforms –Vetting in Kenya. The film highlighted the need to reform the law enforcement body in light of its history of human rights violations and stressed the vital role civil society plays in building a trustworthy and accountable police force for Kenya.With the release of the film, ICTJ aimed to promote participation of civil society in the vetting process by explaining how they could submit information on police officers to be used in the review. Poor and overpopulated areas where police violence had been most intense—such as Kibera, Mathare, and Mukuru Kwa Njenga were a priority for the dissemination of the film, done in partnership with the Kenyan NGO Grace Agenda. During the month of December, public screenings were held in those communities, where the documentary sparked public debate and demand for further information about how to engage in the vetting process.However, efforts guiding the police reform had not been put into practice in time for the March 2013 general elections and as a result, the very same policing structures blamed by many for serious human rights violations during the 2007 PEV, remained in place for the 2013 elections. 3.3.2 Political Developmenta) Support by political ; Administrative authorities and StructuresDistrict Peace Committees (DPCs)The government asked the chiefs and wazee wa vijiji (village elders) to encourage inter-communal dialogue at grassroots level, the effectiveness of this strategy depended on a variety of factors, including the popularity of the individuals and their ability to reach out to the residents who no longer trusted establishment officialdom. On aggregate, the strategy succeeded only after the restoration of a modicum of normalcy.The government launched the District Peace Committees (DPCs) initiative as a long-term measure of enhancing the healing process in the slums. DPC is a comprehensive strategy which involves the community and its leaders in conflict prevention, management, reconciliation and peace-building.The Community leaders popularly known as the (Wazee Wa Vijiji) would also assemble people through seminars which would be held after a certain period of time and address them on the importance of sustaining peace amongst each other. In the seminars, the leaders would address the issues of violence and also educate the residents on the need not to fight. b) ReconciliationIn Kibera, reconciliation process was fostered through the following ways:1.Trauma therapy and healingA number of interventions were undertaken by NCCK to promote healing and reconciliation following the Kenyan 2007 post poll violence. One was the mounting of a psychosocial support program to enable victims of the post-election violence to heal psychologically from the trauma they underwent. One such intervention particularly targeted the children in partnership with UNICEF. They provided psychosocial support by establishing child-friendly spaces in areas such as Kibera, to assist children in processing what had happened to them in efforts to relieve their trauma. Songs, art, dances were some of the strategies employed.Many victims of sexual violence were injured extensively and suffered enormous psychological trauma. Some victims of sexual violence were raped in the presence of their family members, a situation that traumatized them as well as the members of their families who were present during the ordeal. Several institutions that had no official responsibility to assist victims of post-election sexual violence, offered invaluable humanitarian assistance. The commission received evidence of the remarkable work of the Kenya Red Cross Society, Médecins Sans Frontieres, the Nairobi Women’s Hospital and a number of churches. Some of these groups such as the Kenya Red Cross provided first aid, tents, food, clothing and helped the survivors to reunite with their families while others such as the Nairobi Women’s Hospital, served as a frontline facility, which gave medical care and psychological support to victims of sexual violence and engaged in fundraising so that they could offer these services to victims for free.2.Inter-Communal Dialogues.Organizations such as Peace Net helped mobilize communities to foster both early warning response and long-term resilience, particularly through faith based organizations and community level organizations. It was mostly engaged in local capacity building such as training elders and encouraging the establishment of elder councils in various communities so that they could use their influence to defuse conflicts at an early stage.NCCK also held intra-ethnic and interethnic dialogue among the residents with the aim of promoting forgiveness among each other; reconciliation and bringing about healing so as to enable communities to live together harmoniously.” The Council had earlier in March 2007 in partnership with other religious institutions formed the Inter-Religious Forum (IRF) to respond to issues of national concerns such as the promotion of peaceful electoral campaigns in 2007. The IRF drew its membership from Christians, Hindu, and Muslims, which are the three most dominant religions in Kenya.The Inter-ethnic Dialogue and Peaceful Reconciliation was also a peace project that worked in collaboration with Umande Trust and sustainable energy to work with youth in Kibera to address electoral and ethno-political violence in successive electoral cycles. The IDPR conducted the peace project in collaboration with the Langata Youth Network (LYN) to provide politically-neutral dialogue meetings and undertook voter education seminars, educational theatre, sports and musical festivals. The activities were selected and designed by local project management committee comprising of youth representatives from different villages and ethnic groups in Kibera. The IDPR also trained Kibera youth groups’ representatives as ‘voter ambassadors’ to raise awareness and to ensure the active participation of young people in elections. Promoting Cohesion2.The National Cohesion and Integration CommissionThe NCIC drew its existence from the National Dialogue and Reconciliation Agreement signed in Nairobi on 1 February 2008 by the Government; Party of National Unity (PNU) and Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) delegations, and witnessed by H.E. Kofi A. Annan for the Panel of Eminent African Personalities.The Commission came out of the realization that long-lasting peace, sustainable development and harmonious coexistence among Kenyans required deliberate normative, institutional, and attitudinal processes of constructing nationhood, national cohesion, and integration. Therefore it took the step of facilitating processes and policies in the slum villages that encouraged elimination of all forms of ethnic discrimination irrespective of background, social circle, race, and ideological belief(s) through the following ways:Fostering a general understanding of the concepts of national cohesion and integration in reference to the recently promulgated constitution of Kenya , secondly, establishing and promoting principles, standards and best practices that should guide the process of national cohesion and integration, and reconciliation and finally discouraging persons, institutions, political parties and associations from advocating or promoting discrimination or discriminatory practices on the ground of ethnicity or race;3.Campaign For IntermarriagesThrough the forums that were frequently held, the habitants were encouraged by the community leaders to practice inter-marriages as that would promote deeper integration among the people and in some way, promote peace along different tribal lines. Convincing people to intermarry during such a period was however not that easy since this was a time when even family members of the same tribe had killed each other due to their political differences.However, with time, things somehow went back to normal and the residents of Kibera are engaging more in inter-marriages.4.Sports TournamentsAfter the PEV, many projects were laid down in Kibera, with the aim of re-integrating and reconciling people from different ethnic communities. Among these were the Carolina for Kibera organization which took part in implementing its Sports and Development Program . This is an act that they have continued to carry out up to date . For over 15 years, their sports program has been teaching more than just sports. They have been helping to build peace with boys and girls from varying ethnic backgrounds as they learn how to rely on their teammates and develop healthy friendships with one another. Players also improve their self-confidence and learn valuable lessons about leadership, fairness, and gender equality. Their sports program has been carried out in the following different ways.a)Peace CaravansThe most important part of their peace advocacy in Kibera is ensuring that peers and neighbors adopt peace as a guiding principle during potentially difficult times. Bringing that message door-to-door is precisely what their(Carolina For Kibera) Sports for Peace & Development program has done through a series of “peace caravans.” Through peace tournaments, weekly performances and community forums, athletes have traveled to all parts of Kibera and neighboring communities to spread messages of peace and solidarity. Sharing these messages has created a movement with the power to reach and support the entire community.b)Champions LeagueTheir flagship program, the Champions League, holds two annual soccer tournaments, one for girls and one for boys. To compete, every team roster must be ethnically diverse, as Kibera itself is. By participating in community engagement activities, teams can earn additional points to help their team’s tournament standings. More than soccer, the Champions League teaches leadership, solidarity, and civic service.5.Youth InitiativesThe youth who were at the center of the violence learned critical lessons about the value of peace and ethnic coexistence. Only a week after the violence, militias were negotiating peace with each other because the violence had taken a heavy toll on them. Not only had they lost their members in unnecessary fights, food had run-out in nearly all slum villages due to the breakdown of law and order. Considering the magnitude of devastations the conflict visited on the social fabric, most survivors agree that it was a useless fight. The youth were especially discouraged by the realization that their situation did not change despite the fact that both principles (Kibaki and Raila) on whose behalf they had killed one another were comfortably sharing power. The majority are therefore apprehensive of being entangled in the looming next round of violence. This explains why some residents are considering migrating to their rural homes or to safer neighborhoods as the polls draw closer.A section of the youth resolved to resist violence and this was evident in the manner in which they interacted across ethnic boundaries. Youth interaction intensified through a number of sporting events, coming together in social gatherings and revival of inter-ethnic marriages.6.Community GroupsReconciliation groups were also formed by the habitants themselves and through these, people mobilized each other to stay away from violence. Other groups that used to exist in Kibera before, but whose functions were different, also diverted their mission to reconciling people through advocating for peace throughout the different regions of Kibera.a)Undugu Family KiberaThe organization was founded to reduce the level of violence in Kibera which was one of the hotspots during the PEV. They focused on encouraging neighbors to get them involved in a dialogue by singing, dancing, playing and working. They especially support needy people and try to give them a perspective. Their objective is to afford a new generation of people who believe in nonviolence and respect each other regardless of tribes, religions or anything else. Consequently, UFK tries to work intensely with young people and consider education as an important key for a peaceful society. An example of UNDUGU’s daily projects are the schools which are supported by them. Every week they offer a special two hour lesson on non-violence and peacebuilding. Pupils should talk together about violence and how to identify the roots of conflicts in the daily life in Kibera. They are taught in methods and strategies how to avoid and handle these conflict situations. Furthermore, they should become more aware of political issues in Kenya. Every pupil can be seen as a multiplier to bring home to their families the principles of a peaceful and respectful society.b)Kibera Women For Peace And Fairness.The organization Kibera Women for Peace and Fairness was formed by Jane Anyango as a platform to bring women together and to empower them by giving them space for exchanging their experiences during the PEV as well as informing them about their rights. In addition, KWPF cared for IDPs from Kibera. Furthermore, the organization aimed to reunite Kibera women regardless of their political affiliations, ethnic backgrounds or religions to appreciate peaceful and harmonious coexistence. The main fields of work are peace and conflict resolution, gender development/ empowerment and above all to bring across peace messages through songs, multicultural events, community peace forums and sports such as women football. These activities attract people to listen to the women and to spread out their messages.One of the major peacebuilding practice by KWPF was their decision to establish a choir in 2008 to disseminate peace messages in Kibera through songs. They realized that they could cause a stir and people would listen to them if they acted together as a group. They performed songs in Swahili and all the songs dealt with violence, peace, the power of women and reconciliation. The songs were composed by the women themselves.Another good practice project is a campaign which KWPF implemented together with Polycorn( partner organization) who is essentially engaged in defending girls from defilement. By visiting schools around the villages of Kibera, Polycorn provides information on the girls’ rights e.g. sexual abuse. The aim of the campaign was to enable mainly the girls and women to speak about their various problems. Especially for the girls, they started the ‘talking boxes’ approach where they could write and drop anything they want into boxes. For a short time, boys have also been participating According to Jane Anyango, KWPF is a grassroots organization with more than 800 members so that all tribes are involved. In order to be more efficient in their work, every village has a representative who acts as a contact person. In addition, they cooperate with international and local radio stations which support to inform the society about peace activities of Kibera Women for Peace and Fairness. 7.ReligionReligion has a positive and constructive role to play in peace. The involvement of faith-based actors in conflict resolution is not a new trend and in the past, faith-based actors, clergy, religious movements and organizations have played a part in resolving conflicts. Faith-based organizations were crucially involved in peace agreements and reconciliation in Kibera. Shalom Centre For Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation(SCRR) was invited by religious leaders, under the organization of Fr. Carlos May Correa into Kibera slums to help address the issue of pre-election violence in light of the general elections that were upcoming in 2013. The SCRR team held an introductory workshop in the multi-ethnic Kibera slum on 2nd September 2012.Capacity building workshops for church leaders were also held to build their capacity in mediation and peacebuilding skills and this enabled them to preach reconciliation in their areas of operation.Religious unity for instance through the Inter-Religious Forum served to promote unity for the purpose of preaching peaceful coexistence. The involvement of local and international bodies and also other widely-known organizations made the intervention of the council a success, because material, financial and human resources were pulled together to address the various needs of the populace ranging from peacebuilding to humanitarian assistance. The NGOs through the churches also preached peace especially among the Youth. Various of them were engaged in efforts to build bridges among bitterly divided communities and to alleviate human suffering. These actors included the Kenya Red Cross, churches, bodies such as UNICEF, UNDP, and UNIFEM, and local and international NGOs, among others. Below are relevant narratives from respondents:They coordinated the efforts of member churches such as the Anglican Church, Reformed Church, Presbyterian Church, Friends Church, PEFA Church, and partnered with the Red Cross and the government to provide humanitarian assistance and advocate for peaceful co-existence. 8.Street Art. The artists in Kibera felt something needed to be done to rebuild peace and prevent its recurrence. According to the artists, the use of short and clear visual slogans were powerful because “they speak louder than our voices” and have a persuasive quality in that they force people to stop and think before acting. Peace messages were written all over Kibera.The artists also decided to make a temporary museum out of the ruins in Kibera in order to bring back harmony to the area but also to offer a space where children could come and express themselves and their emotion through painting.c)Good Governance, democracy and Human RightsThe importance of governance and inclusive institutions to peacebuilding and development has risen atop the international agenda. They are also very essential to youth affected by conflict. Research shows that injustice, discrimination and corruption are the key drivers behind youth engagement in violence. Under the KNDR peacebuilding framework, different changes were brought about in the new constitution that was promulgated in 2010. Decentralized government was adopted with the intention of bringing the state and resources closer to the people. Given that most of the conflicts happened at the county level, where there existed complex varieties of factors that help drive the conflicts, extensive strategies that were inclusive needed to be engaged to prevent and address violent conflicts. The strategies needed to be short-term and long-term. As much as Kibera is not that well developed, the introduction of devolution, whereby administrative and social services were brought closer to the people has so far made a positive impact on the lives of the residents.d)Judicial Processes and Truth Commissions.The Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission of Kenya was part of the accountability component of Agenda Four of the National Accord signed in 2008. By addressing the cause and effects of historical injustices and gross violations of human rights the TJRC contributed towards national unity, reconciliation, and healing. The Commission was established by an Act of Parliament (Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission Act no. 6 of 2008) to investigate the gross human rights violations and other historical injustices in Kenya between 12 December 1963 and 28 February 2008.In Kibera, the Kibera Community Justice Centre, was formed after the 2007 post election violence with the aim of creating awareness on legal frameworks available to the local who sought redress. Apart from dealing with incidences during the PEV, the Kibera Community Justice Centre focused on issues related to human rights, gender based violence as well as land and property related conflicts.With regard to conflict management and peacebuilding, the Kibera Community Justice Centre conducted trainings for slum dwellers such as trainings of community paralegals, community human rights monitors and trainings on alternative dispute resolution.A capacity building training was the workshop on the new constitution conducted by the Kibera Community Justice Centre and funded by the Institute for Social Accountability. The aim of this workshop was to teach the residents how to contact and work with the county government to solve everyday problems.Another initiative conducted by the Kibera Community Justice Centre was the establishment of peace clubs in schools in Kibera. The objective of these clubs were to remove stigmas and to create a place where children could come together and come to terms with their traumas. 3.3.3 Social And Economic Developmenta) Re-integration of IDPsThe inhabitants of Kibera whose houses had been burnt or looted, sought refuge at the D.Os and D.Cs office while others settled at the Showground, as others saw it best to hide in the churches where they felt more protected from the violent attacks of the looters. Government and administrative response to the problems of IDPS was initially slow and ad hoc. The Kenya Red Cross Society, local and international NGOs and CSOs, faith based groups and individual volunteers played an important role in alleviating the suffering of IDPs by offering refuge, food, shelter, security, education, medicine, counselling and other needs.The Government initiated “Operation Rudi Nyumbani” in April 2008 aimed at removing IDPs from camps and were possible resettling them back to their homes. These people needed legal assistance, physical protection and material support so that they could become productive members of the community.The government also introduced feeding programs in the slum. This involved the regular supply of relief food(maize and beans) to the needy victims of the post-election violence in Kibera. The project was implemented through the Chief’s office. Although a significant number of needy families benefited, residents complained that supplies became irregular.Shelter Afrique initiated a house construction project for individuals whose homes were razed down in Kibera during the violence. About 70 such houses have been completed and occupied.b)Re-construction Of Infrastructure and Important Public Functions.Establishing or reconstructing infrastructure and important public functions is usually an essential step in post-conflict situations and to some extent while the conflict is going on. People feel that peace brings benefits when roads and buildings are repaired, electricity and telecommunications are restored, houses are built, schools and health services resume their activities and the local administration begins to function again.In Kibera, after the 2007 post-election violence, a lot was done to improve the conditions of the slum. This has been a continuous process till to date. Efforts were taken by the government to improve the lighting structure in the slum. Long security lights were installed in different parts of the villages in Kibera and from the responses of the residents, they have had a great impact especially on improving the internal security of the area.There was also an increase of police in Kibera after the violence. The government was involved in constructing new police stations as well as expanding the existing ones so as to enable it to increase (physical) police presence in the slums. NASLA delegates observed that police patrols in the slum were steadily increasing as the nation drew closer to the 2013 polls. Indeed, some police officers conducted patrols in civilian clothes and in unofficial vehicles hence they were difficult to notice. Inhabitants also reported that police response to crime also improved, although they seemed to disagree with shoot-to-kill strategy.Apart from increased police presence, the government rolled out a massive slum upgrading program which specifically focused on road construction and repair. All the construction work began after the violence and most of it is nearing completion. The improved road network transformed the face of the slum by expanding business opportunities which the youth have been exploring for self-employment. Further, road construction itself provided employment opportunities to local youth thus reducing unemployment.Other actors such as multiple NGOs played a big role in setting up a variety of social amenities that have positively helped the habitants all over Kibera. For instance, Shining Hope Of Communities has so far implemented a number of initiatives that have helped offered public services to the habitants. SHOFCO has managed to provide water services to the residents. They provide very low-cost water to the Kibera community as well as water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) education facilitated by community health workers. Through a multi-faceted approach, they not only provide accessible, affordable clean water and sanitary pit latrines, but they also keep communities healthy through hygiene education. c)Social Development; Education and HealthEducationThe importance of social services, particularly education, to peacebuilding is increasingly being recognized by the international policy and donor community. Education is arguably the single most transformative national institution that can touch every young person. For this reason, it is a pillar of nation-building and national identity formation – as well as peacebuilding. Youth around the world understand the importance of education: one of the top priorities of young people in post-2015 global consultations was “a good educationFor the purposes of improving the services offered to the people in the slum , different NGOs took the initiative to develop the education sector, with the aim of providing the children with education, so as to empower them and provide them with useful information that would better their lives.For instance , SHOFCO in 2009, took the initiative to start up a school known as Kibera school for Girls, where they provide education services to girls from poor backgrounds. They believe that girls are the key to long-term change that will break the cycles of poverty in these communities. Through their two leadership academies for girls, they create female leaders who have experienced slum-life and marginalization first-hand so that they can become advocates for their communities and ultimately change the status-quo.At their tuition-free leadership academies, located in Kibera 450 students are receiving a free high-quality education from pre-kindergarten through the 8th grade. Every student receives healthcare, meals, uniforms and school supplies so that they can stay focused on what matters most: their futures.HealthcareIn Kibera, there are no government clinics or hospitals. The providers are the charitable organizations: AMREF, MSF, churches plus some others. They do a great job. All people are encouraged to have a free HIV test and if positive to take free generic ARV medicine.MSF has been a part of Kibera community for many years, and has played a major role in offering free primary healthcare to anyone who attends the clinics for the past 20 years. The services that MSF offer have really impacted positively upon the lives of people living in poverty. MSF’s mark has been truly felt in Kibera, as many people have been empowered about their health, quality of life has been improved, and lives have been saved.During the post election violence period, and afterwards, they continued their core work of saving lives and offering free medical services to those who had been injured. This was easily facilitated through their several mobile clinics that they set up in all regions of Kibera that were accessible by the residents. Ambulances were also highly available during that period so as to transport the injured victims to health centers where they could acquire medication.”MSF –Belgium also working in Kibera at that time provided ARVs to the clients who had sought refuge at Jamhuri. After 20 years in Kibera, MSF handed over all responsibilities to the Ministry of Health. By June Healthcare is also key to SHOFCO’s holistic approach to help build empowered, healthy generations. Their services include: primary health and preventative care, pre and postpartum care, child immunizations, comprehensive HIV care, family planning, cervical cancer screening, gender-based violence response, and a child nutrition program. They currently have seven health clinics serving Kibera and Mathare. In 2017, they served over 132,835 people through their health clinics. d)Economic Development; Private Sector Development, Employment, Trade and Investment.Joblessness is a key problem in Kibera especially among the youth. It plays a big role and has been a driving factor that has led the youth in engaging in violent crimes throughout the years. The Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation process acknowledged the urgency and importance of addressing Youth unemployment. This is because it threatens social and political stability and the very foundation upon which a nation is built. Youth unemployment was identified as one of the key factors behind the post-election violence. As such, prioritizing addressing youth unemployment is critical to consolidating national stability and generational posterity. In Kibera, the government availed micro-credit facilities to youth organizations through the Ministry for Sports and Youth Affairs. The purpose of the facility was to support small-scale business ventures as a way of promoting self-employment in the informal sector. A dozen youth organizations took advantage of this facility to set-up small-scale businesses such as kiosks, car wash, barber shops, and salons. Non-governmental organizations, such as Oxfam GB, have also engaged hundreds of unemployed youth in the slums in waste management (plastic recycling). Such kinds of engagement help to stem insecurity and other social problems such as drug abuse that result from unemployment. Further, the government – in partnership with non-governmental organizations organized a series of training for selected youth on entrepreneurship skills. The aggregate effect of this training is that the youth have been encouraged to identify and exploit numerous opportunities that abound in the slums instead of looking for white collar jobsKazi kwa Vijana ProgrammeThis is a government initiative which was also launched after the post-election violence to create employment opportunities mainly for urban slum youth to discourage them from engaging in violence and criminal activities. The initiative is implemented through the collaborative efforts of three government ministries – Youth Affairs and Sports; Roads and Public Works; and Environment and Natural Resources. Under the initiative, youth were recruited for manual jobs including road and bridge repair, and environmental cleanups, earning around Sh300 per day. The project is managed through the provincial administration. The implementation of the initiative has not been uniform in all the Nairobi slums. It is comparatively more active in Kibera, where between 700 and 750 youth are involved, compared to Kiambio slums where the initiative was suspended after less than a month citing lack of funds. Elsewhere, fewer than 300 youth per slum are involved in Kazi kwa Vijana, and there are complaints by residents about corruption in the recruitment process. However, implementation problems notwithstanding, Kazi kwa Vijana has kept nearly 3,000 youth positively occupied in community development projects, albeit too few to have a significant effect considering the purpose for which the initiative was intended.CHAPTER FOURPeacebuilding in Kibera; A Critical Analysis:Challenges and Prospects 4.1 IntroductionChapter four consists of the challenges and prospects of peacebuilding in Kibera after the 2007 post election violence. In this chapter, the researcher seeks to outline and offer an inner description of the multiple challenges different actors; both the government and civil societies faced during the peace-building programs.This chapter also provides information on what the researcher believes to be positive possibilities for the growth and development of peace once again, in the slum of Kibera.Signing a peace accord, as was done by Kibaki and Raila in early 2008, may mark the end of a conflict on paper, but the impact on the ground is often minimal.Transitioning from war to peace is not a technical exercise but a highly political process where different principles, priorities and approaches need to come together. Societies emerging out of prolonged armed conflicts face fundamental challenges in transforming their war weakened economies and highly polarized political and social relations into booming economies capable of providing the basic needs of all their citizens. The political institutions are weak and ill suited to the needs of ensuing participatory and reformists political system. Sustainable peace and security interventions need a high level of dedication and preparedness to go beyond mere fire-fighting activities. Peace building is a socio-cultural engagement that requires patience, skill, and material resources. At the highest level of creating a lasting culture of peaceful co-existence, there is need to take a wider look at a country’s national politics. For only justice and a strict adherence to democratic ideals and practices can guarantee inter-ethnic peace not only in the slums of Nairobi but everywhere in our urban and rural localities. The task of rebuilding a divided Kenya after the 2007/2008 was a difficult one. The conflict had divided people along ethnic lines when neighbors turned against neighbors in arms. The major task therefore was to rebuild trust among the people and find ways through which people could live together peacefully as one nationThe peacebuilding process in Kibera was not an easy task either. ‘walk in the park’ either. Having been a region that was hit hard by the violence, many parts of the slum had been left in utter destruction.All actors who committed themselves to carry out the different peacebuilding activities, faced more or less the same kind of challenges that either slowed down their projects or in some cases brought their projects to an end. This rendered it difficult for the programs to achieve sustainable peace, acceptance and meaningful impact in the community. 4.2Challenges4.2.1 Resistance From The Locals.Several NGOs that took the initiative to settle in Kibera for the purposes of peacebuilding were not warmly welcomed by a higher percentage of the population. The rejection was a result of them being considered to be colluding with the warring communities. What the locals viewed as the biases of the civil society, in the distribution of the post violence peace building was the primary contributing factor behind the hostility from the community. For instance, they would find that their property have been destroyed or stolen by the rowdy youths who were members of particular gangs. In some cases, other NGOs would be clearly chased away as the residents felt that they were somehow representing the incumbent government, a government they did not want and had not voted in. The state received less hostility from the community, but in other areas of the slum, the state officers were rejected as they were considered to have been the ones fueling the conflict. Some community members felt they were being marginalized and oppressed by those affiliated to the ones in power. These communities felt they were being shortchanged and it was time to fight back and get back their rights. This made it hard for the state and the civil society to convince them and hence the slowing down of the implementation of some of the post conflict reconstruction programs.Responses from some village elders revealed that landlords applied discriminatory criteria to exclude undesirable ethnic groups and tenants by hiring idle youth and criminal gangs to terrorize them. This made the discriminated communities hostile and never wanted any assistance from the ethnic group from which the landlords came from. In this patterns of violence, the participants claimed homes were often burned down thus triggering further cycles of violence.The focus group discussions disclosed that whenever messages of ethnic clashes in different parts of the city and even in different parts of the country were received by the youths, they invariably mobilized and executed revenge attacks on members of ethnic groups in the study communities who were perceived to be aggressors of ethnic clashes. This made the communities affected to become hostile as their ethnic members were being tortured hence hindered the organization from rendering the services needed.4.2.2 Insecurity.Security issues were a big challenge during the peacebuilding process in Kibera after the 2007 PEV.Respondents from the different villages considered insecurity as a factor that negatively affected the civil society during the post conflict reconstruction programs. The state as well experienced challenges in the post conflict peacebuilding process. One of the village elders in Kibera said that the insecurity in the area really affected the intervention and restoration of peace. This made it difficult to access the affected areas even if the services were available. The limited support by the state in providing security to the civil society staff hindered the implementation of the reconstruction programs in the conflict prone slum. According to one of the locals staff from the ruling party by then, would not be allowed in the health facility by the community members from the opposition party(ODM).Wanyeki agrees with this and says that the National Steering Committee on Peacebuilding and Conflict management did not have the necessary follow-up mechanism and reporting tools to adequately address the insecurity cycles in the violence prone areas in Kenya informal settlements. Respondents from different areas of Kibera were of the view that the reconstruction programs should have been developed in such a way that the security measures were strengthened enough so as to enable the realization of business opportunities to improve the livelihood of those affected. The government’s failure to recognize the slum-to efficiently provide social amenities has had negative implications on security. For instance, Kibera has access to the same police services as the rest of Nairobi, but from the several people I spoke to, they stressed that it is still the most poorly patrolled regions of Nairobi. In majority of the villages, residents reported that they had never seen a policeman on patrol either during the day or at night. The reasons why the slums are poorly patrolled is because some sections are impenetrable by police security vans. Secondly, the slum serve as hideout for hardcore criminals. This has made some villages to be actually too insecure for police officers on foot patrol. Criminals have on a number of occasions attacked policemen on patrol.In addition to that, a number of residents confessed that they do not trust the police. This is because, the police do not take the time to focus on crime related issues. Usually, when a crime is committed, the residents do not call the police. Instead, they solve it themselves, or if it is gang related, they call vigilante groups to ‘solve the issue’. The vigilantes in the slum are recruited from among the unemployed village youth. They have become popular because they speak the same language as the community members they are created to protect. Other residents reported violent confrontations with the police. The distrust towards official security authorities and the existence of vigilante groups pose risks for peace as the armed groups can be exploited by political and powerful actors to cause larger scale violence as seen after the 2007 election. The other thing that brings about distrust between the habitants and the police officers is that the police never give the residents the opportunities to hold their peaceful demonstrations without dispersing them forcefully. As one of the residents(name withheld) narrated to me, any time a police officer sees a crowd of people who have gathered together for their own genuine purposes, they are usually dispersed away either by the use of teargas or by being forcefully arrested. This has been happening mostly during most of the election periods.The Kenyan government has since 2008 made efforts to step up security in the slum by increasing police presence and by responding to actual incidents of violence. Despite that, Kibera , security issues in the region are still high in number.4.2.3 Poverty Poor people are easily lured into conflict through financial compromise and agitation for better life through violence. Building peace in a region where people have little or no basic needs is very difficult and slow. Preaching peace to someone who has not had a meal in a number of days, or someone who does not have any source of income is no easy task as said by one of the employees of SHOFCO.Apart from poverty, informal settlements have overwhelming numbers, particularly of vulnerable groups: youth, women, people with diverse disabilities and orphaned children. Peace building in informal settlement is, therefore, more than the absence of violence. Kibera, as well known is a region where poverty prevails. Job insecurity is still a real problem: Most of the employed people are self-employed or those who get work on a day-day basis. Both activities do not guarantee a regular income so households are still vulnerable and poor. The main activity for women observed is self-employment with activities such as selling vegetable or fish and cooking local food. The average income for a higher percentage women is lower than the average man’s. Women have to look after their young children, do the house work therefore, they have less time for working outside. The men who work earn very little or just enough to provide for the large families they have and also pay monthly rent that can be as low as ksh300, as one of the locals told me. Despite the government economic interventions such as Kazi kwa Vijana program,most youth still remain unemployed.Poverty is one thing that really derailed the actors who had taken part in the peacebuilding process.At times, for the NGOs to gather the residents for the peace forums, they had to come ready to give handouts mostly in the form of money so as to encourage the people to assemble for peace meetings. This was to a point that, if the residents knew that they would not get any money or something in return, then they would not show up for the peace forums which had earlier planned. 4.2.4 Lack of proper planning, Coordination and Coherence in Peace building ProgramsPlanning, coordination and coherence of a project are very key for efficient and effective peace-building.Any unplanned intervention could last for a period of time only for the cycle of conflict to remerge. Lack of planning, coordination and coherence in peace-building became a challenge in Kibera. The NGOs peacebuilding programs had limited time for preparation as the post election violence was not something they had foreseen nor fore planned. This was due to lack of full time personnel for monitoring peace .There was also competition among agencies for control of aid delivered various organizations and well-wishers. Peace-building and reconciliation efforts lacked a properly coordinated policy on processes in Kibera and the country in general Most efforts at the national level were temporal initiatives intended to resettle the 147 population rather than address and resolve the underlying causes of conflict . Where the root cause of conflict is not addressed, there is likelihood of recurrence of conflictDue to unpreparedness, peace building programs during the PEV 2007/2008 conflicts lacked basic principles of reconciliation, especially dialogue and forgiveness.Many conflicting groups denied the harm or injury each party had inflicted on the other. Others lacked sincerity in acknowledging injury they had caused on their culprits.4.2.5 Resettlement of IDPsAfter the post election violence, the grand coalition government was tasked with the mandate of responding to the plight of the IDPs all over the country and also those who had been displaced from Kibera. Lack of sufficient funding is the greatest challenge the government faced in its effort to address the plight of the IDPs. By December 2009, households had not received the Ksh 10,000 start-up capital and also the Ksh 25,000 for reconstruction. By the end of 2016, the government had disbursed some money to different households but the disbursement process was however criticized both by the IDPs and also the civil society as a process that lacked transparency and accountability. There were allegations of some government officials who misappropriated cash meant for the benefit of the IDPs.Lack of proper records of IDPs was also a major obstacle in the implementation of these initiatives, especially early on in the process. Before the violence, internal displacement was not very common in the country and the government had not been keen in keeping an updated record of displaced persons. Consequently, after the PEV, the government did not have any clear records on who was an IDP and who was not. Therefore, when the government tried to address the plight of IDPs, it faced a very serious challenge of identifying genuine IDPs and fraudsters. A local Provincial Administrator said: “The process of identifying genuine IDPs should have started at the onset of the resettlement program. The government should have involved the provincial administration to determine who a genuine IDP is and who is not”.The area Chief also outlined that they endorsed over twenty lists of beneficiaries but they were not able to identify which one was used to compensate people. He said that some individuals who benefited should not have while some genuine IDPs who should have benefited did not.Even the National Consultative Coordination Committee on Internally Displaced Persons , the national government agency formed in 2013 to coordinate the resettlement of IDPs, admits that at the beginning of the resettlement process in 2008, no clear records were used during the compensation of the IDPs.Politicization of the resettlement process was another big challenge to effective implementation of the resettlement program across the country. Kenyan politics and voting is conducted along ethnic lines that matches with political contests. Therefore, the resettlement of any group of people in a given place alters the ethnic composition of that area and consequently affects the voting patterns, unless the IDPs being resettled are of the same ethnic group as the host ethnic group. Politicians either supported or opposed the resettlement of IDPs in various areas depending on what impact the resettlement would have to their political interests.Where they thought IDPs resettlement would be beneficial to them, local leaders would support the process, but where they thought the resettlement would threaten their political interests, they would oppose often by inciting the host communities against accepting the settlement of IDPs in their areas.4.2.6 Corruption and NepotismAccording to Apenguocorruption and nepotism has been a major hindrance in the dissemination of post conflict reconstruction programs in Africa. In agreement with these views, this too has been a big problem in Kenya and posed a great challenge during the peacebuilding process in Kibera. Respondents from the four villages I visited respectively considered corruption to have delayed most of the peacebuilding activities.For instance, a higher percentage of the funds that were being allocated for the provision of basic needs to the IDPs and also for their resettlement, were being embezzled. According to some of the residents I spoke to, whose properties had been destroyed(houses or business areas) confessed by complaining that they never received any form of capital that the government had claimed to offer to the PEV victims through their area leaders.When it came to issues of nepotism most of the civil society organizations were operated by the members from the opposition(ODM) who would provide services to their people first. This made the provision of services easier to those who were from the same ethnic affiliation as employees working in the state or in the civil society. Most of the leaders at the local level were the main causes of violence. For example, if someone had a problem with an ODM resident, and complained to the chief(most of the chiefs were from the opposition party), the chief would shamelessly conduct the discussions in their ethnic language. Even before one intervened, one was told that the 4.2.7 Tribalism and Negative EthnicityBelonging to a certain group of tribe/ethnic community is not bad. One gets to have some sense of belonging and culture to hold onto and even be proud of. But when it gets to the point of demeaning another tribe or perceiving your tribe more important than the rest of the others, then this creates division among people. One major factor that has contributed to promoting negative ethnicity in Kenya and widely in Kibera slum, is the marginalization of certain tribes and the lack of equal distribution of resources among the different tribe groups. The other issue as outlined by most of the residents I talked to, was what they feel as one ethnic group holding onto power for so long and to make matters worse, the members of this tribe receiving most of the favors. All this are issues that raised a very big problem during the peace building process as a large population of the slum never saw the point of reconciling with each other since they believed that the condition would remain the same anyway.Several NGOs faced the challenge of overcoming major divisions in communities living in Kibera. In particular, there were major divisions among leaders of various communities. Some of the elders were accused of fueling animosity and failing to act decisively whenever conflict occurred. They were accused of their reluctance to negotiate with elders of the other ethnic communities and stereotype attitudes while dealing with cross-cultural issues. The elders demonstrated negative ethnicity and blamed or stereotyped other communities. The informants regarded some elders as stumbling blocks to peace.4.2.8 Lack of Engagement of People.To be transformative, peacebuilding programmes must be shaped and led by local actors’ views and examine issues of inequality, identity and societal fractures.The peace agreement is taken to be as the roots of a tree.The work of local actors including those who have been involved in the conflict alongside those who have worked hard for peace,constitutes the roots that hold a tree in place. Without the roots, the tree will collapse.Therefore, without the inclusion of all actors, then a peacebuilding initiative will not be efficient The failure of the peace actors, especially local NGOs to include the local people and communities in resolving conflicts, contributed to ineffectiveness of the peacebuilding methods involved. Many residents complained that not much focus was being given to the slum residents yet they were the ones who were the victims of the violence . They said it would have been better if the NGOs and Government initiatives would focus more on directly engaging the residents because this would be a better way of finding out and dealing with the root causes of the violence. Respondents, e.g?lamented of being excluded in forums initiated by the government, FBOs and NGOs for peace building. The National Accord signed on 28 February 2008 following the PEV restored calm in the nation. However, residents claimed that they did not understand its content and role in peace-building. According to Han, peace can be temporarily negotiated at the top. But ultimately, it is the local people at the grassroots levels who ultimately initiate and sustain meaningful peace.The residents complained so much that most of negotiations were carried out by the political class, without involvement of local people in Kibera and other areas. Due to lack of modern communication gadgets such as the television and radio, among others, residents in Kibera were unaware of negotiations and other long term strategies that were put in place. The National Peace Accord that was signed on 28th February 2008 between Mwai Kibaki of PNU and Raila Odinga of ODM was realized through a top-bottom approach. Such an approach hardly affected realization of long-lasting peace in Kibera, despite the efforts of the civil society organizations. The theoretical model emphasizes the bottom-up peace building process to establish decision-making at lower levels for sustainable and all inclusive processes. A bottom-up approach is a people-centered approach. The approach advocates for peace from the grassroots of the affected societies. This approach requires involvement of Kibera people so that they could work for peace and reconciliation wholeheartedly and own the process. This meant that the whole process should have included Kibera residents, administration, police and politicians.However, the peace building process in the slum never applied the bottom-up approach hence lacking community ownership.4.2.9 Unemployment. and hence poverty!This has always been a problem in Kibera slum and was also a major hindrance to the peacebuilding process. It is evident that youth in Kibera face unemployment challenges which is worse in slum communities than elsewhere according to available information. The present study confirms that while a significant number of youth were still in school the majority of those interviewed were out of school, either working in what is known in Kenya as the ‘jua kali’ (informal) sector or simply unemployed. The state of not being employed and out of school, while doing nothing worthwhile, makes the youth in Kenya vulnerable to violence, both as victims and perpetrators. Unemployment stands out as a major threat to stability in Kibera. Majority of rural-urban migrants take years before they can land themselves anything to do that can generate income. Also, people born and raised in the slum find it difficult to advance their education to higher levels so as to improve their employment chances. Lack of major investment in the slum due to insecurity creates a situation in which the active population have to travel long distances in search of wage labor. Nairobi’s Industrial Area has always proved to be a source of relief to wage workers. Also neighbouring upmarket estates provide opportunity for house-helps, compound attendants, etc. A small number are in the jua-kali sector where they operate different forms of small-scale businesses. The problem though, is that majority of the youth remain unemployed. And for those who have something to do, the income generated is scarcely enough for household sustenance needs4.3 ReligionAnother major challenge that was faced during the peacebuilding process was the failure of the Church to speak as a voice. The Churches also had their preferred presidential candidates, according to geographical and ethnic boundaries. They were supporting political candidates based on ethnicity and thus playing contradictory roles concerning matters of governance. People looked up to these leaders to unite them during such an adverse time, but this did not easily happen. Faith Based Organizations and Religious Institutions were heavily criticized during that period as religious groups were already compromised and divided. Many of the church leaders from the different denominations had fallen into tribal lines and each had expected that the leader from their ethnic group would somehow get the opportunity to occupy a political seat. However, this was not the case. It was therefore difficult to unite these leaders and use them as vessels of preaching peace to the residents. 4.3.1 Lack of Control of The YouthsThe youths were rowdy and it was a difficult thing for both the government and the NGOs to control them as they carried out different peacebuilding projects and programs. Arising from the politicization of ethnicity, Kenyan communities have over the years been associated with vicious bands of their youth operating as militia groups whose agenda, though identified with their ethnic allegiances, have been fashioned and treated as closely guarded secrets by political personalities in their corresponding communities. The existence of such groups has made political rivalry in Kenya much bloodier than would have been the case in situations where only spontaneous skirmishes occur due to angry reactions to disappointing political decisions and events. 4.3.2 Political DifferencesMost residents noted that peace-building activities or programs in Kibera would succeed with willingness by all parties to participate in mediation, reconciliation and various negotiations.There was reluctance by political leaders to get involved in the peacemaking process in the slum however.In many instances, the government got involved late or especially when political interests were threatened by the continuation of the conflictPoliticians seized the PEV moment, and the periods afterwards through incitements and hate speeches, as most of the residents in Gatwekera, a village that was highly affected by the violence told me. This too had a huge impact on the peacebuilding process especially during the peace forums where the habitants would turn against each other yet these were platforms that had been created to unite the residents and sustain long lasting peace among themselves.Political leaders were accused of ignorance of the effects of the conflict in Kibera which was perpetuated by militia groups. The political elite used the militia groups for political advancement rather than encouraging the youth to stop the violence and live in peace with each other.4.4 Prospects Peacebuilding is about focusing on improving the different aspects of development in a war-torn society with the aim of dealing with the root causes that caused the violence.The Government of Kenya as well as both local and international NGOs have put major efforts in The major developmental efforts that are underway in kibera, create positive possibilities for the growth and development of peace in the region.This is because the main objectives of these initiatives is to improve the living conditions of Kibera dwellers and promote social cohesion among them. These interventions have high chances of reducing conflict, crime, insecurity and flood risks and subsequently strengthen resilience in a highly dense and complex urban environment. For instance the Kenya Slum Upgrading Programme The broad goal of the programme, according to the GoK, is to improve the livelihoods of people living and working in slums and informal settlements in the urban areas of Kenya through provision of security of tenure, housing improvement, income generation and physical and social infrastructure. CHAPTER FIVEConclusions and Recommendations5.1 Introduction.This chapter presents the summary of the major findings of the research as well as suggested recommendations on peacebuilding in violence hotspots such as as Kibera. Kibera, having fallen victim as a violence hotspot during several elections in Kenya has gained major interest as to why the peacebuilding process should be taken seriously in war torn societies.5.2 SummaryBuilding peace in Kibera slum is an attempt to provide some insight on what has been so far done in Kenya after the 2007 PEV and the areas that need to be worked on so as to prevent the slum from being entangled in another ethnic based violence. Findings from the study have viewed the frustration of unmet human needs of Kibera residents as the root cause of conflict. In most cases, conflicts break out where people live in poverty, without decent jobs, basic healthcare and education facilities, clean water, food, security or proper housing. Kibera is a place that suffers from all this. As John Burton indicates, successful and final resolution of any conflict must involve satisfying those needs of the parties involved that are being frustrated by existing conditions and relationshipsIt is only through radical restructuring of society to meet these human needs that conflict can be resolved. This statement is justified from one of the habitants who stated that “Poverty is the root cause of all problems here”.(Serikali inafaa kushughulikia mahitaji ya raia ili kupunguza vita baina ya watu). The government should meet people’s needs so as to reduce the violence among people. The study established that a high percentage of Kibera’s Habitants feel that the government has forgotten about them since they do not receive sufficient public services compared to other regions of the country. The living conditions in Kibera are not that good and other basic needs such as health, education and security offered are not in their best forms. It is for this reason(lack of provision of basic needs) that the slum residents take a high lead in demonstrating and even engaging in violent activities during election periods because they feel that if their ethnic political party takes power, then their needs will be attended to. The poor ODM and PNU youth are always more willing to sacrifice their lives in the course of fighting ethnic opponents so that their presidential favorites prevail in the poll.5.3 RecommendationsBased on the findings of this study, the following recommendations were made:Findings from the study indicate that Greater development helps to build peace and reduce the dangers of violent conflict, within and between societies. Every step taken towards reducing poverty and achieving broad based economic growth is a step towards conflict prevention. The government of Kenya should therefore focus on working towards achieving sustainable development in Kibera as this will promote and create lasting conditions for the poor population in the slum so that they can be able to make choices that secure their lives and livelihoods.The study established that there is urgent need to empower the Youth, so as to have a positive outcome in the slum, especially in changing the way life is perceived by others towards the Kibera residents.The government should therefore take a lead in the empowerment process also through other means such as start-up projects and building technical schools where the youth can be able to work on their different skills by perfecting them.If the youth are empowered with education, then they will use that as a tool to enhance their skills and make a living out of it through opening their own businesses. This will reduce their chances of idling around and divert their attention from joining the militia and vigilante groups and instead focus on finding ways of improving their small businesses.Time should also be spent by the Kenyan Government,to increase Kibera’s youth employment opportunities too. Literature on conflict has shown that high levels of unemployment, accompanied by a downturn in the research has shown that increasing the time youth spend at work significantly decreases incentives for engagement in violent behavior as well as decreases the current disillusionment amongst the youth in Kenya.It is important to note that more sustained and continuous civic education (not just limited to campaign and electioneering years or seasons) should be invested by all stakeholders in order to convince and ingrain into the political and social mindset of Kenyans, especially Kibera residents, that no amount of political, ethnic and or other form of incitement at any level(especially that which comes around campaign and electioneering periods: and which remains illegal and punishable) should ever make the habitants to turn against each other. Such is the resilience that people in the slum society need to build peace going forward.A Lot more needs to be done by church leaders to incorporate inter-ethnic peace and reconciliation committees in the church so as to ensure that negative manifestation of ethnicity in the church is controlled. There is need to develop educational and cultural programs at the grassroots level, through which ethnic and cultural diversities can be appreciated and integrated into national unity. The church can play a significant role in developing these programs.Church leaders should continuously instill patriotism among the residents, based on nationalism rather than tribe. The National Council of Churches in Kenya(NCCK), which is the umbrella body for Christian churches in the country should propose new ways of integrating ethnic identity into the structure of state, especially in the wake of the implementation of the new constitution. The government should employ every legal means to mop-up illegal firearms feared to be circulating in the slum as a daily routine and becomes worse before the polls are held. The illegal firearms pose a security threat because they could be used against opponent groups during the campaign period or even after it, should conflict erupt over poll results. The illegal firearms also undermine the capacity of the police to respond to crime in the sum. 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