Mandera Peace Committee, Kenya

These are the reports from Dekha Ibrahim Abdi, inspiration behind and supporter of the Mandera Peace Committee. Below the reports you will find background to the conflicts and Dekha's work.

Mandera Peace Committee, Kenya, January 2007

I am delighted to write to you with an update from Kenya. I have two developments to tell you that have become possible thanks to your generosity.

Not only is your money supporting peace initiatives in Kenya but also over the border in Somalia. In the town of Elwak a joint administration has been created between the two local clans including a 100-strong police force (twenty of whom are women). Champions Programme funds have now secured a plot of land on which a community peace centre will be built.

This is a positive step for a society coming out of conflict and deeply vulnerable. We have met with the leadership who support the Elwak peace centre.

Back in Kenya the trauma centre in Wajir is now working with twenty young people – 15 girls and 5 boys. We are giving them the skills to manage the trauma they have experienced. They have requested practical input such as sewing machines and tools.

Thank you once again for your support. I will be in touch with more news soon.

Dekha Ibrahim Abdi

Mandera Peace Committee, Kenya, August 2006

I am so pleased to get the chance to write to update you on our peace building work in Kenya. The money you are donating through Peace Direct’s Champions Programme is having such an impact because we can spend it when and where we feel it makes the greatest difference. It means we can respond to a need as soon as it arises.

For example funds have paid an entire year’s rent for a centre for trauma healing in Wajir, working with people involved in providing services during the drought, and in mediation and peacebuilding. The centre is doing some very good work - we’ve worked with around 150 people so far.

Since our intensive intervention in Mandera that brought the violence between two Somali clans to an end, the Peace Committee has now developed links with peace initiatives over the border in Somalia and has achieved the signing of a local peace agreement between the Marehan and Garre clans. There has been no more killing and the displaced people have returned home.

Two success stories, but we have so much more work to do. In Nakuru a bitter fight over land ownership is raging. Already this year 13 people have died, over 200 houses have been burned, and thousands of people have been made homeless. A peace committee has now been established to mediate between the two groups but they need our support to make this peace hold.

Mandera Peace Committee, Kenya, June 2006

As you know, Dekha Ibrahim Abdi is an incredible woman striving to bring peace to parts of Kenya.

It is support that has never been more vital. For example back in February a new threat to Dekha’s struggle to bring peace and security to the region emerged. That threat was drought. Here’s how Dekha described what was happening to her country at the time…

“I have never seen drought this bad. Last week I was in Mandera, yesterday I was in Wajir, and all across the country the situation is shocking. My region is particularly at risk - communities here are nomadic and especially vulnerable. People are starting to ask, “is there anywhere we can go to get water?” Nearly all of Kenya is dry now, so people are forced to travel to Somalia where they discover things are just as bad. What can people do? Peace has never been so important to this area because when people need water this badly, they get desperate. It is no surprise tensions are rising at boreholes and food distribution points.”

Dekha, February 2006

Dekha’s work during that critical drought period proved invaluable. She worked round the clock to ease the tensions, liaising with Elders, government officials and local women to try and locate water and get it to the people who needed it the most. The Champions support proved to be invaluable in ensuring funds were readily available to allow mediation between conflicting parties seeking access to water.

Mandera Peace Committee, Kenya, February 2006

Here in north east Kenya a new threat to our struggle to bring peace and security to the region has emerged. That threat is drought. I have never seen drought this bad. Last week I was in Mandera, yesterday I was in Wajir, and all across the country the situation is shocking. My region is particularly at risk - communities here are nomadic and especially vulnerable. People are starting to ask, “is there anywhere we can go to get water?” Nearly all of Kenya is dry now, so people are forced to travel to Somalia where they discover things are just as bad. What can people do? Peace has never been so important to this area because when people need water this badly, they get desperate. It is no surprise tensions are rising at boreholes and food distribution points.

However we are trying hard to ease those tensions. I am working round the clock with Elders, government officials and local women to try and locate water and get it to people who need it the most. At the moment we are managing to maintain peace and security in most areas but I am worried it will not last. The Champions programme has never been more vital. We need to have the funds readily available so we can mediate between conflicting parties seeking access to water.

There is such a difference between the situation now and the last big drought in 1991. At that time, no peace infrastructure was in place, so it was too dangerous for people to travel to what little water there was. In 2006 it is different, but any day things could change. It is so important for us to try and maintain that peace. At the moment the infrastructure your support helped create is holding, but it is very very fragile.

Background

A killing of a Garre relief worker by suspected Murrule gunmen on 19th December 2004 at Fino-Elwak road junction triggered the clashes. This killing led to simmering hostility between the two clans, degenerating to full-scale overt confrontation in January 2005 claiming 63 lives so far. Women and children have been targeted in particular.

A number of issues have been advanced to explain the cause and genesis of this clan conflict. In 1988, Mandera Central constituency was carved out from the then larger Mandera East following devastating clan clashes between Murrule and Garre clans in early 1980s. This creation of a new constituency was intended to cool simmering tensions between the two clans over political representation. With Mandera Central constituency formed, the issue of political representation was solved but another problem was born. There emerged growing hatred and suspicion between the two clans. Differences began to widen to an extent that the clan leadership and chiefs from both clans started to openly mobilise their clan members for the domination of the other.

And to worsen the already fragile situation, the former KANU administration created many administrative units (sub-locations, locations and divisions) in hitherto community-grazing areas in the district, mainly for political mileage. Although the creation of additional administrative units was meant to make ‘services closer to the people’ as promoted by the previous administration, additional locations and sub-locations have mainly contributed to the escalation of conflicts in the entire North Eastern province.

In addition, the power struggle between different factions in Somalia has spilled over to the Kenyan side. Each of the clans has been trying to forge military alliance with their counterparts in Somalia. And the uncertainties surrounding the disarming of militias in Somalia by the new transitional government has increased arms trafficking to the Kenyan side of the border. Those with arms on the Somalia side are looking for cheap disposal ‘sites’ on the Kenya side. It is alleged that these guns are the ones feeding the raging clan skirmishes.

Competition over access to pasture and water resources in the district has been the traditional cause and trigger of conflict between the two clans. The Garre community wants herders to be confined to their traditionally designated grazing areas. Murrule community, who happen to own a substantial number of livestock but have a smaller grazing area, are of the opinion that the Garre’s position is meant to confine them to a very small grazing area, which cannot sustain their huge camel herds and deny them access to pasture on the western flank of the district, which is mainly inhabited by the Garre.

Initiatives/interventions

The government through the provincial administration has deployed extra security personnel in the area to keep peace – keep the warring parties apart. The district commissioner has moved to the affected areas to reassure the community and build confidence. On the national level, the Kenyan and Ethiopian presidents have met to map out strategies for cross border security cooperation and curbing of small arms trafficking. Recruitment is now underway for a cross border peacebuilding team.

Community based peace initiatives

Dekha Ibrahim Abdi, who has been extremely successful in building community peace structures, and who linked with the government to contain a similar conflict in the neighbouring Wajir district, has moved quickly and mobilised likeminded groups in Mandera to finding a lasting solution to the conflict. She is working with a team of local Elders, local NGO staff, businessmen and politicians across the divide to build trust and open avenues for dialogue. She helped form an informal strategy team (whose membership is increasing) to tackle the conflict from different levels. She has also called upon Elders in Wajir to mediate and share experience in the peace process, employing the traditional Somali customary law (Heer). The aim is the establish linkages that would act as the starting of initial process (first steps) for continuous transformation of the societies and building trust.

Dekha’s coordination role involves communication and strategy development. She has created link between the conflicting clan Elders through among other things sending airtime (talk time) to ease communication between the leadership and community members’ representatives.

In Elwak, the affected location, she is working with local partner members ITDG, Women Care and Concern (local community based originations) who have created vital a bridge between the community and Government where there was previously no communication. The outcome has been a crucial meeting attending by all members of Parliament in the district, government officials and community representatives on Friday 18th March 2005 which established the basic framework for action. On the 19th March, Elders from Wajir visited the community, gave condolence and listened to their analysis of the conflict and violence; the purpose being to have a third party to listen to all sides, with a view to getting an objective analysis of the problems.

About Dekha Ibrahim Abdi

Dekha is a Kenyan from the Wajir district on the borders of Somalia, where in 1992-5 she led a committee of women who managed to resolve a long-running conflict that had taken 1,500 lives. Her methods have now been copied not only in Kenya but in Somalia, Sudan, Canada, Philippines, South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Netherlands, Zimbabwe, UK and Uganda, where she has worked as consultant trainer on peacebuilding and pastoralists' development. She has written extensively on both subjects and is the Organising Board Member of Nomadic and Pastoralists Development Initiative.

In 1998 she planned, organised and facilitated a range of conflict resolution training programmes for Responding To Conflict, based in the UK, going on to become their Training and Learning Coordinator. Since September 2000, she has been a member of a consortium of African and international conflict transformation specialists working together on development of a series of intensive, participatory workshops for the United Nations Dept for Economic and Social Affairs which assists governments and civil society partners in sub-Saharan Africa to strengthen their capacities for anticipating, containing and managing conflict situations. Although she is only 40, her stunning abilities as a teacher and her effectiveness as a practitioner have acted as multipliers for her methods, now spreading fast in conflict areas worldwide.

Peace Direct’s involvement

In January 2005 Peace Direct received a request for funding to enable the peacebuilding techniques developed and successfully applied in Wajir in NE Kenya to be transferred to the emerging ‘hot conflict’ in neighbouring Mandera. We were able to raise £5,000 almost immediately, alongside $4,500 raised from Kenyan businesses by the Coalition for Peace in Africa (COPA). This funding paid for training by a multi-level strategy and response team, and travel to enable different groups from Wajir to meet their counterparts in Mandera and promote non violent approaches to resolving conflict.

The social groups involved in the conflict situation are from Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia. These groups have been on opposing sides of a long-standing and complex pattern of conflict. Tensions and skirmishes have been caused in recent years by pollution of water and the depletion of resources such as gum Arabic, an important supplemental source of income for these pastoral communities. These episodes have created a breakdown of trust and an increase in suspicion between communities.

The funds enabled various teams of women, religious leaders, Elders and politicians to facilitate internal dialogues between women, allowing them to respond to the victims. Religious leaders acted as mediators between the communities, investigating and verifying the truth of each incident.

Communications were opened, allowing dialogue to occur which was crucial in assisting the affected communities convey their concerns through trusted channels. For example, after a killing in March, there was stale mate and confrontation between the bereaved community and the government for three days! The army was eager to make contact but due to communication breakdown there was no entry point for dialogue, and this amplified suspicion and mistrust. Rahma Mohamed and Amina Duale in the women’s team helped in bridging the gap between government officials and community groups. This critical step created energy and momentum for peacemaking.

These delicate processes lasted four months with the culmination of the signing of a peace accord on the 25th April 2005. The terms of the accord include payment of compensation for the loss of life and property, agreements on traditional bylaws to regulate use of natural resources in the area and creation of a response structure to manage the day to day crises. The processes also helped create a shared strategy, approach and coordination which would mitigate future conflicts.

At the regional level, the importance of women in peacemaking has also been recognized and appreciated by the Kenyan government and religious leaders who have since invited women leaders to peace negotiation processes, and requested their support in the implementation of the peace accord.

Among the many achievements of the Mandera intervention is the bringing together of all the different peace initiatives under one umbrella Mandera Peace Committee (MPC), which is working hard to prevent the recurrence of violence. After a taxi driver was killed in Mandera on 13th April, they helped the community by offering them channel for dialogue, which avoided blind finger pointing and revenge. It was later established that the taxi driver was killed whilst servicing his own gun.

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