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Kenya RRF Report

Interim Report on Peace Direct's Rapid Response Fund, Mandera, Kenya - September 2006

SUMMARY

Since its beginning in January 2006, the Fund has spent £8,442, the majority of the £10,000 initially raised, and raised over $11,500 from local sources alongside the Fund. Work has been carried out in Mandera (NE Kenya), Elwak (across the Kenya/Somali border) and Nakuru (Rift Valley). The Chairman of the Fund, General Adan Abdullahi, volunteered his services to help cement the final peace agreement in Marsabit (close to the Ethiopian border) and tragically lost his life when the plane carrying the negotiating team crashed in heavy rain.

The interventions supported by the Fund have successfully ended the outbreaks of violence in all three areas. A number of lessons have been learned, particularly the need to embed the rapid response in a sequence of activity, running from information gathering and sharing in the very early stages of conflict, to consolidation of dispute resolution approaches after the acute stage of conflict.

INTERVENTIONS

a) Mandera

The conflict over water and pasture between members of the Garre and Degodia tribes reached its acute stage in early 2005, when over 60 people were killed and several thousand left their homes. In April 2005, a peace team visited Mandera and worked with religious leaders and government officials to negotiate a peace agreement that ended the violence.

However, it is taking a long time for restitution to be agreed and a permanently peaceful way of resolving disputes to be embedded. A 6 member team visited again in July 2006 for 5 days and worked with the religious leaders, parliamentarians and Government administrators.

During this period it became clear that the pain felt by both communities was still very deep. Traditionally, the Somalis require that if someone has wronged another they should make a tangible gesture of apology by sacrificing a sheep. Sheikh Ali Gure made an appeal to the conflicting communities, saying that as the sacrifice of a sheep had not been sufficient to heal the hurt, he offered himself as a sacrifice, if that would enable them to move beyond the hurt to reconciliation. This dramatic gesture persuaded the group to move to implement the agreed plan for restitution, under the guidance of the religious leaders. In a swearing ceremony, all the groups in turn have taken responsibility before God and the community to fulfil their obligations. The last remaining action is for the Parliamentarians to take the oath in public.

The next phase of work will involve overseeing the return of people who have fled the area, whose homes and possessions may be lost or damaged. Internal and external funds will be needed for physical reconstruction.

b) Elwak

The violence in Elwak flared up in July 05. The 1st ceasefire was negotiated in September 05 and the 2nd in March 06. A peace accord was signed in June 06. It took 30 joint committee members 9 months to reach the peace accord. The violence was between two tribes, Garre and Marehan, who had traditionally lived together peacefully. The conflict ostensibly started with a single killing which led to a spiral of revenge. But in fact a number of underlying factors accelerated the conflict, namely the collapse of state authority, the availability of arms, and unemployment among young people leading them into criminal activities such as extortion.

Underlying everything is land – the use of land, the division of land by political boundaries, which are considered to also convey ownership, the creation of new land uses e.g. urban settlements, without negotiation.

It became clear to the negotiating team that the question of land ownership could not be resolved quickly. They proposed that discussions should focus on joint administration of the land, rather than ownership. But the communities did not accept this proposal. In the end they agreed to entrust the issue of ownership to a small group of parliamentarians and elders, who promised to pass it on to the Transitional Federal Government (of Somalia). In the mean time the land was being jointly administered.

The team also talked to the young men in the militias separately. They pointed out that while if a civilian is killed the family receive compensation, if a soldier is killed in battle there is no compensation. This made the young men reconsider the advantages of being in militias. They were able to move from a situation where militias were being hired and sustained by both clans to a unit tasked with community safety for the whole community which includes young men from both sides, members of the police and army. One clan provides the commander for this force, the other the deputy commander.

This mediation was also intensely challenging. Although most people in both communities wanted peace, there were spoilers on both sides, working to undermine the credibility of the process. The team found that they had to measure contact time with each side literally by the minute in order to be seen to be impartial.

The underlying causes of conflict remain, until the land ownership issue is settled. So the community needs to remain in a high state of vigilance, and the joint community safety force will continue to need support.

c) Nakuru

The conflict in Nakuru in the Rift Valley is also between two tribes, the Kikuyu and the Kalenjin, and over land. The rivalry goes back to the post-colonial period, when the Kikuyu formed land buying companies and acquired much of the land in the ‘White Highlands’. It flared up in 1991, when a terror campaign similar to the Rwandan interahamwe led to the Kalenjin expelling Kikuyus from much of their land.

Now additional land has been bought in Molo and made available for resettlement. But relationships between the two tribes are so hostile that resettlement is being hindered. The town of Likia in the conflict-affected area is like a border town with Kikuyu on one side of the road and Kalenjin on the other. The only water source is on the Kikuyu side. There is a single school for both communities, but 300 children are not attending school because of fear of violence. The mediating team feel there is a strong need to work with children and young people, whose views of the other side are so polarised that it feels like ‘a new Palestine.’

In order to deal with the situation in Nakuru, in the short term local priests and imams are working together, with support from the Rapid Response team, to deal quickly with violent incidents and prevent them from escalating. Additional boreholes are being provided so that both sides can access water safely.

But longer term action is needed:

1) Politicians need to be challenged to intervene, not to stand back when conflict occurs, or stoke it for political ends. Forums need to be created for this purpose.

2) Peace education is needed to break the cycle of hatred and distrust among young people.

3) While there will continue to be a need to be reactive in times of crisis, it is equally important to take the initiative when things are calm to build trust between the two communities.

Lessons Learned

- The approach cannot be ‘quick in and out.’ After the violence is brought to a halt, there needs to be intensive work both on the underlying causes, and on building capacity locally to deal with recurring conflict.

- It is important to balance ‘looking back’ i.e. allowing people to express their hurt and grievance with ‘looking forward’ i.e. working towards solutions. Only a few people really know the history and they can hold the rest hostage because of this, whereas everyone can have a share in the future.

- Once human relations break down in violence, under environmental stress, people lose everything and are very reluctant to share. But in fact they have to, and they can. Refusing to live together with people of different tribes amounts to questioning God’s creation.

Future Plans

The committee anticipate that violence will escalate as the elections approach, particularly after December. They intend to stay in the same areas, but reinforce their presence. Beyond that they would like to invest in internet communications in the key locations so that information can be shared more quickly, including with external media such as the BBC. Internet centres would also provide a focal point for the community, the opportunity to persuade young people to give up their weapons in exchange for internet services, and a vehicle for building relationships between generations as young people teach older people internet skills.

This needs to be tested on a pilot basis and may require additional funds.