A vicious cycle must be broken

Mutual linkages between conflict, poverty and lack of democracy make people suffer Iin parts of Kenya. Through local partners MS Kenya will work to break theses linkages

By Adan Wario Kabelo

22. November 2007

Northern parts of Kenya have been subjected to years of unending violent conflicts. A culture of violence has become entrenched between ethnic groups sharing common resources. Communities have been uprooted, livelihoods shattered and the social fabric broken down.

The numbers of orphans, widows and paupers keep swelling as a result of the violent conflicts in this region. Strong community cohesion and relationships that existed previously have been weakened, resulting in a lack of capacity within community institutions to resolve local conflicts. 

Conflicts are traditionally resolved through the intra and inter-clan dialogue. However the dialogue mechanism is often an ad-hoc reaction with biased membership made up of older men, and excludes women and young people.

Clearly, there are strong causal and mutually reinforcing linkages between conflict, poverty and democracy. In a cyclical relationship poverty causes conflict which in turn undermines democracy which exacerbates poverty. Conflict disrupts society, displaces people, destroys infrastructure and means of production and terrorizes and dehumanizes individuals.

This is especially evident in the marginalized districts to the north of Kenya where systemic exclusion from national development and widespread abuse of human rights have left the region poorer and conflict prone.

In this rather complex area, MS has focused its operations on one “conflict system” spanning over the three districts of Laikipia, Isiolo and Marsabit where MS interventions will seek to increase tolerance and respect between these communities and to reconnect them to local structures and institutions of democracy as well as open the space for women and youth participation in decision making.

MS Kenya believes that peace a agenda must be ‘insider’ driven and the role of ‘outsider’ is mainly to provide the back up support. For sustainability purposes, the process should be locally owned.

MS Kenya works with local NGOs/CBOs to strengthen their structures and capacity to effectively lead in bringing the culture of peace in the pastoral areas of Laikipia, Isiolo and Marsabit districts.

Lasting peace can only be achieved if the underlying causes and dynamics are addressed openly. Poverty and lack of development as the cause(s) of conflict cannot be ignored. Broader structural gaps for peace building and localised attitudinal changes must not be taken for granted in peace building.

MS Kenya is in a good position to actively contribute to ‘peace from above’ through the national peace policy development processes as a member of the National Steering Committee (NSC) as well as contributing to ‘peace from below’ through supporting local strategies to develop trust, confidence and capacities among the local communities. MS’s broader approaches to help create wider democratic practices and institutional strengthening of organisations and structures involved in peace-building is meant to entrench sustainability of these practices.

Conflict usually impacts hardly on particularly women and youth who are the two key target groups for MS. MS Kenya will work with these two groups in Laikipia, Isiolo and Marsabit and help in integrating them into the existing peace structures.

The traditional peace-building structures (through Councils of elders) and modern structures (through District Peace Committees and provincial administration) tend to exclude women and youth from peace-building processes. However, women and youth, who are both victims and the persons behind conflict, can play a very important role in mobilising and sensitising their peers and partners around a peace-building and social cohesion agenda. 

 

MS Kenya strategic entry point will first and foremost focus on building on local democratic structures and institutions to deal with conflict and building peace. MS Kenya will be working ‘on’ conflict focusing on designing interventions that aim at preventing, managing, resolving or transforming conflict into peace. Resolving conflict means working towards de-escalating conflict behavior and changing conflicting parties’ attitudes and changing the negative relationships or clash of interests that are at the core of the conflict.

In addition to strengthening the institutional capacities of local peace structures, horizontal and vertical linkages between institutions and organisations involved in peace-building at local levels will be strengthened.
MS Kenya will adopt conflict analysis as an integral part of planning and implementation in all aspects of its work. In the three focus districts (Laikipia, Marsabit and Isiolo), MS Kenya, through its partners, will work with existing structures and alliances at both local and national level to build their skills in mediation, negotiation, networking, peace monitoring and policy development.