Embracing government agencies’ support in community-based peace building: The case of Local Peace-Committees in Borabu and Sotik Sub-Counties of Kenya

Abstract

Most Local Peace Committees (LPCs), established by the National Accord & Reconciliation Act of 2008 to manage conflict in the intercommunity-conflict embroiled Kenyan districts (including Borabu & Sotik-BS), were constituted of psycho-socially counseled resilient violent-conflict victims. A review of conflict-management literature showed that although the BS-LPCs were supported by various government agencies in the protracted conflict embroiled BS-region’s  peace-building, the kind of support the agencies accorded them and how they adopted it had not been examined for documentation, strengthening of the LPCs and other similar victims’ efforts. Therefore this study (within a conceptual framework derived from Lederach’s elicit model of community Peace-building and CAT theory) guided by the RQ: what kind of support did government agencies accord the BS LPCs and how did they adopt it for peace? Empirically explored the agencies’ support to the BS LPCs and how it was maximized for peace-building. The purpose of this study was to create a deeper understanding of the BS-LPCs-government collaborative PB strategies. Due to the issue addressed, I used the qualitative-exploratory case-study design and purposive non-probability sampling to collect data from 30 interviewees, 4 FGDs and documents. I analyzed it inferentially and thematically and then presented the findings narratively with participant voices. I adhered to the qualitative & human-based research ethical principles such as: autonomy, protection from harm, anonymity and confidentiality. The result showed that the government-agencies’ support included anchorage in the provincial administration and in the National Steering Committee (NSC) as their coordinators and political oversight authority. It also showed that the BS-LPCs embraced this support by collaborating in strategizing & building peace; mainstreaming PB into development projects and networking for monitoring & reporting conflict. I concluded that the effective PB in the region resulted from the victims (LPCs) resiliently spear-heading their own peace-building and from embracing the government agencies’ support. This study therefore informs CM-stakeholders’ and policy-makers’ endeavors in the BS region and other intercommunity-conflict embroiled regions and it contributes to CM and Victomology discourse & practice by highlighting how victims (as architects of their own peace) embraced government agencies’ support. I recommend that victims should be made aware of support systems at their disposal and should be trained and encouraged to embrace them by policy makers and PB stakeholders.