Qoraalkani waa natiijada cilmibaaris sannad qaadatay oo lagu soo ogaanayey caqabadaha iyo fursadaha ka jira arrimaha la xiriira dimuqraadiyaynta, baahinta maamulka iyo amniga iyo sarraynta sharciga. Waxa lagu fuliyey Barnaamijka Tiirarka Nabadda wajigeeda 2aad, kaas oo ay si wada jir ah isaga kaashadeen hay’daha PDRC iyo Interpeace oo sannado badan ku bahoobey horumarinta nabadda iyo baritaarka dimuqraadiyadda.
This report is the product of a yearlong research on the challenges, opportunities and prospect of demoratization, decentralization and security and rule of law in Puntland. It was implemented under the Pillars of Peace (PoP II) programme through the joint efforts of PDRC and Interpeace, who have been partners in supporting peace-and-statebuilding processes in the Somali region over the years.
The speakers of the Nairobi Peace Talks, to be held on 12 November 2015 at 16:00 local time (GMT+3), include people from across Kenya who are committed to peace. They will share their personal stories, and show how everyone can contribute to peace. The speakers include:
Ikal Angelei is an environmental activist. She is co-founder and Director of Friends of Lake Turkana, a grassroots organization that seeks to foster social, economic and environmental justice in the Lake Turkana Basin. In 2012 she was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize, particularly for campaigning against the environmental consequences of the Gilgel Gibe III Dam on behalf of Northern Kenyan indigenous communities.
Nardos Bekele-Thomas is the Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Resident Coordinator of the United Nations system in Kenya. Nardos leads and coordinates the United Nations' efforts to support the Government in creating and sustaining an enabling environment for the promotion of human rights, good governance and the improvement of the quality of life and the well-being of the people of Kenya by reducing poverty, with a particular focus on the most vulnerable groups and regions.
Abbas Gullet is Secretary-General of the Kenya Red Cross. Under Abbas, the timely interventions of the Kenya Red Cross have earned it recognition as one of the best performing National Red Cross Societies globally. Abbas was the first African Deputy Secretary-General of the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC), but he chose to return to lead the Kenya Red Cross. His personal leadership in emergencies and humanitarian situations has made him one of Kenya’s most recognizable faces. In 2007 he was named “UN in Kenya Person of the Year”.
Yusuf Hassan is a Kenyan diplomat, journalist and serving Member of Parliament. He began his career as a journalist, working for Kenyan and international news agencies before joining the UN. Hassan was elected to the Kenyan Parliament in 2011. In 2012, he was wounded in a grenade attack in Nairobi and was re-elected while recuperating in hospital. He continues to advocate relentlessly for tolerance, human rights, social justice and equality.
Francis Kariuki, known as ‘The Tweeting Chief’, has captured national and international attention for his use of Twitter as a tool for community policing and neighbourhood watch, reporting and preventing crimes. He also uses Twitter to send messages of hope and peace.
Selline Korir is founder of the Rural Women Peace Link (RWPL), a network of grassroots women's organizations operating in areas affected by armed conflicts in western parts of Kenya. Selline has worked for many years in different rural parts of Kenya, empowering women and girls to become active citizens and agents of change.
Josephine Kulea is the Founder and President of Samburu Girls Foundation (SGF). She is a courageous activist addressing harmful cultural practices facing children in the pastoralist communities in Northern Kenya. Her tremendous work has been rewarded with numerous awards, and it has been recognized widely, including by President Obama.
Solomon Muyundo, better known as “Solo 7,” is a grassroots artist from Kibera, Kenya’s largest slum. During the 2008 post-election violence he started to paint murals delivering messages of peace in public spaces. Solomon estimates that he's painted his street art in more than 4000 locations around Kibera on bridges, fences, and buildings.
Geofrey Odongo was elected Deputy President of the Children’s Government of the National Children’s Government of Kenya by pupil representatives from all of Kenya’s 47 Counties. Under the leadership of Godfrey and his fellow members, the Children’s Government has focused on a campaign to fully ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child; education and nutrition; and even encouraging older youths to break free of the long held belief that only white collar jobs count for a decent living.
Juliani was born and raised in the low-income Dandora neighbourhood of Nairobi. He is a popular hip-hop musician known for his socially conscious lyrics, with themes that mainly focus on social, spiritual and political emancipation and the dream of a united Kenyan nation.
Zarina Patel is an author, human rights activist and environmentalist. Famous for almost single-handedly saving the public Jeevanjee Gardens in Nairobi from land grabbers in 1991, Zarina is a founding member of the Asian African Heritage Trust and was a member of the Ufungamano initiative for Constitutional Change in Kenya. She has authored three books and is currently managing editor of AwaaZ magazine.
For full biographies of the speakers, cliquez ici.
ALSO FEATURING
Victoria Rubadiri, a news anchor for NTV Kenya, will moderate the event.
Afrizo, a band that combine English, Swahili and other African languages in to their dance and story-telling performances, and Sarabi, who use a musical fusion of East African rhythms, Afro Beat, rock and reggae, will provide music for the event.
Claudia Meier will provide graphic design during the event. Claudia is a peacebuilder with a passion for photography, process facilitation and all things visual. Since March 2014, she has been Interpeace’s Rwanda and Burundi Programme Officer. As a self-taught graphic recorder, Claudia illustrated Build Peace 2015, an international conference on technology in peacebuilding, and is part of the organizing team for Build Peace 2016.
Nairobi Peace Talks
12 November 2015
16:00-18:00 local time (GMT+3)
ABOUT THE PEACE TALKS
The Nairobi Peace Talks will be held on 12 November 2015 at the United Nations Office at Nairobi (UNON). Organized under the theme ‘I Contribute to Peace’, the event aims to inspire broad reflection on how everyone has a role to play in promoting peace. The event is organized by Interpeace and the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) with the generous support of the Embassy of Switzerland in Kenya.
This event will mark the first time the Peace Talks are held in Kenya. Speakers from all over the country, and coming from diverse backgrounds, will share their personal stories and experiences, demonstrating their commitment to peace. The Nairobi Peace Talks will highlight how every individual can contribute to peace in their own unique way, such as by building bridges between communities and pursuing mutual understanding.
Due to limited space at the venue, attendance is by invitation only. The Nairobi Peace Talks will however be filmed and made available on the website. The event will also be webcast live Cliquez ici.
You can also follow the Nairobi Peace Talks at #NairobiPeaceTalks and at: www.peacetalks.net
This document is a background course on effective advising in statebuilding and peacebuilding contexts. It explores the importance of public participation and citizen engagement on issues of public importance.
This is a story about two rival communities whose members went from a history of violence against each other to supporting a joint candidacy for a seat in the provincial parliament. Two years of dialogue and engagement between community leaders, facilitated by Interpeace and our partner, RIO, has helped to make this powerful transformation possible.
The Ruzizi Plain is a vast area of fertile land stretching from the Ruzizi River in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Situated in South Kivu Province, along the DRC’s border with Burundi, the Plain is mostly inhabited by the Bafuliro and Barundi communities.
The Bafuliro and the Barundi have for many decades lived in competition over land and economic opportunities. One of the main areas of contention has been the customary chieftaincy, which plays an important role in local governance. The chieftaincy offers control of the natural resources in the Ruzizi Plain, key among them the arable lands along the Ruzizi River. It also runs tax collection in the local marketplaces and cross-border movement. This by extension includes control over the lucrative cross-border export of minerals and trafficking of narcotics.
A History of Identity-based Tension
The crux of the rivalry is that the Bafuliro consider themselves indigenous Congolese and perceive the Barundi as foreigners of Burundian origin. On their part, the Barundi claim to be the rightful traditional rulers of the Ruzizi Plain, having administered it since the colonial era. The Bafuliro refuse to recognize leadership of the Barundi, and the rivalry between these two communities has periodically fuelled open violence. This identity-based tension is embedded in a nationwide dynamic of animosity in the DR Congo, manifesting itself between communities who consider themselves as “indigenous” versus those perceived as “foreign”. It is essentially a long-running feud between communities that settled earlier within the country’s territorial borders as currently defined and those who arrived decades, centuries or years later. Coupled with political manipulation, these tensions often lead to gruesome violence.
A Crisis of Violence
In 2012, the murder of a traditional Barundi chief touched off a deadly spate of violence between the Bafuliro and the Barundi. The worst incident in the conflict involved a massacre of an estimated 30 people in the village of Mutarule. The Bafuliro seized the opportunity presented by the crisis to reject the continued governance of the traditional chieftaincy, in its place suggesting the broadening of their administrative area from a chefferie (traditional chiefdom) into a sector. This was a tactical move, because according to the country’s constitution, the leader of a sector must be an elected official, a factor that favours the Bafuliro because they hold the majority in the Ruzizi Plain and are thus much better placed to win in any local elections. The Barundi challenged this alternative, terming their right to lead the chiefdom legitimate and non-negotiable.
The Congolese government and the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) made efforts to mediate the conflict but were unable to fully restore the peace. Not even the deployment of security forces could completely end the conflict between the two communities. An analysis by the International Crisis Group of previous, top-down peace initiatives in the Ruzizi Plain found them to have been ineffective and recommended a local peacebuilding approach anchored on impartial dialogue and mediation.
A Dialogue Begins
In 2014, Interpeace and RIO, its DRC partner organization in South Kivu, began meeting with members of the two communities while carrying out a research on land, identity, power and the movement of populations in the region, as part of Interpeace’s Cross-border Dialogue for Peace in the Great Lakes Region Programme. In the beginning, the two communities were unwilling to meet each other. The memory of the Mutarale massacre and other violent acts was still fresh. When researchers met the two communities separately, each side made demands that they wanted fulfilled before they could begin to consider a reconciliation with the other side. This animosity was particularly dangerous, considering that Burundi is currently in a delicate political situation following recent controversial elections, while the DRC has elections scheduled for 2016.
Out of the research emerged a dialogue process that consisted of permanent dialogue groups comprising members of the two communities. Soon it came to the notice of the researchers that a small number of Bafuliro and Barundi leaders were quietly making attempts to reconcile their communities, urging them to find a mutually agreeable way to coexist in peace and amicably share the contentious resources. Two of these leaders were Professor Muhinduka Di-Kuruba of the Bafuliro and Claude Mirindi of the Barundi.
Voices Emerge for Peace
As it turns out, Claude Mirundi had actively participated in every single dialogue session of the focus group discussions and the permanent dialogue groups facilitated by the Interpeace and RIO peacebuilding programme, as a representative of the Barundi community. On the Bafuliro side, Professor Muhinduka, a well-regarded traditional and intellectual leader in his community, had increasingly expressed his support for the dialogue process, consistently seeking information about the outcomes of the dialogue meetings and actively encouraging his fellow Bafuliro to participate in the peacebuilding programme.
A Joint Campaign for Parliament
A fundamental sign of progress towards transformative change came recently when Professor Muhinduka announced his candidacy for a position in the provincial parliament, with Claude Mirundi as his running mate. Such a joint candidacy between a Bafuliro and Barundi candidate would have been unthinkable just a few months ago, yet the two men are already campaigning together, mobilizing votes from both their communities to maximize their chances of winning.
The example set by these two leaders offers a strong example of how an inclusive dialogue process can indeed change people, and communities. Their courage to walk together symbolizes the possibility of healing, trust building and sustainable peace between these two long-feuding communities. Their example resonates with Interpeace’s conviction that peace is possible at the community level, as well as in the entire province and across the entire Great Lakes region.
Interpeace’s partner in Timor-Leste, the Centre of Studies for Peace and Development (CEPAD), launched the construction of a sixth Peace House in Ma’abat village, Manatuto Municipality on 7 August 2015.
The country’s Secretary of State for Land and Property Jaime Xavier Lopes and Village Chief João da Silva were among those who joined the Manatuto Peace House steering Committee and the local community for the groundbreaking ceremony.
“The construction of this Peace House will allow the community to come together and solve the problems they face,” said Sr. Lopes. “Having a Peace House here means that the peace will indeed be forged in this space.”
Peace Houses (Uma Dame) are based on the Timorese custom of “rolling out the mat” (nahe-biti boot), or meeting to discuss and resolve disputes. These safe, neutral and community-owned venues act as a bridge between municipalities and Timor-Leste’s capital by fostering local debates and linking these to issues of national importance. Five Peace Houses have already been established in Aileu, Bobonaro, Baucau, Ermera and Manufahi.
“I stand here as I want us to further strengthen peace in this place,” said resistance veteran Sr. Sebastiao Soares. “And by breaking the ground for this Peace House, I am contributing to the growth of Manatuto, my municipality.”
Peace Houses are also designed to host a range of complementary activities that bring people together and encourage civil society participation, including youth group meetings, workshops on craft commercialization and language classes.
Others at the ceremony included local representatives from Rede Feto, the national network of women’s organizations, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Social Solidarity and the State Secretariat for Youth and Sports.
“To all the members of the local community who have passed and whom we remember today: we want you to continue living here,” said Sr. João Boavida, CEPAD Executive Director. “We want you to show us the way and I hope that with this stone I lay here today I will indeed contribute to build and to strengthen peace in this municipality.”
The Manatuto Peace House will open its doors in 2016 thanks to a collaboration between CEPAD, the local community, the Prime Minister’s Office Civil Society Fund and Interpeace.