Peace and Development Network Trust

I am a founder member of Peace and Development Network Trust and currently chairing Board of Trustees. I would use most of the Prize money for revitalizing the regional structures for enhanced peace building activities. In Kenya we are preparing for the General Elections in August 2022 and going by past experiences our elections are always violent. That violence is exacerbated by the competitiveness of our politics. In 2007/2008 elections we  experienced so much violence and Kenya had to agree to external intervention when the late Former UN SG (Koffi Anan)  mediated a peace process. In 2013 violence wasn't as much. But 2017 there was so much disagreement and the Supreme court nullified the election which resulted in the opposition swearing in their candidate as the People's President after the Constitutionally elected President had been sworn in. As PeaceNet Kenya Trust it is our desire to promote peace before, during and after the elections.

I am an Ordained Minister in the church. Before being Ordaíned I trained as an accountant. When my church participated in the initial Land Clashes Network, I developed a passion for peace building and remained on to assist in establishing the current Peace and Development Network Trust in 2005. During the 2007/08 skirmishes a lot of people lost their property either through destruction or displacement. As PeaceNet Kenya in collaboration with US Embassy in Nairobi we managed to restore peace in some informal settlements. The project was known as KENYA TUNA UWEZO which is Swahili for KENYA WE CAN. In this project some properties that were left by displaced persons were restored to the owners.

I would be happy to see peaceful elections and the time to get things on course is now.

Peace and Development Network Trust plays a role in promoting peaceful coexistance among communities especially in the poor sections where jobless youth live. Politicians recruit youth before and during elections to use them against their opponents, the result is that many are left dead. When the youth are empowered there would be less violence and this is where we want to concentrate on. PeaceNet Kenya is a peacebuilding and conflict transformation organization which has coordinated peace actors both at local level and internationally. The major strategy for PeaceNet Kenya to promote peacbuilding among communities especially in the informal settlements in urban areas. We have implemented several projects in Nairobi in slums where we coordinated peace between youth who had driven outsome landlords to occupy their property. This was done in the presence of staff from US Embassy in Nairobi. The project was known as Kenya Tuna Uwezo Swahili for KENYA WE CAN.

In 2008-2011 KENYA TUNA UWEZO used some informal diplomacy to achieve some very remarkable success. The project managed to bring opponents together and those who had displaced others from their property were convinced to surrender them and the displaced were convinced to come back to their property. They had ran away because of fear for their lives which were disrupted, children's education was stopped and normalcy only returned after our project intervention.

Thereafter some activities were established to bring a bond between different communities in the neighbourhood. Footbal tournaments, Netbal, debating forums and other activities were created to allow for bonding.

PeaceNet Kenya is both vertically and horizontally connected.

Vertically PeaceNet Kenya is bringing the government, private sector and bi-lateral partners on board to participate as stakeholders in peacebuilding. This has even pushed PeaceNet Kenya to reach the UN in New York with its peace activities.

Horizontally PeaceNet Kenya works with its members, local partners and other networks during the course of its activities reaching a very broad spectrum of the Kenyan society.