Powerful Rural Women in Turkana, Kenya

On a hot weekday morning about 100 people were meeting in a church in Kainuk, Kenya, a remote rural town on the border between the areas of Turkana and Pokot. Suddenly all the children sitting on the porch of the church took off like a startled flock of birds, running at breakneck speed away from the church. When their parents sitting inside the church saw their children in flight, they dashed after them. The meeting dissolved into chaos…

Kenya: The journey is far from over

President Kibaki and Mr Raila Odinga have signed a power-sharing agreement, thereby taking an important step toward political stability and peace in the region. As Wangari Maathai points out, however, many issues of justice and reconciliation remain to be addressed, including the human cost of recent violence and the underlying causes of its outbreak in the first place.

Peace in Kenya Campaign

Peace in Kenya Campaign Author: Peter Ongera Originally Published at Peace and Conflict Monitor on: 04/02/2008 Category: Conciliation Kenya’s post-election violence has been, to say the least, an unanticipated tragedy with far-reaching implications. Even as the country’s calm returns, albeit slowly, underlying tension is evident. With over 1,000 lives lost and over 250,000 people displaced […]

The Consequences of Failure

Kenya’s choices are simple: life or death, penury or prosperity, a cohesive, well governed nation that counts its diversity as strength or a suspicious, hateful one governed by the cynical and awash in the blood of its young. The leaders too must now decide whether they will be remembered as the men who destroyed a nation or those who rescued it and set it on a glorious path that will be remembered for generations.

Hopes and Challenges Facing Emerging Democracies in Africa and Asia

The best hope for a peaceful world where fundamental human
rights are respected is for democracy to ultimately triumph in fractured societies. However, for that to happen, certain
preconditions must be established including the rule of law, an independent judiciary and
media, a culture that begins to ferociously resists corruption and the
establishment of truly independent organs of government that can ensure a fair democratic processes.

It stops with me

It stops with me Author: Sandra Macharia Originally Published at Peace and Conflict Monitor on: 02/06/2008 Category: Comment Since the disputed election in Kenya on 27 December 2007, more than one thousand of my fellow Kenyans have met a violent death and hundreds of thousands have been displaced. Life as we have known it has […]

OF PASTORS, POLITICIANS AND PENNIES

OF PASTORS, POLITICIANS AND PENNIES Author: Nkirote V. Laiboni Originally Published at Peace and Conflict Monitor on: 10/25/2007 Category: Opinion If you are keen on making bags of easy money in Kenya, there are two things you might want to consider. The first is to become a preacher. The second is to turn to politics. […]

Priestess of the Green Gospel

In this issue’s editorial, Dr. Edith Natukunda-Togboa offers tam-tams and ululations as Professor Wangari Maathai joins the select club of Nobel Peace Laureates.

Kenya in Crisis

An in-depth look at the background of the Kenyan crisis, disputes over the election, and the potential for re-establishing peace in the near future.

How likely is conflict over the Nile waters?

Ferdinand Katendeko finds that pre-independence agreements by the then dominant Colonial power over the control of the vital Nile waters may lead to further conflict in conflict-torn Africa.