Preparing Youth for Peace in Kenya

By Martha Thompson
Originally published in the Winter/Spring 2013 issue of Rights Now

As Kenya's April 2013 presidential elections approach, people are reporting rising tensions and increased momentum for violence. In 2007 presidential elections there sparked a wave of violence that killed 1,000 people and displaced 600,000 more. But there is hope that this year will be different. In Kenya's Western Province, the Kakamega Grassroots Initiative (KGI), a UUSC partner, is training youth to become catalysts for peace.

"The youth are eager to learn what they can do to build peace before the elections," said Rev. Polycap Keta, head of KGI. This development is meaningful — given that youth were often at the forefront of the 2007 violence — and has been fostered by KGI's work with displaced people since 2008.

KGI identified 40 multiethnic youth leaders to participate in an intensive course in peace-building skills in November 2012. Keta reported on the training's success: the youth enthusiastically committed to spreading the message of peace and unity among their family and peers "in the bus, in the grinding mill, in their families, wherever they go."

Moving forward, the youth will advocate against interethnic violence, influence their peers, and share their skills. They plan to gather periodically for joint reflection and hone their efforts by discussing their work with each other. So that youth have a stake in peace, KGI gives them a small business loan to start work. They literally become peacemakers in the marketplace, the very site of much of the 2007 violence. They are being given a chance in order to give peace a chance.

Martha Thompson is manager of UUSC's Rights in Humanitarian Crises Program.