A group of women leaders in Kenya approached Interaction Management Associates seeking virtual mediation training.  IMA had never conducted such a training, so we had no idea how transformative the course would be for this powerful group of peacebuilders.  After she took the IMA New Mediator Course, Jayne Waithitu shared how mediation training has enriched her work with Peace Warriors Organization (PWO). Jayne is the founder and inspiration behind this women-led, non-profit in Kenya focused on empowering women and girls to encourage political and economic participation. As an undergraduate student in international development with an interest in conflict resolution, I was struck by the hope-filled perspective with which these women approach their work and the vision they have for Kenya’s future. Jayne’s inspirational journey with peacebuilding made me realize the potential of mediation training to positively impact communities around the world.

Zoe: How did you become interested in peacebuilding?

Jayne:

My interest in peacebuilding came about after I was posted to Rwanda in 2011 as Education Leadership Advisor. I lived in Rwanda for five years and I still visit on consultant work. The history of Rwanda is very intriguing. Despite genocide, where many people lost their lives, there is peaceful co-existence. Also intriguing is the fact that there are only two tribes fighting each other as opposed to Kenya, with over 40 ethnic groups. My country, Kenya, has come from a very horrible state of post-election violence that claimed so many lives and by 2012 and even up to today, the country has not completely healed. I did my research in Rwanda and I came across the Gacaca courts. This was more of a dialogue type of court in the villages followed by forgiveness, reconciliation and kind of justice through some “fine payments” or restitutions. So, I thought to myself this would work back home and that is how the idea about PWO was born.

Zoe: What is your role with the Peace Warriors Organization? 

Jayne:

Peace Warriors Organization is my brainchild. I am the founder together with other few likeminded women. We had a robust discussion and they supported my dream and therefore my role is a bit complex. Currently I hold the post of Country Director as we have members in all our 47 counties and I try to coordinate all, assisted by the county coordinators. I am an educator and most of the time am not in the country and the coordinators update me on everything in their counties. 

Zoe: Can you give us an understanding of the types of people you serve and situations in which you are engaging?

Jayne:

To answer this question, I will give a brief background of my country. Being one of the most developed and economically-robust nations in Africa, Kenya descended into ethnic violence after a disputed presidential election in 2007 and has struggled to regain stability ever since. In fact, the ethnic conflict in the country has its roots from the colonial times. But it is cleverly encouraged and manipulated by politics to establish ethnic alliances to win presidential and parliamentary elections. Every election year, ethnic tensions commence to build up and it has already started for 2022.

The youth, who are full of energy but mostly unemployed, have lost vision and hope of any better future. They are, not surprisingly, the cannon fodder for politicians to instigate ethnic conflict. Due to this unemployment status, many engage in cattle rustling, skyrocketing ethnic conflict that is met with vengeance from the other communities from which the cattle are stolen.

Also, there are ethnic fights for resources like grazing fields and water sources among the pastoralists in Kenya. Several communities in Kenya are going through the same scenario. 

Beyond internal conflicts, border conflicts and terrorism also affects Kenya. There are many Kenyan youth being radicalized by extremists. Women suffer when their young boys and girls are recruited to these extremist groups because, more than losing their children, they are also victimized when their sons and daughters are involved in terrorism activities. In most cases the women (mothers) are innocent but must answer to the law.

Therefore, there is a lot that Peace Warriors Organization has to do in Kenya and beyond for peace, security and development. We believe that peace is life and development.

Peace Warriors Organization have chosen to address these vices by use of nonviolence approach.  The peace mediation programme that some of us are engaged in, as a result of receiving the IMA New Mediator training, enables us to reach our future plans and projects for enhancing peace. Peace Warriors Organization wishes to start with community dialogues with opinion leaders like cultural and religious leaders. This is followed by peace education and non-violence training where at the end, a communique is signed for the way forward. Lastly, the warring communities choose an activity to do together to bring social cohesion in the area where the conflict is rampant, followed by a peace walk in the community to give a message of peace. The youth and women trained are empowered to use the connector projects to find solutions to the unemployment and idleness, thus becoming economically-empowered. 

“We believe that peace is life and development.”

This tells you we have a very big field to cover with situations from youth to elders to marriage conflicts, as divorce has become the order of the day. There are serious issues of tribalism, resource allocation, grazing pasture among the pastoralists, historical injustices, inheritance, political rivalry, skewed job appointments, etc. The list is long. There is also what we call femicide with many young girls and young women dying in the hands of their partners. We aim to have a reporting line for that as well and so we can intervene before things go haywire.

Zoe: How did you get involved in your current position? 

Jayne:

I got involved as a founder. To me, PWO is not employment, but a child I am trying to nurture as a vehicle to reach as many people as possible. I want to train communities on non-violent approaches to conflict, because when people talk to each other as opposed to talking at each other, good things come out.

 “I want to train communities on non-violent approaches to conflict, because when people talk to each other as opposed to talking at each other, good things come out.”

Zoe: What has been the most surprising thing about your role?

Jayne:

One thing that surprises me every time I go to the communities for peace intervention activities is how human beings embrace the topic on peace and how they are hungry to learn more. 

Most are unaware of mediation or other non-violent approaches to conflicts.

Zoe: What has been the most challenging thing about your role? 

Jayne:

There are two main challenging aspects about my work:

1. A lack of trained personnel in peacebuilding and conflict resolution, especially for conducting the training in rural communities. The few who are there, are very exorbitantly paid at the international level.  They find working with grassroots organization a waste of time.

2. A shortage of resources needed to implement lasting peace agreements, like connector projects. 

Without longterm support, the communities trained on peace drift back to conflict, forgetting all they learned.   This is especially true for the youth.

Zoe: What are three of the biggest lessons you have learned about peacebuilding while in this role?

Jayne:

The three lessons I have learned are:

1. We cannot have sustainable peace without having women take the center space in pushing the process forward.

2. Most of the time we are addressing the symptoms while we actually need to look at the root causes.

3. Communities are eager to learn approaches other than violence, and thus dialogue is paramount to living harmoniously, using homegrown people-centered resolutions.

 “We cannot have sustainable peace without having women take the center space in pushing the process forward.”

Zoe: What is your vision for Kenya in terms of peace?

Jayne:

My vision for Kenya in terms of peace is of promoting tolerance and peaceful co-existence among all Kenyan communities through homegrown solutions. Just like in Rwanda, peace will reign through dialogue forums and negotiations.  It is possible to resolve a lot of conflicts like cattle rustling, conflict in marriages, relationship killings of young people (which is very rampant), workplace conflicts, fights along tribal lines, etc.

 “My vision for Kenya in terms of peace is of promoting tolerance and peaceful co-existence among all Kenyan communities through homegrown solutions.”

When PWO gets proper funding, we will form peace committees in every ward. which is Kenya’s smallest demographical unit. In preparation for this, PWO is recruiting ward coordinators who will be trained on non-violence approach and then support them to go train their peace committees. We already have over 60 who have been identified and recruited. Then we will have a big PWO Peace network in the whole country.

Zoe: What do you see as the role of women in peacebuilding, both in Kenya and the world in general?

Jayne:

Numbers of women participating in peace settlements remain marginal in Kenya and world over. It is unfortunate that the importance of gender equality and women’s empowerment in building just, peaceful and inclusive societies is yet to be fully recognized. This is the reason why the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will not be achieved if women are denied access to decision making in the table of peace process.  In conflict resolution during the 2007/2008 post-election violence in Kenya, few women participated in the implementation of peace agreements besides the international mediator, the late Koffi Annan. In the formal peace panel, which comprised of the members of the two political parties, each had only one woman among their four negotiators. One of the female negotiators, Martha Karua, had great political influence, but was able to secure the position as a chief negotiator. She felt discriminated against as a female negotiator. There is, therefore, a need to involve women in peace building. It is essential to recognize the role of women during violent and armed conflicts as they are coerced in an assumption of new societal roles as head of families, and change players. 

The grassroots peace work is at the heart of Peace Warriors Organization. 

In PWO, we believe that women are the agents of peace and change.  We aim to mobilize change agents for Peace by training strategic women groups in conflict transformation, good governance, and human rights.  In fact, several more of the PWO leaders will be taking upcoming IMA New Mediator courses.

 “In PWO, we believe that women are the agents of peace and change.”

The root causes of conflict are those factors which contribute to people’s grievances.  They can only be best understood by those on the ground locally. Some causes are structural and others are proximate. Women are important peace actors. Women are usually the ones who remain at home during violent conflict, and they are expected to keep the children, home and community together. Women experience a great deal of fear, stress and trauma and therefore needs to be in the forefront in prevention as they suffer more.

Zoe: What advice would you give to a student who is interested in international peacebuilding?

Jayne:

I would tell the student to remember the why, or motivation, behind their studies. Then they should go for it, full-throttle.

Despite youths being always depicted as victims of conflict, there has been a gradual paradigm shift.  Youth have the power to positively change the way we perceive conflict and therefore we need more youth in peacebuilding. There is a concerted effort to promote youths as active leaders and partners in peace processes in search for common ground.

Key stakeholders in peacebuilding need guidance on meaningful youth engagement in conflict or transition settings, so as to engage those graduating in international peacebuilding.

When Jayne first approached IMA about providing training for a small group of women in Kenya, we did not fully appreciate the potential impact mediation training could have on Kenya, East Africa and other parts of the world.  Thanks to Jayne’s request, Interaction Management Associates accepted the challenge to grow our international presence.  We now offer the IMA New Mediator Course to PWO leaders as well as peacebuilders in other parts of the African continent.  As a student majoring in international development at UCLA, I am inspired by PWO in Kenya and beyond, in pursuit of a better future. Jayne has spoken about the transformation she has witnessed in her organization as a result of mediation training. It is said that peace and development are two sides of the same coin.  Mediation is not limited by geographical and situational boundaries, but rather something that has the ability to bridge communication gaps and strengthen relationships.

If you would like to learn more Jayne and her work with PWO please visit their website at this link.  To learn more about the IMA New Mediator or other courses we offer, visit us at this link. 

Finally, we would love to hear about your experiences with mediation training and peacebuilding.  Please share in the comment section below this article!