TUSAMEHEANE TUJENGE NCHI - Participatory Governance for Peace in Kenya

The proposed project – “TUSAMEHEANE TUJENGE NCHI” (“We shall reconcile to build the country” in Kiswahili) - responds to problems facing governance in Kenya as a key driver of conflict. Violent protests marred 2017’s election cycle, as has been the case in previous years. However, the implementation of a new devolved system of governance provides a window of opportunity for conflict resolution in Kenya. As resources (both political and economic) are brought closer to communities, there is an opportunity for increasing participation in governance processes and building horizontal and vertical relationships within the new counties. If this engagement in governance is carried out across conflict lines at the local level, it presents a unique opportunity for inter-community reconciliation and people-to-people peacebuilding. This is further enabled at the national level by the recent ‘handshake’ between President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga which has the potential to provide greater space for peacebuilding processes at multiple levels in Kenya. This project will use this window of opportunity to implement a programme of participatory governance at the county levels creating space for communities in conflict to work together to improve service delivery in their counties. This will demonstrate the value of collaborative action over a zero-sum approach and therefore reduce some of the incentives for conflict and contribute to the wider peacebuilding processes brought about by the ‘handshake agreement’ driving towards peace writ large in Kenya as the country moves towards the next electoral cycle in 2022.