Fellowship #2: Bring peace to warring pastoralists in Northwest Kenya
Location: Nairobi and Maralal, Kenya
2017 Peace Fellow Talley Diggs (George Washington University) on a fact-finding mission to the Turkana people with Monica Kinyua from Children Peace Initiative Kenya (right).
Click to watch Talley’s video here!
Children Peace Initiative (CPI) resolves conflicts between feuding pastoralists in Samburu County, northwest Kenya, by organizing peace camps for children and parents from both sides. This has created strong friendships and led to common activities, such as markets and trade, which provide a strong incentive for sustained peace. Some former enemies have even shared grazing land with herders whose cattle are dying from drought, and returned stolen animals.CPI’s Director, Hilary Bukino, is from the Gabra people in Samburu.
CPI’s intervention helped to end a long-running conflict between the Samburu and Pokot people, which had claimed many lives. Mr Bukuno and his deputy Monica Kinyua now want to take their innovative approach to a new hotspot – the region of Baragoi, where tensions are high between the Turkana and Samburu. The 2018 Fellow will help CPI to lay the groundwork for a campaign by visiting the region and profiling beneficiaries. They will also raise funds for Heifers for Peace, which brings families together to rear cattle.
Qualifications
- Interest in rights of nomadic people, pastoralists, and children
- Love of storytelling, journalism and photography
- Past work in Kenya
- Experience of fundraising
- Knowledge of or interest in conflict resolution
- Experience of Monitoring and Evaluation
For More Information
- Children Bring Peace to Warring Tribes in Kenya (2017)
- The blogs of Lauren Talley Diggs (2017)
- The blogs of Rachel Wilson (2016)
The beneficiaries
Meet George Gamiya, a former Samburu warrior, is raising a cow with a pastoralist from the Pokot tribe with funding from CPI and AP.
The partner
Hilary Bukuno, the founder and director of CPI, is from the Gabra tribe in northwest Kenya and has experienced inter-tribal conflict at first hand.
The Peace Fellow
“My fellowship with CPI Kenya gave me invaluable field experience and a beautiful opportunity to change the lives of others through service. I am eternally grateful to AP for the friends I made through my host organization and the technical skills I gained to pursue a career in development.” – Talley Diggs, the 2017 Peace Fellow in Northwest Kenya.
Visit the CPI website or contact fellowships@advocacynet.org for more information