Preventing violent conflict and fostering peaceful interaction through better integration of displaced persons

Context

Kenya’s history has been marked by forced displacement due to violent conflicts or natural disasters.

600,000 people were internally displaced during the post-election violence in 2007/08. Since then, conflicts over scarce resources, large-scale development projects, environmental degradation and climate-change-related extreme weather events continue to force people out of their homes. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre counted 394,000 internally displaced people (IDP) in 2020.

Civil wars, ethnic violence and extended drought periods in neighbouring countries have also forced hundreds of thousands to seek refuge in Kenya over the past decades. Kakuma and Dadaab camps currently host over 496,000 refugees and asylum seekers, with another 92,000 in informal settlements in Nairobi and other urban centres.

Forced displacement often leads to conflicts within the communities or with governmental authorities over access to already-scarce resources, basic services and livelihoods. This is particularly so when the displaced population is confined to economically weak regions or informal urban settlements.

Objective

Communities hosting displaced population in Kenya are now solving their conflicts in a non-violent and mutually-beneficial manner with the support of local governments and structures.

Approach

Since 2014, the Special Initiative on Displacement (SIGA) programme of the Civil Peace Service has been working through and within a network of Kenyan civil society, peacebuilding and displaced-people-led-organisations as well as governmental partners. The aim is to prevent communal violence and foster respect for human rights and gender equality.

Our team of international and national peacebuilding advisors supports partner organisations in initiating dialogues in communities affected by conflict and displacement. Media and arts are used to promote peaceful coexistence, while survivors of violence and displacement receive psychosocial support.

Last update: May 2023