FPFK MUHORONI PEACE RESILIENCE PROGRAM

Kenya has been wadding myriads of turbulences in its post-independence error, amongst them is a long-standing murky water of intercommunity conflicts whose aftermath is marked by bloodletting, sour relationships, mistrust, stereotyping, mass loss of lives and colossal property which gives birth to poverty, internally displaced persons and revenge missions. This monster never exempted border communities of Nandi Kipsigis and Luo coexisting along the Sugar belt catchment and the plains of Nandi, Kericho and Kisumu Counties.

In Muhoroni cluster, according to the baseline survey conducted by FPFK Peace resilience project, it was established that the major causes of incessant violent conflicts were and not limited to; rampant stock theft, tribal/political incitements, squatters/internally displaced persons, bad leadership/governance, land but also boundary issues.

The complex nature of this challenge therefore needed a brilliant and multi facet approach to address it to its conclusive end which in essence threw most of the peace actors off the balance.

As such, FPFK Peace resilience project devised a well thought after unique mechanism dubbed early warning early response system where by an ICT guru who is one of the FPFK staff members created a software system in which a trained team of peace monitors derived from the project affected communities collect information pertaining to indicators of potential threats to peace and security and send it in a text form through a special code to the control system which analyses, verify and escalate the alert to the trained responders who include security team, national government officers and key members of the affected communities whose cardinal role is to facilitate rapid response towards the potential security threats to curb it before it blows up into a fully-fledged violent conflict or property lost.

The system was designed in such a way that the identity of the peace surveillance is anonymous with regards to do no harm principle hence this motivates them to volunteer sensitive information while the security personnel put on check to act swiftly to neutralize and nip any indicators of vices at the bud.

Operations of the system is reviewed on quarterly basis so as to address grey areas, build on the successful areas, recommend and agitate for the much-needed possible action to improve the peace and security in the affected areas.

It was in such review meetings between FPFK and EWER responders that the project staffs recommended the urgent need to establish more security units along the porous Nyakach – Sigowet stock theft corridors which resulted to the establishment of anti-stock theft unit at Kabura/Jimo Onyuongo where by on 1^st  June 2024, the Sondu security commander and Nyakach DCC invited FPFK peace resilience project staff to grace the launching as the guest of honor, in recognition of the project’s role as the lead peace champion and an invaluable partner whose indomitable efforts bore the restoration of peaceful coexistence amongst the cross border communities – Luo and Kipsigis respectively.

The new unit together with other security cohorts have scaled up border patrols and laid dragnets on the stock theft conduits. As such, thieves are ambushed, cattle recovered perpetrators arrested and arraigned in courts of law to face justice system.

Through the FPFK Early Warning Early Response System, the rate of stock theft incidences has significantly reduced with the recoveries clocking 80% compared to before; while the cross-border peace and security graph remarkably and steadily grow upwards.