Uasin Gishu Commissioner applauds organizations for their peace initiatives before 2022 Elections
Uasin Gishu County Commissioner Eddyson Nyale
By Loyd Ayego
Mercy Corps, a global humanitarian organization, in conjunction with other stakeholders Tuesday met in Uasin Gishu County to discuss and evaluate the steps taken in peace building and conflict management issues within the county over the last one year.
The event was held at Ndupawa Prestige Platinum Resort and was graced by the county commissioner Uasin Gishu Edison Nyale who lauded the organizations for their peace efforts before, during and after the August Elections.
“Today we are convening with a number of stakeholders in Uasin Gishu County, who have been working on peace building and conflict management. As Mercy Corps we are working with these stakeholders to implement an election violence prevention and mitigation program over the last one year. So as the program is coming to a close this month we were keen to interact with these stakeholders to obtain feedback from our experience garnered in implementing it in the county with a view to use the lessons learnt to inform future programming on peace and conflict management ,” Said Charles Apondi, Mercy Corps Coordinator.
Uasin Gishu County Commissioner (C) Charles Apondi, Mercy Corps Coordinator among other stakeholders
With Uasin Gishu County having been labeled as a hot spot before the 2022 August general elections, Mercy Corps together with other stakeholders faced different challenges in implementing their peace.
“The key challenge was the rapid change in political climate beyond the expectation, but we were dynamic in our ways of working, lack of resources was another key challenge, funding for such peace activities has really been minimal, shrinking over the years, but we managed to support communities work for peace and ensure a peaceful political transition in 2022,” Added Charles.
Going to the future, with peace being a key factor in coexistence and correlation, those with similar ambitions should consider working with synergy with like-minded institutions,
“My advice to such organizations is to explore integrating peace building efforts with other thematic areas ,There is need to work on governance issues, representation, youth employment to prevent future conflicts., Organizations should also work with policymakers to avail resources to support Kenyan based community organizations in peace building and conflict management,” Remarked Mr. Apondi.
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