Report of the
ISIOLO INTER-RELIGIOUS PEACE WEEK

“NURTURING A CULTURE OF PEACE ”

in Isiolo, Kenya

DATE: 4^th – 8^th August 2003
VENUE: Isiolo Transit Hotel
 

Sponsoring organizations:
Chemchemi Ya Ukweli (CYU), International Relief Friendship Foundation (IRFF), Isiolo Inter-religious Council (IIC)
 

Prepared and Presented by:
Chemchemi Ya Ukweli (CYU) & International Relief Friendship Foundation (IRFF) Secretariat, Nairobi, Kenya.

CONTENT:

Preamble | The Vision and Mission Statement | Background Information about Isiolo Inter-religious Council (IIC) | Workshop Program Event | Preliminary meeting

DAY 1 OF THE WORKSHOP | Expectations of the Workshop | Objectives of the Workshop | Conflict Management | Recommendations from Day 1 presentations

DAY 2 OF THE WORKSHOP | Group discussions | Results of the Group discussions | Leadership in IIC | Resources availability | Recommendation from the Group discussions | Violence | Types of Violence | Response to Violence | Active Non-Violence | Principles of Active Non-Violence | Methodology of Non-Violence Activity | Preparation for Action Plan

DAY 3 OF THE WORKSHOP | A New Vision for Leadership through Public Service | Principles for Peace | Vision of Peace | Core Principles of Peace | God’s creation | Principle of Give and Take Action | Individual Peace | Peace in the Family | Core Practices of Peace | True love/Unselfish love | Breaking Down Barriers | Marriage and Family of True love | Pillars of Successful and Happy Marriage | Phases of Marriage

DAY 4 OF THE PEACE WEEK EVENT | Public Procession and Speech Day | Livestock Exchange Peace Ceremony | Games Event

DAY 5 OF THE PEACE WEEK EVENT | Community Visits

Appendices

Isiolo Peace Week Event Photo Gallery | List of Participants & Financial Report | Progress Report October 2003

Preamble

The Isiolo Inter-religious Peace Week (2003) is an initiative of the Isiolo Inter-religious Council (IIC) that has been promoting peace in Isiolo for the last one year. The Peace Week Event under the theme “Nurturing a Culture of Peace” entailed a three-days training program in Peace building, Inter-religious Dialogue, Conflict Management and Mediation, HIV-AIDS and Family Values; a Public Baraza procession and speech day, Sports, and Community visits. The topics of the training program were selected with the aim of improving the skills and information base of the participants in these fields. The participants attending the training workshop came from recognized religious leaders, community elders, youth leaders, politicians, government and the civil society organizations.

The Public Baraza procession for Peace and speech day held immediately after the three days training workshop, brought together an assembly of peace builders, athletes and artists that are all interested in a lasting peace in Isiolo. The epitome of the peace procession and public Baraza meeting was a speech given by the chief guest, the local District Commissioner (DC) of Isiolo. The DC emphasized the importance of maintaining peace as a pre-requisite for development and acknowledged the good work that has been achieved by ChemChemi Ya Ukweli (CYU) and International Relief Friendship Foundation (IRFF-Urafiki Kenya) NGO’s in facilitating peaceful activities within Isiolo. A livestock exchange ceremony that was graced by the presence of the DC saw the religious faiths pledging to share their material wealth for the benefit of the community.

On the fifth day, there were solidarity inter-religious peace visits that were made to communities around Isiolo town that had previously been affected by violent incidents. The visits were aimed at increasing confidence to the survivors of past conflicts and to encourage them to the end that things will change for the better through unity and working together for peace.

The Peace Week Event is part of a broader process that aims at building an Inter-religious Community Peace Centre in Isiolo. The Peace Centre is envisaged to boost the local capacity for peacebuilding and as a symbol of unity among the inter-religious groups in the region. The IIC initiative invites all interested parties in peacebuilding within and outside Isiolo to make a contribution to this noble process.

The IIC initiative appreciates the work of the Provincial Administration, Kenya Police, the Religious Organizations, Peace and Development NGO’s who have contributed immensely to bring peace in Isiolo. Special mention goes to the Isiolo District Peace and Reconciliation Committee for spearheading civil society conflict management programmes. The Isiolo Inter-religious Peace Week 2003 will remain as a landmark event in symbolizing the importance of Unity and Inter-religious dialogue in promotion and nurturing a culture of peace for many years to come.

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ISIOLO INTERRELIGIOUS PEACE WEEK

NURTURING A CULTURE OF PEACE
 

The Vision and Mission Statement

The Isiolo Peace Week Event took place at the Isiolo Transit Hotel, Isiolo town, central Kenya from 4^th – 8^th August 2003.   The theme of the peace week event was “Nurturing the Culture of Peace” that had a vision of maintaining a peaceful Isiolo community and a mission of empowering community initiatives through inter-religious dialogue. The objective of the event was to facilitate capacity building in peace issues, networking, conflict management and mediation. The peace week event is part of a broader process that aims at building an Inter-religious community Peace Center at Isiolo, which will boost the local capacity for peace building.

The Isiolo Inter-Religious Peace Week was an initiative of the Isiolo Inter-religious Council (IIC) that has been promoting peace in Isiolo for the last one year. The organizing committee and facilitators of the event were Isiolo Inter-Religious Council (IIC), Chemchemi Ya Ukweli (CYU), and International Relief Friendship Foundation (IRFF). The Peace Week event lasted for 5 days. During the first three days, a workshop on Peace building, attended by about 50 participants, was held at the Isiolo Transit Hotel. The participants attending this workshop came from among others, recognized religious leaders, community elders, youth leaders, government and the civil society organizations. Two international participants (youth leaders) from USA attended the workshop event.

The three days training workshop covered topics in Peace building, Inter-religious Dialogue, Leadership and management, Active Non-Violence Methodology, HIV-Aids and Family values. These topics were selected with the aim of improving the skills and information base of the participants already working in these fields. On the fourth day of the peace week there was a Public Peace “Baraza” event (involving public peace procession and speeches), Livestock exchange ceremony and a youth football match between the inter-faiths. On the fifth day, there were inter-religious peace solidarity visits made to communities around Isiolo town that had previously been affected by past violent incidents. The visits are aimed at increasing confidence in the community survivors of past conflicts that things will change for better through unity, working together and more peace initiatives in Isiolo.

Situated near Mount Kenya, Isiolo (with a population of about 140,000) is the gateway city for travel to Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia. Many residents make their livelihood from their cattle, sheep, goat and camels. Cattle rustling and tribal fighting over green pastures and water is quite common. Isiolo is also an ideal place for trade - and an easy place to get a gun, fake ID and ammunition. Under such a setting, Isiolo has become a rallying focal point in the region where issues dealing with peace have taken a center stage.

Background Information about Isiolo Inter-Religious Council

The conflict among Christians and the Muslims has frequently created instability in the region. In the more recent past (early 2002), the local religious leaders started a peace action program to resolve these conflicts through a consultative forum named Isiolo Inter-religious Council (IIC) under the earlier guidance and facilitation of Chemchemi Ya Ukweli (CYU) (Wellspring of Truth) organization and joined later by International Relief Friendship Foundation (IRFF). The Isiolo Inter-religious Forum (IIC), which includes Muslims, Catholics, Anglicans, Methodist and other Protestants, have come to work together with the aim of bringing peace to the Isiolo communities.

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THE WORKSHOP PROGRAM EVENT

Preliminary Meeting

The three days workshop, centered on the theme “Nurturing a Culture of Peace” kicked off on Monday morning, 4^th August 2003. The first preliminary meeting of the peace week event was held between the facilitators (CYU and IRFF) and the IIC (representing the three Inter-religious families) in order to iron out the modalities of implementing the peace week event program.

DAY 1 OF THE WORKSHOP

Participants

The workshop began with a word of prayer from all the three religious families. The facilitator of the morning session Sheik Rahkman Wandati started off by trying to build a consensus over the number of people represented by each family. The problem was that some families had a greater representation than others. After mutual discussion it was agreed that only the participants that had registered that morning in the workshop together with 3 other Catholic family members scheduled to join the workshop later in the day were to be considered for the workshop provided that the overall number did not exceed the recommended number of 50 participants. The workshop therefore started with harmony after first resolving the first conflict of representation at the peace week training workshop.

The mode of communication used during the workshop was that of interactive discussion. The facilitator would ask the participants questions and the participants would respond and their answers critiqued by either the facilitator or the other participants.

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Expectations of the Workshop

The facilitators of the workshop started by asking the participants attending the workshop to express and give their initial expectations of the workshop. The participants responded by suggesting that their expectations out of the workshop was to know and understand the following:

• What the Isiolo Inter-religious council has achieved in management of conflict in Isiolo
• The operational structure of Isiolo Inter-Religious council and how to make it more successful in implementing its programs.
• The appropriate steps to follow in conflict management and peace building.
• The role of women in peace building and how they can be more involved in conflict resolutions in Isiolo.
• The main sources of conflict and the prevention process.
• The relationship between the Isiolo Inter-Religious council and the agricultural sector at Isiolo
• The status of the IIC funding proposal originally delivered to CRS for project development.
• Mechanism that will be used in the identification of the beneficiaries of the livestock exchange programme
• The relationship between peace vis a-vis HIV/AIDS, poverty, investment and development
• Emergency steps to be taken in conflict situations.
• The steps to be taken to maintain peaceful co-existence among IIC member families.

There were quick responses from the participants regarding their expectations. They all agreed that there was a need to visit the rural areas in the outskirts of Isiolo town where most of the conflicts, clashes and in-fightings have been taking place. They suggested that the Isiolo Inter-Religious Council (IIC) should start with the simple tools and means they have at their disposal to the more complicated ones in conflict management.

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Objectives of the Workshop

After expressing their expectations, the participants were further requested to state their objectives that they wished to achieve out of the training workshop.   They responded by saying that after the workshop, they hoped:

To involve all the people of Isiolo about peace and engage the stake holders in peace building activities
To enable the communities engage in development
To let the people of Isiolo know that religious leaders of Isiolo are working together
To show that insecurity has affected Isiolo negatively
Looking for peace to achieve development
To build on the achievements made so far
To show that peace is a continuous process requirement
To use the IIC forum to sensitize the root causes of conflict
To find ways of ensuring continuous vigilance for peace
To look for ways of reaching out to the grass root and deal with resource conflicts.
To identify the existing gaps, weaknesses and threats to peace within IIC itself.

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Conflict Management

The participants were interactively requested to explain in their own words the terms conflict and management in one word syllables. Conflict words that were suggested ranged from: war, squabbles, differences, disagreement, dispute, and unrest to violence.   For management they suggested: peace, resolution, discussion, intervention, reconciliation, prevention, co-existence, maintenance and control.

A question arose as to what are the causes of conflict? Suggestions given for causes of conflict ranged from poverty, compassion, culture, tradition and social norms, land, religion, inequity, inequality, power structures, politics, image and misinformation.

It was observed that in order to resolve conflict you need a Conflict Manager. A conflict manager could either be: An Arbitrator- binding together by law, Mediator- a go between to two different people/ or groups, Peace worker- putting people together where there is a difference, Government, Council of elders, Spiritual leaders, International bodies, Communities/ individuals and institutions.

The workshop participants observed and recommended that the Isiolo Inter-religious council should embody good conflict managers who should help the Isiolo people to solve their problems, and to sensitize and reduce conflicts in Isiolo.

The workshop participants observed that in order to became a good conflict manager, you require the Conflict Tool Kit.   The major components of this tool kit would involve:

Constitution -    Clarity of the rules
Right information   - A Good manager must know how to get the right information before he/she starts solving the conflict.  
Skills -    He/She must have Knowledge of solving the conflict, because those people with problem might turn against you.
Patience - be good listener for both sides
Impartiality - to build trust on both sides
Clear/ or Good leadership
Authority - Moral authority
Enabling environment - dignity and respect

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Recommendations

At the end of Day 1 of the workshop, the participants observed and recommended that:

• All the IIC Council members should renew their commitment and start living in a new way.
• The above change should be visible, not hidden, but spread out for all to see.
• The relationships within IIC members should be formalized at the root level i.e., having. a constitution.
• The Isiolo Inter-Religious Council should maintain dignity and respect in all its working
• The peoples’ rights should be respected and truth must be used at all times.

It was observed that the best way of solving conflict is to start attending to these conflicts at their early stages. This would require the involvement and commitment of every one and this process should start at each person’s house or home. If people can then start practicing conflict resolution, as away of life, then all people will surely recognize that their fellow neighbors are their brothers.

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DAY 2 OF THE WORKSHOP

DAY 3 OF THE WORKSHOP

DAY 4 OF THE WORKSHOP

Public Procession and Speech Day

The 4^th day of the peace week began with people assembling together for a public procession that was scheduled to start from Webera primary School to the public Baraza Park. The actual procession, numbering about 1000 people, started at 9.30 am from Webera School and went through the major by-ways and streets of Isiolo up to the District Officer’s (DO) compound, near the Baraza Park. The shielded DO’s compound was chosen as the alternative meeting place due to the strong winds blowing in the open areas at the Baraza Park. The residents of Isiolo town turned up in good numbers to support the public procession in recognition of the peace week event and the importance of “ nurturing a culture of peace” in the district.

After arriving at the DO's compound and meeting place, there was a word of prayer that was followed by introduction of the participating organizations and groups in the peace week event. The participating schools graced the occasion by entertaining the audience in the form of plays, concerts and choirs.

This public procession was a medium of high lighting to the people of Isiolo about the importance of maintaining peace through inter-religious dialogue and the peaceful activities that Isiolo Inter-religious council forum is doing in collaboration with the government. There was a written speech read on behalf of the Isiolo Inter-Religious Council by the Chairperson. Thereafter the District Commissioner (DC), who was the chief guest, gave a speech touching on peace issues prevailing at Isiolo. The area DC acknowledged the good exemplary work being done by Chemchemi Ya Ukweli (CYU) and International Relief Friendship Foundation (IRFF) organizations in conjunction with other peace organizations in facilitating peaceful activities within Isiolo communities. He confirmed in his speech that he would be working closely together with all peace organizations working in Isiolo. He went further to emphasize the importance of maintaining peace and the necessary criteria for development In Isiolo. Quoting his speech, he said “there is no development without peace, and as such, the Isiolo community itself must come out with means and ways of solving their conflicts in order to bring out development”. After the DC’s speech, the public Baraza meeting was closed by a word of prayer.

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LIVESTOCK EXCHANGE PEACE CEREMONY

The Peace Livestock exchange ceremony was initiated with the purpose of nurturing a culture of peace through the norm of sharing among the three inter-religious faith institutions. It was mutually agreed that in order to focus on the issue of peace and keep the spirit of sharing among the inter-faiths, a special day within a given year, will be dedicated to a peace livestock exchange ceremony.

After the DC’s official speech, the public gathering was invited to a ceremony to witness the presentation of livestock exchange at a venue located 200m form the District Officer’s compound. The Isiolo District Commissioner graced the livestock exchange ceremony. Four different schools, identified by the three inter-religious faiths, were given the livestock and asked to take care of the animals through the establishment of peace clubs within the schools. As a seedling to start off this program, the facilitators (IRFF and CYU) donated three (3) cows, eleven (11) sheep, and eleven (11) goats.

The first four beneficiary schools identified for this program with their respective donations were as follows:

Webera Primary School – these were given 6 sheeps.
Kilimani Primary School – these were given 5 sheeps.
St. Kizito Primary School – these were given11 goats
Isiolo School for the Deaf – these were given3 cows

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DAY 5 OF THE WORKSHOP

Community visits

On the fifth day of the peace week event, there were inter-religious peace visits made to communities that had previously been affected by past violent incidents. The visits were aimed at increasing confidence and solidarity with the community survivors of past conflicts. The message of peace that the inter-religious community leaders were conveying was that things will change for the better through unity, working together and having dialogue on all issues related to peace in the society.

Truly in a society where previously there has been religious animosity and suspicion, it was like a miracle to have all the different religious leaders working and sharing their problems together on how to solve them as a team.

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