Types and Nature of Peace Building Strategies Employed by Humanitarian Organizations after 2007 Post Election Violence in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya.

Abstract

The memories of the events of the 2007 post-election violence that ravaged the country, still brings a lot of pain to many Kenyans. Despite the use of diverse peace building strategies in the region over the years, sustainable peace is yet to be achieved. This situation generated questions as to whether the peace building strategies used were truly effective. This study examined the types and nature of peace building strategies used in Uasin Gishu County after the 2007 post-election violence. Four humanitarian organizations that were active in peace building efforts in the county were involved in the study. The humanitarian organizations studied were the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (CJPC), Rural Women Peace Link (RWPL), Wareng Youth Initiative for Peace and Development (WYIPD) and Africa Sports and Talents Empowerment Program (ASTEP-Kenya). The conceptual framework of the study was drawn from the Conflict Transformation and Human Needs theories. Descriptive and exploratory designs were used in the study, as well as the quantitative and qualitative approaches. The study population was 894,406. A sample size of 400 respondents was used. This study adopted stratified sampling procedure. The target population was split into three stratums and from each stratum, simple random sampling procedure was applied to arrive at the final sample. The research information was collected using questionnaires, interviews, observation and secondary data. The study used Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to analyze quantitative data while the qualitative data was thematically analyzed. The findings of the study indicated that various peace building strategies were used. The findings point to the need for organizations to use diverse peace building strategies that endear to all population groups.