Kenya: Archdiocese hosts Shalom peace-building workshops

The Catholic Justice & Peace Department (CJPD) of the Archdiocese of Nairobi in Kenya recently held a two-day workshop on conflict transformation and the importance of upholding and maintaining peace within local communities. It reached out to the Shalom Centre for Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation (founded in 2009 by Irish missionary, Fr Patrick Devine) to provide the training and empowerment for its commissioners recognising Shalom's much-acclaimed skills in leadership empowerment and peace-building at community level.

The training was attended by over 50 CJPD representatives and deanery chaplains from across the archdiocese.

Over the two days it considered the justice, peace, and environmental challenges that grassroots communities encounter, and the capacity deficiencies that the commissioners face in addressing these issues. Inter-religious dialogue, praxis, and collaboration also benefit's immensely from trained, enlightened actors who have the skills of analysis and leadership.

Shalom was very happy to provide the training because it aligns with one of its objectives which seeks to strengthen the capacities of religious and civil society organisations and NGOs in conflict transformation and peace-building throughout Eastern Africa. In his opening remarks Fr Patrick Kimani, Director of the CJPD, noted that its engagement with Shalom was in line with the commission's goal of sensitising individuals, communities, and the whole nation on matters of justice and peace.

The members in attendance were from Nairobi and Kiambu Counties which constitute the Archdiocese of Nairobi. The archdiocese covers an area of 3,721 sq. km and has 114 parishes with over 4,000 Small Christian Communities. The commission is constituted of members drawn from the Small Christian Communities within these parishes. This helps in ensuring that there is a proper and qualified representation of different parishes and local community members. The two counties are predominantly characterised by varying urban lifestyles ranging from informal settlements, middle-level lifestyles, and affluent standards of living which necessitate the prevalence of diverse justice and peace-related issues that require attention.

Populations living in the informal settlements are faced with a myriad of challenges mainly extreme poverty, poor housing, inter-ethnic violent conflicts, violence against women and children, and youth radicalisation into violent religious-political extremism, among others. Populations living in formal settled residential areas also face huge challenges from insecurity, economic pressures, violent extremism, and potential ethnic balkanisation among other pressing difficulties.

Mrs Florence Shabati, one of the CJPD commissioners who is also a government security officer, observed that "Shalom's work is of great importance to everyone in the society to address the differences that emerge from the diverse religious ideations, social status and political ideologies."

She further noted: "I can attest to the lack of proper conflict resolution and conflict transformation knowledge and skills in many sectors. On many occasions one has to deal with complex conflict issues such as crime and drug abuse, negative ethnicity, political intolerance, radicalisation, religious-ideological extremism, land disputes, and domestic and sexual violence, just to mention a few. The community lacks the necessary knowledge and skills in analysing, addressing, and transforming these issues. Each one of us attending this training workshop has an individual responsibility to empower our communities with the necessary peace-building knowledge and skills."

The commissioners were empowered with analytical skills and techniques for conflict transformation and peace-building respectively. The training focused on paradigms of conflict analysis and the four dimensions - personal, relational, structural, and cultural - of conflict transformation. This will help them to analyse the underlying causes of conflict, design strategic interventions for the prevention and transformation of the inter-ethnic and inter-religious violent conflicts in their communities.

Fr Kimani expressed appreciation for Shalom's work and commitment to conflict transformation and peace-building in the region. He commended its unique methodology and the vital role it plays in the training of CJPD commissioners. "We are grateful to Shalom for conducting a well-organised and coordinated training workshop for our commissioners. They will greatly benefit from the organisation's vast experience in conflict transformation and peace-building in Eastern Africa and their commitment to transforming violent conflicts in different conflict environments."

Recognising the value of the training, Ms Brenda Wanyonyi noted that "these trainings are very relevant, informative and timely. The country has just been through a very competitive electioneering process, and there are political demonstrations that are causing a lot of anxiety and tension currently in various parts of the country. We will therefore share the knowledge and skills we have acquired with our fellow parishioners and local community members so that they can be able to analyse, resolve and transform the different forms of violence they experience in their environments."

Fr John Mbugua, CJPD chaplain from Gatundu, Kiambu County, emphasising the value of the training to religious leaders stated: "This has been a very enlightening moment for me as a leader in my parish. I have particularly benefited from the new understanding of the differences between negative and positive peace." He added: "The concept of structural violence which was well elaborated upon will be essential for us religious leaders in understanding the structural causes of conflicts at our local community levels."

Fr Thomas Ngong, a priest from Nairobi further observed: "we have to play an active role in ensuring that our parishioners and communities are able to address and subjugate the different forms of violence they are facing in their lives. With continued empowerment, we will be able to evangelise and be better ambassadors of peace."

Fr Patrick Ndung'u, the CJPD director, speaking after the training explained the importance of conducting the training in all the parishes in the Archdiocese. He stated that the end result would be for them to cascade down the information to other parishioners and above all to be agents of peace.

Shalom continues to empower key opinion leaders to be agents of peace and reconciliation. The trained CJPD representatives will continue building the capacities of other CJPD officers, parishioners, and local community members to be the architects of their own inter-dependent future as peaceful and reconciled communities. Shalom continues to work and collaborate with religious organisations and other relevant stakeholders in the realisation of the organisation's vision of "A society where peace, justice, and reconciliation prevails throughout Africa".

Shalom has received accreditation by the UN and has Memorandums of Understanding with several universities and peace institutes in the USA and Ireland, as well as with the Inter-Government Authority on Development that is comprised of eight member states in Eastern Africa. Its founder, Fr Patrick Devine, was recipient of the International Caring Award in 2013 joining earlier recipients such as the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Senator George Mitchell and former US President, Jimmy Carter. See: www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCpvT9G4LIs .

Further information on the work of Shalom is available at: https://shalomconflictcenter.org/.

Esther Njeri Kibe holds a Masters in Peace Studies and International Relations. She has been working with the Shalom Center for Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation for the past six years. She is a lead project officer at the Shalom Empowerment Center addressing Violence against Women and Children in eastern Africa, and also leads the organisations' Communications Department.