Review

Religion and Peacebuilding Paradigm in Kenya

Tom Mong’are Nyagwoka^1* and J.O.M Nandi²

¹Department of Social Sciences, Kaimosi Friends University P.O. Box 385 KAIMOSI.
²Professor of Religion, Department of Social Sciences Kaimosi Friends University, P.O. Box 385 KAIMOSI.

*Corresponding Author's E-mail: tmongare@kafuco.ac.ke

Received: 12 June 2022  I  Accepted: 27 July 2022  I  Published: 23 August 2022  I  Article ID: MRJER22012
Copyright © 2022 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article.
This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0.

Abstract

The paper revisits a recommendation we made to our early published article entitled ‘the paradox of Peace at Nyamira County in order to unearth the fundamental features that will propel Kenya to the envisaged sustainable development. The current paper explore peace initiative factors which Kenya ought to adopt as a prerequisite for establishing peacebuilding paradigm, amidst the existence of endemic ethnicity, tribalism, impunity, and hate speech. In order to achieve the objective of this paper, the authors explored pertinent issues responsible for peace initiatives in Kenya: the first issue is the role of religion in establishing peace in Kenya. The second issue is the use of the military in search for peace in Kenya, amidst noted reckless and unethical utterances of Kenyan politicians which include but not limited to the ‘‘Madoadoa’ remark pronouncements by politicians Q, R, and S across the political divide in Kenya (https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=7E_8h26QFpg).The third issue is the implementation of the constitution. The fourth pillar is the use of conflict theory. The fifth factor is the place of nonviolence in peace building. The sixth element clusters around transformative leadership and the office of the Presidency in Kenya. The seventh factor concerns the place of ethics. The paper carefully examined the role of integrity in peace building. The paper established that the abuse of integrity is the major cause of conflict and tribal animosity in Kenya, and consequently provided well qualitative researched findings which will guide the standard operating procedures on establishing peace in Kenya, which includes, but not limited to the adoption of rotational president of the republic of Kenya across the Counties. It has been observed overtime as from 2002, 2007, 2013, and 2017 and currently 2022 that the scramble for the position of the president in Kenya has been the cause of a polarised Kenya along tribal lines. This paper will be instrumental in enhancing comprehensive peacebuilding paradigms, sustainable development and peaceful co-existence in Kenya.

Keywords: Peacebuilding, Just war Theory, Theory of nonviolence, Paradox, Conflict Theory, Transformation theory, Ethics, Nonviolence