Peacebuilding & Cohesion Program
UGPF envisions a peaceful and cohered county as we intentionally move to create and nurture a culture of political tolerance and ethnic cohesion though our peace engagements.
The County is constantly destabilized every 5 years during the Country’s general elections.
The politics have become the litmus test of peace and cohesion. The county has failed this test since 1992 every 5 years to the latest 2017 elections.
The County is always marked a “hot spot” of possible violence during election period when residents choose to see things through their ethnic eyes.
It is the reason why residents in the county came together to birth UGPF in July 2017 with a view to changing their destiny and re-write their history.
To achieve this, UGPF seeks to:-
- Advocate for peace in UG through peace campaigns.
- Run peace activities that will encourage patriotism of the residents and peace champions.
- Run programs that will enhance pride in diverse ethnicity and different political opinions.
- To provide a platform that enables the people appreciate a cosmopolitan county and a thriving Eldoret city.
- Eliminate practices of violent, divisive politics and ethnic discrimination.
- Partner with experts in conflict resolutions including churches and community leaders for immediate solutions whenever peace is threatened at all levels.
ACTIVITIES
UASIN GISHU PEACE FORUM engages the people in the county in several activities; with the aim to achieve its objectives.
1. Peace Ambassadors.
To achieve the goal of being advocates of peace in the county, The forum recruits peace ambassadors in its 30 electoral wards.
As at August 2017, we had 700 peace ambassadors across the county, spread across the 6 sub-counties of Kapseret, Soy, Kesses, Turbo, Ainabkoi and Moiben.
Peace ambassadors have membership cards which they pride in for identification.
During the 2017 elections, the membership cards played a big role of destructing what would have been heated/violent campaign debates and changed them into peace discussions.
2. Peace Banner Signage’s & Peace pledges.
a) Peace Banners:
One of our focuses is to mount up peace signages in every ward’s shopping Centre. The banners have peace messages from the residents of those particular areas. This stands as a reminder of their commitment to peace.
b) Peace pledges:
During elections, residents are encouraged to pledge to peace. The forum provides peace pledges for residents to sign. The residents take the original copy and the forum keeps a copy as a reminder of the peace commitment made.
3. Peace Tournaments.
The Forum plans annual peace tournaments for residents across the county to promote cohesion.
4. Uasin Gishu Peace Marathon.
Being the “Home of Champions”, the Forum will leverage on this for Peace. We shall work with athletes from the County to champion annual peace marathons.
5. Peace Walk.
The forum organizes Peace Walks and encourages all groups to participate and be intentional about promoting peace.
6. Peace Awards
UASIN GISHU PEACE FORUM will have Peace awards for the electoral wards in the county that display intentional peace initiatives and campaigns.
The awards will recognize outstanding peace ambassadors and community leaders propagating peace agendas and reconciliation.
7. Branding Uasin Gishu with “never again messages”.
The county has painful history of what violence has done. UASIN GISHU PEACE FORUM will work with the residents to do commit to peace signs and put up messages of things that have happened in the past that they won’t allow to happen again. This will target hot spot areas of violence which still have glaring reminders.
8. Prayer Teams
The Forum will engage prayer teams to commit to daily focused prayers for their county. We will work through churches and prayer networks.