18 ACResolution Magazine
with a vision of building a more peace “able” world. To support
the pastoralist peacebuilding efforts, the Kenya Initiative was
established in 2012.
When we started MBB-KI, we were told that the LPC was the
model our pastoralist colleagues were using, because it had
so successfully led to peace for the five ethnic groups living in
Laikipia County, one of 47 counties in Kenya. However, as we
worked with our local partners, it became clear that little was
understood about how the process actually led to the sustainable change observed in Laikipia. Furthermore, when we applied
for funding for new peace caravans to other areas experiencing ethnic violence, we kept hearing that peace caravans were
too expensive and not effective. Over the course of time, it
became obvious that something was missing in the translation from the ground to funders, because the LPC certainly
worked for Laikipia. In attempting to learn more about the
LPC, we discovered that there was no evaluation of the actual
peacebuilding process and outcomes, and very little in writing except rare personal meeting notes and a masters thesis
that described the process but did not assess effectiveness.
Without any formal evaluations of the LCP, which are more
typical of well-funded international projects, a peace caravan
“model” developed from anecdotal evidence and what people
remembered from their experiences.
Although peace caravans take many shapes around the
world, in Kenya the particular form discussed in this article has
emerged as a distinctively pastoralist process that arises from
their extensive social networks. The term peace caravan is
used to describe a broad range of mobilization activities, such
as youth rallies and political events. There are some organizations using the term peace caravan in their name, such as
Peace Caravan Kenya, THE Peace Caravan, and Caravan for
Peace Kenya. However, little is known about them or their
activities other than postings on Facebook. Since 2010 when
the USAID Kenya Transitional Initiative funded a large number
of peace caravans throughout the country, few peace caravans based on the LPC model have been conducted in other
areas, primarily funded by the Kenyan government for short-lived emergency mobilization. No funding for any necessary
follow-up has been available, nor have evaluations been
obtainable, if they even exist.
Pastoralist peace caravans are based on volunteer partici-
pation, thus the lack of a formal organizational structure that
can provide the administrative functions required by donors
such as USAID has been a significant barrier to receiving
financial support for implementation and evaluation. The lack
of staff and funding has also been a barrier to gleaning knowl-
edge from the caravan process through conscious evaluation,
and defining how the process actually contributes to build-
ing sustainable peace. To date, no subsequent peace caravan
based on this model achieved the same level of success as
the LPC. To fill this gap in knowledge, the participatory action
research (PAR) project was designed to learn what factors led
to the LPC’s effectiveness and sustainability.
Using a trans-disciplinary lens of emergent peacebuilding design, our team of 17 co-researchers from MBB-KI
and local Kenyan partners inquired into how the LCP peacebuilding effort resulted in an island of peace that has been
sustained by the local communities six years later. The study
found “that effective and sustainable pastoralist peacebuilding emerged from expansive utilization of diverse pastoralist
social networks, cycles of learning and adaptation, integration
of practical wisdom and cultural sensitivities, and systemic
transformation of transactional, attitudinal and structural
societal domains through dialogue processes, modeling and
grassroots self-organization.”
ENGAGING IN LEARNING FOR ACTION
PAR was selected as the research methodology because
it is a process that fully engages co-researchers in collecting and analyzing data with the intention of using what was
learned, and is intended to empower participants in their
work. Co-researchers for this study included three members
of the MBB-Kenya Initiative team, and 14 Kenyan pastoralists, many whom had participated in the LPC. Researchers
included a male and a female interviewer from each of the
five ethnic groups involved in the previous conflict in Laikipia: Samburu, Pokot, Tugen, Turkana and Kikuyu. A total of 39
semi-structured interviews were collected from elders, youth
and women of each affected community, LCP professionals, and government officials who were involved. This data
was coded, analyzed for themes, and the subject of in-depth
reflective dialogues by the research team in 2014.
The primary research question asked how does effective
peacebuilding emerge in pastoralist cultures There were
also secondary questions addressed regarding what factors were involved in initiating, designing and implementing
neotraditional peacebuilding in remote pastoralist areas; how
pastoralist peacebuilding can be designed and operational-ized to be self-sustaining; and how emergent neotraditional
peacebuilding mechanisms can be integrated into the Kenyan
Infrastructure for Peace. Using semi-structured interviews
and review of available artifacts, the research focused on
gaining a clear understanding of how the LPC came to be, how
it was implemented, the opportunities and challenges it faced,
and the effect it had on the communities it was engaged
with. Through data analysis and dialogue, the research team
identified the key characteristics of the LPC that supported
emergence, sustainability, and indicated effectiveness. The
As we worked with our local partners, it became
clear that little was understood about how the
process actually led to the sustainable change
observed in Laikipia.
