The National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) in conjunction with the European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES) held a three-day training towards promoting peace and cohesion in Kenya by preventing and mitigating electoral conflicts within the framework of NCIC’s Roadmap to a Peaceful 2022 elections dubbed Uchaguzi Bila Noma.
(Participants carrying out an exercise during the ECES training at the Voyager hotel, Mombasa)
achieve ‘Uchaguzi Bila Noma’ under a project Pro-peace Kenya. The training drew participants from civil society representation and especially those who work on electoral matters, Training and Development community in Kenya representatives, Government agencies representatives and also political parties’ representatives. The Pro-peace Kenya project whose aim is to promote peace and cohesion in the country by preventing and mitigating electoral conflicts also adopts the NCIC’s Road Map to a peaceful August 2022 elections. The overall objective of the Pro-peace Kenya project is to promote peace, cohesion, and political dialogue and prevent, mitigate, and manage conflicts and election related-related violence ahead of the new electoral cycle in Kenya. This cascade training follows a successful first Training for Trainers (TOT) on LEAD held in Nairobi from 28th to 1st of April 2022.
The objectives of the LEAD training is to instill and strengthen management and leadership abilities on the electoral stakeholders, and also to improve their conflict management skills while giving them the necessary resources and skills to replicate the key training contents in their specific areas, whether formal and informal sectors. The program, which was initially developed through the collaboration and synergies between the European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES) and the Centre for Creative Leadership (CCL) contributes to increase participants’ confidence by providing them with expertise in decision-making and extensive insights into conflict management throughout the electoral cycle.
The three day training course covered sessions on application of leadership skills to electoral processes, the electoral cycle and its potential weaknesses, Causes and types of electoral conflicts and violence, leading principles behind conflict management, application of leadership skills in prevention of electoral crises, individual and organizational leadership and mediation and conflict prevention and the core values of leadership, tolerance and development. The LEAD training program is inspired by sustainability of all knowledge transfers and includes a three-tier certification system.
The Commission has partnered with the European Center for Electoral Support (ECES) to promote peace and cohesion in Kenya by preventing and mitigating electoral conflicts within the framework of NCIC’s Roadmap for Peaceful 2022 elections “Uchaguzi Bila Noma 2022”. Towards this end, the Commission in partnership with ECES is currently conducting a three-day training (20th – 22nd April, 2022) on Leadership and Conflict Management Skills for Electoral Stakeholders (LEAD) at the Voyager Hotel in Mombasa County. The training participants were drawn from Civil Society Organizations, Faith Based Organizations, Local Peace Structures and Key community members from Mombasa, Kilifi, Kwale, Tana River and Taita Taveta Counties.
The training aims to: strengthen the capacities of peace, cohesion and electoral stakeholders to prevent conflicts and electoral related violence in the local county and regional level; strengthen conflict resolution and peace infrastructures that effectively resolves and curb electoral related violence; increase the understanding, tolerance, trust and peaceful coexistence among Kenyans; and, reduce incidences of electoral violence, hate speech, ethnic contempt in social media and public spaces.
