On Thursday 14/04, the Partnership for Peace Project, funded by the European Union and KAS, hosted a National Policy Dialogue Breakfast Meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to bring together representatives of both governmental and non-governmental institutions and organisations in order to discuss existing policy gaps in peace-building issues.

Opening remarks were made by Anke Lerch, Resident Representative of KAS Kenya, and were followed by a short speech from Ambassador Adala. In her address to the audience, MP Margaret Kamar emphasized her willingness to act as an ambassador and communicate civil society’s concerns on policy gaps peace-building and conflict resolution to the parliament. Subsequently, George Kabongah from the African Peace Forum presented the project’s research findings on the causes of violence in Kenya as summarised in the study “The Invisible Violence in Kenya – A case study of Rift Valley and Western Regions” He pointed out that some of the most important cross-cutting reasons for conflicts are ethnic distrust and ethnic-based politics, historical injustices, land distribution and unequal resource distribution. He concluded his presentation with recommendations on how to overcome these issues in order to achieve sustainable peace. In the further course of the meeting, the invited members of civil society as well as from several national ministries were requested to present their views on how policy gaps can be filled and on what aspects they consider to be the most urgent ones. Among the most important recommendations were the need for land reform and national cohesion. The general outcome was the wish to create a cross-ministry approach to peace-building, considering that conflict resolution is an issue concerning every area of governance in Kenya.