PEACE EDUCATION AS A PANACEA FOR CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION IN KENYA

Joshua Manduku 
University of Kabianga, KENYA, mandukujoshua@gmail.com

Abstract

Education systems and institutions around the world have undergone substantial transformations in the last five decades attributed to socio-political reforms prompted by demographic changes, social upheavals and demands for equal rights. In an increasingly interconnected world, education is at the centre of the on-going pursuit of coexistence in multiethnic and multicultural societies. In Kenya, the Ministry of Education as a way to foster peace and transform the warring communities to peaceful livelihood, introduced peace education in 2008 into the school curriculum. This move came after the infamous 2007/08 general election that left behind many deaths and displacements and other serious human rights atrocities, including violations on freedom of movement, assembly and opinion in several places in Kenya. It was envisaged that this move would prosper conflict transformation in the country. However there seems to be little progress in using peace education for conflict transformation in Kenya and available evidence is scant to robustly support the peace education-conflict transformation narrative. It is upon this premise that this study aims at analyzing the critical link between peace education and conflict. Specifically, the study seeks to examine the role played by peace education in the school‘s curriculum in conflict transformation and to investigate the potential pathways through which peace education has impacted peace in Kenyan schools.

The study will be informed by the Conflict Transformation Model advanced by Paul Lederach. This will be a mixed methods research, combining both critical review of the literature with in-depth interviews with key informants in the education sector. The study will be limited to the County of Uasin Gishu. This study aims at lobbying for the mandatory implementation of its findings to the Ministry of Education in its periodical reviews of peace education so then it may suit learners’ needs. It is anticipated that the study will make a theoretical contribution to the body of knowledge related to conflict prevention and transformation with a particular emphasis on the role played by peace education in ensuring a conflict-free Kenya.

Keywords: Peace education, conflict transformation