The Impact of Cross Border Conflicts on Peacebuilding in Kenya (1992-2010)

Abstract

This study investigates cross border conflicts and their impact on peacebuilding in Kenya from 1992 to 2010. Cross border conflicts are a threat to peace, human development and security in Kenya. These conflicts increased in frequency and scale from 1992 to 2010 and this caused increase in peacebuilding interventions in the same period. The study examines the dimension of cross border conflicts, their internationalization and how they shape the Horn of Africa conflict system of which Kenya belongs to. It explores the causes of cross border conflicts; peacebuilding initiatives and also investigates the intricate relationship between these conflicts and peacebuilding. Frameworks for analyzing cross border conflicts in modes of actors, issues and interests in conflicts are also examined. Human needs theory has been used to explain and predict the relationships between cross border conflicts and peacebuilding. The study adopts a case study research design because it intensively investigates a particular unit under consideration and locates the complex factors that account for the behaviour-patterns of the given unit as an integrated totality; so as to obtain enough information for drawing correct inferences. Kenya is the case study because it is a regional economic hub and plays a strategic role of mediation in the search of peace in the Horn of Africa. Under the aegis of Inter- Governmental Authority on Development and the African Union, Kenya successively mediated the Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement and the agreement establishing the first Transitional Federal Government of Somalia. The study concludes that there is a link between cross border conflicts and peacebuilding. Cross border conflicts have impacted upon peacebuilding initiatives in Kenya, and these initiatives have made crucial attempts to prevent, mitigate and resolve the conflicts. The study makes recommendations, for instance; taking deliberate efforts to invest more resources in cross border areas to address the proximate and underlying issues of conflicts, hastening the process of formulating a policy framework to guide peacebuilding, paying more attention to the link between research on cross border conflicts and the practice of peacebuilding, mainstreaming the role of women in peacebuilding initiatives and strengthening the response structures for conflict early warning.