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Mlango Kubwa residents in the Mathare constituency are using unarmed conflict protection methods to avert conflicts.
UCP is the practice of civilians protecting civilians in situations of eminent or ongoing violent conflict.
It involves international civilians protecting local civilians or local civilians protecting each other without firearms.
Mlango Kubwa is one of the areas that were adversely affected by political violence in the run-up to the 2022 election.
A number of politicians used hired goons to attack their opponents, resulting in chaos and causing tension.
Some of the youth used by politicians to disrupt peace were vulnerable foreigners from neighbouring Uganda and Tanzania.
During 2022 political campaigns, several women were attacked and injured physically.
One of the women politicians is Liz Waithera who was vying for the Mlango Kubwa ward seat. She describes her attack as brutal and unexpected.
“They tore my clothes and left me bleeding. I was not able to cast my vote,” Waithera says.
Mlango Kubwa community chairperson George Kutosi cited economic instability as a contributor to the youth’s vulnerability
“The youths are very industrious and at the same time are not selective when it comes to taking up jobs. This, coupled with their desperation to make quick cash, has made them so vulnerable to politicians,” he said.
One of the UCP methods the residents are using to create peace is dialogue between the warring parties.
“We take cases brought to us to the Nyumba Kumi officials and sometimes the area chief for resolution. This has pretty much helped us to avert chaos,” Kutosi said.
“Sometimes, when the barazas are not effective, we go back and sit down to resolve the issues because at the end of the day, we all need each other.”
UCP is a new concept of conflict resolution.
It is done without firearms whatsoever. However, before dialogue is initiated, some sort of relationship has to be built between the two warring factions.
Jane Wanjiru, a UCP expert says the concept might be new to Kenya, but many people have been using it unknowingly. She says it requires no party to be superior.
“When you verbally solve a conflict between two people by just talking to them, that is UCP in the application,” Wanjiru says.
The concept is applicable at various stages of a conflict; during early stages to prevent violence, during crisis to stop violence and at later stages to help sustain peace and agreements and safer spaces.
“What Mathare residents are currently doing is creating safer spaces for and preventing a repeat of what they witnessed in the run up to the 2022 general election,” Wanjiru says.
She says applying UCP after violent situations may include provision of safe houses, strengthening local peace infrastructure at the grassroots levels.
Some of the countries UCP has been successfully applied include Sri Lanka, Philippines and South Sudan. In the Philippines, a peace agreement was negotiated between the government and the insurgent Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in 2014.
Between 2017 and 2021, representatives of 160 international, national, and local organisations from 45 countries came together to discuss principles, good practices, and challenges in nonviolent civilian protection work.
However, there is still little publicly known about nonviolent protection provided by organisations specialising in UCP, and this work’s links with community self-protection practices.
Many international UCP organisations trace their history back to pacifist thoughts and embrace the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi’s Shanti Sena, a peace army of nonviolent civilians who worked at the grassroots level to reduce violence and bring peace to communities in India.
Humanitarian Practice Network cites relationship-building as the heart of UCP.
It says it is central to all other UCP methods, as it is through strong relationships with communities affected by armed conflict, armed actors involved in conflict and relevant local and national authorities that UCP practitioners can make their presence known.
It also helps them to keep abreast of rapidly changing conflict dynamics, understand the protection needs of communities affected by conflict, and take informed action.
Facilitated by these strong relationships, UCP methods include advocacy, multi-track dialogue, confidence building, proactive engagement, rumour control, and ceasefire monitoring.
Since UCP thrives on relationship building and dialogue, the shrinking civic spaces pose one of its limitations.
UCP relies in part on the willingness of armed actors to consent to it. Without this minimum consent and the basic cooperation of armed actors, UCP practices are severely restricted.