The government has launched a Nairobi County Multi-Sectoral Coordination and Collaboration Forum on Peace and Security, spearheaded by the Ministry of Interior and National Administration, MIDRIFT HURINET and the National Steering Committee.
The forum is aimed at fostering collaboration among government agencies, civil society, community leaders, and other sectors to promote peace and security in Nairobi County, while coming up with strategies to enhance sustainable peace solutions and promote social cohesion at the grassroots level.
Speaking during the launch, Nairobi County commissioner, David Wanyonyi said that they were looking forward to implementing the Principal Security Services Circular on formulation and activation of regional, county and sub-county multi-sectoral peace and security committees.
“These circulars were received earlier in July and September this year. We quickly mobilized all the regional commissioners in Kenya to a venue in Nairobi, where we launched the Regional Sectoral Peace and Security Committee,” said Wanyonyi.
The county commissioner emphasized that they are on the run to roll out the regional sectoral peace and security committee to the county level, Nairobi being among the first counties to have embraced the circular.
In his remarks, Joseph Omondi, Executive Director, MIDRIFT HURINET, said that they are working around the three key thematic areas of peace and security, governance and human rights in order to develop a standard locality of procedures and how to run them and look into how they can establish and launch the county works.
“We have organized another forum in Nakuru where they are set to launch the Multisectoral Coordination Forum followed by Baringo County,” said Omondi.
The Executive Director went on to shed light on the Multisectoral Coordination Forum that is significant in bringing both state and non-state agencies to speak about peace and security and aim at bringing the peace act, youth, women and the private sector.
He further explained that Nyumba Kumi Initiative is a platform set to discuss matters of peace and security and bring respective resources whether human or financial to make sure that the peace and security agenda is implemented at the machine learning level.
In his final remarks, Omondi highlighted that the micro-coordination cooperation forum provides a unique platform for people within the county or sub-county to choose who will be on the committees, allowing them to take ownership of the process.
This approach ensures that the local communities have a better understanding of the context and are empowered to make informed decisions.
The rollout of this implementation aligns with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16, which calls for the promotion of peaceful and inclusive societies, ensuring access to justice for all, and the development of effective, accountable institutions at every level.
By Joan Ogolla and Rebecca Kibegwa
