Amani Mashinani Conflict Transformation Model: Bishop Korir’s Legacy on Peace and Reconciliation

This chapter is about the story of the late Bishop Cornelius Kipng’eno Arap Korir who stood up for peace and reconciliation in the midst of numerous interethnic conflicts. Bishop Korir, who was then the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Eldoret, lived the experience of inter-ethnic violence between the Marakwet, Pokot, Kikuyu, and the Kalenjin communities. As a person from the Kalenjin ethnic community, he had to learn to distant himself from the abrasive political rhetoric and violent actions and embrace the path of the Gospel of Jesus instead. He started what he called Amani Mashinani (Kiswahili for \u27peace at the grassroots\u27) as a strategy for bringing together warring communities. Even after his death on 30th October 2017, his legacy of Amani Mashinani continues to be a major contribution to peace in the Rift Valley region in Kenya. The Amani Mashinani model is an end-product of experiences drawn from numerous peacebuilding efforts that Bishop Korir headed throughout his leadership in the Catholic Diocese of Eldoret. This happened after many years of political tensions, mistrust, and tribal rivalry in the North Rift Valley. The model takes a conflict transformation approach that while recognizing the negative effects of conflicts, seizes the opportunity to draw different actors to find alternatives to their differences and commit themselves to working on social cohesion. This chapter details the unique aspects of the Amani Mashinani’s twelve step model that helped in addressing complicated inter-ethnic conflicts and has become part of Bishop Korir’s legacy