Kilifi County has recently acquired two new sub-counties; Chonyi and Kauma which not only came as a plus for the county but also for the Coastal region at large. In this light, service delivery was to be eased and brought closer to the people. The deficiency in the deployment of enough security personnel in the region has realized certain challenges. Due to this deficiency, the Chonyi and Kauma communities have for a long time not had any meaningful interactions with the security personnel thus perceiving them just as mere intruders. As a result, they feel their peace and well-being is threatened by their presence causing them to retaliate in a bid to protect themselves.
Characterized by their protracted confrontations over the Vyambani border, the communities have violent tendencies such as bodaboda operators attacking the police. The recent scenario was during a police operation to halt Disco Matanga only for him to be attacked by bodaboda riders. In turn, the police officer called for reinforcements who heavily rained on the riders resulting to harassment and excessive use of force on the locals. This incident led to the loss of trust towards the security personnel/agents and instead invoking tension and fear among the residents of Kauma.
KECOSCE with support from the Royal Danish Embassy implemented “Tushauriane Kilifi” a peace and security project aimed at strengthening the capacities of local peace structures to be able to predict, mitigate and resolve conflicts within the respective sub counties. As such, the KECOSCE capacity building workshop to the sub-county peace committees was sensitized on conflict resolution at grass root level and effective reporting of relevant information to security personnel.
The peace committees joined hands with the Kauma council of elders and organized a peace and security baraza to table the issues that have since bedeviled the region. Through the meeting a peaceful ambience and equal platform was created to sensitize the community on the importance of law adherence and inculcate calm while divulging matters arising to the law enforcement agencies so as not to provoke violence between both parties.
