“You can choose your friends, but not your neighbours” : A field study of the informal practice of restorative justice and its ties to community resilience in rural communities in Nakuru County, Kenya

Abstract:

The justice system in the east-African country Kenya has long been subject to severe corruption and lengthy bureaucracy.  Both historical and current injustices have been left unattended and unaddressed, obstructing community resilience. This has lead to the development of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms that often build on traditional practices. In this study the ADR of restorative justice is examined. The study seeks to explore the relationship between the informal practice of restorative justice and the social dimensions of community resilience in the rural communities of Nakuru County in western Kenya. By merging questions on the practice of restorative justice with indicators of community resilience the study has found that the informal practice of restorative justice indeed has links to the shaping of community resilience. The practice has enabled dialogue between different ethnic groups. This has facilitated reconciliation and healing of trauma partly because new narratives have formed and partly because the culture of silence has been broken allowing people to share testimonies of violence and conflict. The study has also informed the community resilience field on the importance for collectivistic communities to have historical and ancestral events honoured, shared and addressed in order to fully enable conditions under which community resilience can form. However the practice shows ambiguous tendencies when it comes to inclusion of all members of society as community elders’ possesses a lot of power over the process, partially restricting community resilience to form.