The Grey Shade of Local Peacebuilding : A Qualitative Study of an Informal Local Peace Committee in the Midst of Violence. Laikipia, Northern Kenya.

Abstract: Previous research shows that there is a demand of enhancing our understanding about the local actor as a mechanism for peacebuilding, suggesting a need for further investigation about the phenomena amid the growing complexity and decentralization of scenes in conflict. The research in this study draws together empirical data on an informal local peace committee (LPC) conducted in Laikipia, northern Kenya; a county which have experienced a multitude of conflict dynamics recently involving state and non-state actors, to know more about their role as local peacebuilders. The case is analyzed through the analytical framework of Peace Formation that have been constructed via feasible ‘post-liberal peace’ components emphasizing local agency in relation to their socio-political environment in order to maintain sustainable processes of peace on the ground. Findings shows that the informal LPC have filled a conflict management and governance vacuum by emerging; and resting on; traditional structures and critical social networks, while at the same time adjusting its services to new landscapes of conflict through illiberal practices, in turn providing explanatory power to the conditions set forward by the analytical framework. Though, findings also reveal that the informal LPC faces several challenges enforced coercively through security forces, political interests by the Kenyan Government, and even the UN-backed peace infrastructure itself. Consequently, the informal LPC expressed retaliation through violence and became accordingly an actor that enforced cycles of conflict on several fronts, instead of just working for peace. Thus, the role of the local actor as a mechanism for peacebuilding remains uncertain in this research, due to the articulation of both peace and conflict activities. In this, a new concept is briefly highlighted for the reader that seeks to move beyond static views of locality, termed ‘grey peacebuilding’.