18/8-2022GAME to prevent ethnic and political tensions in Nakuru, Kenya: “This project is about building peace and friendship”
Together with the local NGO MIDRIFT HURINET, GAME starts a pilot project in Kenya to prevent ethnic and political tension and polarization leading to violence in Nakuru County.
At the moment, a lot of Kenyan youth are struggling with high unemployment, poverty and a currently unstable political environment due to the election – an election that people fear could spark interethnic violence and political instability.
Therefore, GAME will, in close collaboration with MIDRIFT Human Rights Network (HURINET) implement GAME’s youth-led street sports program, The Playmaker Program, to bridge the gap between ethnic and political divides between youth groups in Nakuru County.
“This project is about building peace and friendship through youth-led street sports and culture. It allows the youth to get a voice and to start a dialog, so that we can have peace and a secure municipality,” says Kate Wanderi, project officer at MIDRIFT HURINET.
Playmakers can have a huge impact
Through the Playmaker Program, GAME and MIDRIFT HURINET will educate local role models and equip them with life skills and toolsets they can use to address challenges in their local environment.
And even though the project only started few weeks ago, the first activities have already been kicked off with success, Kate Wanderi says:
“We have already seen what the Playmakers can do, and we are therefore positive and convinced that they can have a huge impact. By empowering youth and developing them, not only as Playmakers, but also as role models, we expect that they will pass on their knowledge to other youth and children in Nakuru.”
Politicians take advantage of the youth
The GAME project is funded by CISU (Civil Society in Development) and will focus on youth from vulnerable neighborhoods and potential hotspots for political violence in the Nakuru Country, which had some of the worst violence in connection with the 2007 general elections.
In Nakuru Town East, activities will be targeting youth from Bondeni estate in Biashara ward, Kivumbini ward and Flamingo ward. These neighborhoods have the highest incidence of violence and crime rate in Nakuru and many of the young persons targeted are or have been engaged in criminal activities.
In Nakuru Town West, activities will be implemented in Shabab ward, Rhonda ward and Kaptembwo ward where a big percentage of the targeted youth are out of school, unemployed and vulnerable to political manipulation and recruitment into criminal gangs.
“The politicians have taken advantage of the situation by recruiting youth into political gangs to carry out violence during the election so that they could try and influence the outcome”, tells Kate Wanderi and adds:
“Right now, there is a lot of tension in different areas of Nakuru and the outcome of the current election will indeed affect the direction that the youth will take. Therefore, we are looking at this project as an exceptional encouragement and opportunity for our youth to give back to their community. “
MIDRIFT is one of the leading Kenyan NGOs in the field of Violence Prevention and leadership training, through their award-winning and highly praised Place-Based Leadership Development Program.
The project is also a collaboration with the four partners/grassroots; Tribeless Youth, Shabab Ladies FC, Youth Bila Noma and Renegades Basketball in Nakuru.
