Conflicts Prevention-Let’s do more

I recently sat in a plane with US ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger and had an opportunity to ask him a number of questions on a few issues which have been bothering me concerning conflict prevention in countries like Kenya. The truth of the matter is that the 2007/08 post election violence in Kenya, which left over 1600 people dead and uprooted 300,000 others from their homes, could have been well prevented if Kenya had given this field a thought right from President Kenyatta’s time.
In my opinion, the government has over the years ignored the field of conflict management and prevention to an extent that it gives no credit to warning reports prepared by various agencies like the Kenya’s National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS).
The testimony by NSIS boss Michael Gichangi regarding the post election violence does not need an amplifier. Back to Ranneberger, my questions to him included why his country, just as other big nations have also ignored this field in their respective missions. It makes no sense for a country like US to keep on singing about anti-corruption campaigns and the reform agenda when the same country is giving less thought to the field of conflict prevention.
One will argue that with proper reforms, everything would be fixed. But I believe that laws and institutions alone cannot bring peace and harmony to the society. Yes, they can prevent fights but they cannot compel neighbours to love one another. But as a diplomat, Ranneberger could not admit that his country had failed and he continued to argue that his office is doing enough as far as this field is concerned.
I am still waiting to see what the office has been doing or is doing or rather it plans to do specifically regarding conflict prevention field. It is not just political conflict prevention, but I am also talking about conflicts like communities fighting over things like pasture, water and such other resources. And for the Kenyan government, it is high time to have an effective think tank on conflict management and prevention. The Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) is not, and cannot be, the absolute answer.
(Personal views have been expressed in this article-Francis Mureithi)