The North Rift Economic Bloc (NOREB) has announced plans to hold a peace summit.
According to the bloc’s chairperson Governor Stephen Sang, the summit that will be held in Kitale, Trans Nzoia County, is aimed at finding a lasting solution to the insecurity that some of the counties in the region have been facing.
The summit scheduled for June 2023 also seeks to complement ongoing security operations in the region.
Since March 2023, the national government has been conducting a security operation to try and flush out the bandits and clear their cells within the five North Rift Counties classified as disturbed.
“We have been keenly following the operation at West Pokot, Turkana, Elgeiyo Mrakwet, Braingo and Samburu so that we take a complementary approach,” the Nandi Governor said in a statement.
“We have organised through NOREB a Peace Summit that will take pale in Trans Nzoia on 8th and 9th June 2023,” he added.
Common approach
The NOREB chairperson said the Peace Summit is aimed at convening political leaders, community leaders and development actors in the region to develop and agree on a common approach that will ensure that there is long-term peace in the region.
He further said they have already talked to various partners including churches and faith-based organisations, NGOs working on climate change, gender and peacebuilding in the region, and development partners acting in concert with political leadership from county governments.
“The Peace Summit is expected to come up with a raft of ideas that will see the region have a more localised intervention to that security issues that will promote peace in a sustained way,” noted the county boss.
“As a people of this region, we will propose from the summit a structure that will offer a different platform that is informed by the understanding of the region, the communities and the underlying causes of the conflict and come up with genuine and sustainable remedies,” he added.
