Kenya
As one of Africa’s leading economies, Kenya has also been an important player in regional peace and security. Protests related to budget austerity measures and other issues, as well as insecurity from neighboring crises, have posed challenges for Kenya’s prosperity and stability. Active in Kenya for over a decade, the U.S. Institute of Peace supports civil society and security services in efforts to counter violent extremism. USIP’s initiatives include elevating networks of women to prevent extremist violence and strengthening relationships between communities and security forces to build bulwarks against al-Shabaab.
Featured Research & Analysis
Border Security Training Program (BSTP)
USIP’s Border Security Training Program (BSTP) trains police officers from Kenya’s Border Police Unit (BPU) and General Service Unit (GSU) who are serving on al-Shabaab’s major transit corridor along the Kenya-Somalia border. The program, which began in 2017, is implemented in partnership with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Counterterrorism and equips Kenyan police with the skills to better understand the civilian environment and cultivate relationships in order to more effectively achieve their mission and counter terrorist activity.
Kenya’s Crisis Shows the Urgency of African Poverty, Corruption, Debt
Kenya’s public protests and deadly violence over proposed tax increases this week highlight some of the country’s most serious challenges: high youth unemployment, deepening poverty and the glaring gap between living conditions for the country’s elite and its urban poor. This social crisis is exacerbated by severe corruption, a stifling foreign debt and a too-violent response by Kenyan police, who have a poor record in handling large demonstrations. Steps to calm this crisis are vital to preserve Kenya’s overall stability, its role as an East African trade hub — and its capacity to serve as a leader for peace, which the United States increasing has relied upon in Africa and elsewhere.
America’s Vital 21st-Century ‘Partnership With Africa’ — and Kenya’s Key Role
The state visit to Washington last week by Kenya’s President William Ruto provides a moment in which to assess not simply a major U.S. bilateral partnership in Africa, but the progress of the United States’ declared intent to build a strategic partnership with the continent overall. The U.S. government in 2022 declared that partnership vital to U.S. interests — a recognition of Africa’s rising economic potential and its inevitably central role in all efforts to build global stability and prosperity in this century. Former assistant secretary of state for Africa Johnnie Carson, now a senior advisor at USIP, assessed the visit and the progress in building that new, transatlantic partnership.
Current Projects
Generation Change Fellows Program
Generation Change works with young leaders across the globe to foster collaboration, build resilience and strengthen capacity as they transform local communities.
Religious Women Negotiating on the Frontlines
In recent years, peace processes — such as the track 2 intra-Afghan negotiations — have shown that on both a moral and practical level, women’s inclusion is essential. Women’s involvement in peace processes increases their likelihood of success and longevity and can increase legitimacy. While more literature on women contributing to mediation and negotiation efforts is slowly being produced, little attention is currently being paid to the already existing work of women who employ their faith and mobilize religious resources for peacebuilding.
Participatory Action Research (PAR) Program
Participatory action research (PAR) is an approach to research where embedded, community-based actors use their lived experience and collective knowledge to analyze and address local problems. USIP uses PAR as a peacebuilding tool in our work with youth leaders, where it helps to strengthen their capacities to contribute to positive social change in their own communities. PAR provides participating youth a mechanism through which they can create a claimed space of their own design, guided by their goals for the future, that is also simultaneously grounded in empirical analysis of the present context.