Considerable attention has been paid to conflicts in West Africainvolving nomadic pastoralists. As recently as 2014, militants linked to thepastoralist Fulani ethnic grouping in Nigeria were the fourth most deadlyterrorist group in the world. Although they have been less lethal thanthose in West Africa, conflicts involving pastoralists over land in Kenya havealso long existed. Recently, these long-simmering conflicts have resultedin significant violence. The most recent violence in Kenya has roots in acomplex mixture of ethnic conflict, economic exigencies related to climatechange, and national and local politics. The interplay of these elements isworth examining.

How can durable peace be achieved in cases of local communal conflicts? Such conflicts, i.e. violent conflicts between non-state groups that are organized along a shared communal identity, often cause high casualties and severe disruption of livelihoods and may in the worst case destabilize entire regions or escalate into civil war. Despite a growing scholarly interest in these conflicts, we still know little about how they are resolved in a manner that promotes stable peace. Case study evidence and anthropological research points out strong advantages of locally driven conflict resolution practices in addressing local conflicts between communal groups.

The Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) was created by Parliament through theTruth Justice and Reconciliation (TJR) Act 2008. Its objective was to promote peace, justice,national unity, healing and reconciliation, among the people of Kenya by:investigating and establishing a record of human rights violations by the State, sinceKenya's independence in 1963 to 2008;explaining the causes of the violations; andrecommending prosecution of perpetrators and reparations for victims.

Widespread violence erupted in Kenya following the disputed presidential election in December 2007. Incited and abetted by politicians and local leaders, gangs of armed Kalenjin and Kikuyu youth engaged in looting, rioting, and killing in parts of the Rift Valley. Samuel M. was among the youth who joined in the fighting. He recalls:Widespread violence erupted in Kenya following the disputed presidential election in December 2007. Incited and abetted by politicians and local leaders, gangs of armed Kalenjin and Kikuyu youth engaged in looting, rioting, and killing in parts of the Rift Valley. Samuel M. was among the youth who joined in the fighting. He recalls:[W]hen they announced Kibaki had won, we heard cries from everywhere. I thought they [Kibaki supporters] had been attacked because that day there was tension everywhere…We gathered outside and said we will defend ourselves, we heard that the Kalenjins are coming to fight us! So we went back to our homes but we had already bought pangas (machetes) (Insight Share, 2010, p. 39).

Twenty six years after the publication of Donald Horowitz’ seminal book, “Ethnic Groups in Conflict”, ethnic violence remains a central issues on the international agenda, as exemplified by recent events in Kyrgyzstan, Darfur, Cote d’Ivoire and elsewhere. Yet at the same time the observation made by Fearon and Laitin (1996), that most ethnic groups, most of the time live in peace with each other, remains valid. This paper exploits a data set in on the incidence and intensity of violence following the 2007/8 elections in Kenya to investigate why tensions between ethnic groups sometimes, but not always, lead to violent conflict.

Biodiversity is facing widespread competition with humanity for space and resources (Pimm et al.,1995; Balmford et al., 2001). As a result, many species are increasingly coming into conflict withpeople, and this is particularly true of large mammals. Some, such as rhinoceroses and large carnivores,bear most of the cost of this conflict and are either critically endangered or declining rapidly(Woodroffe & Ginsberg, 1998; Emslie & Brooks, 1999). Others, such as the African elephant, alsoinflict considerable impacts on people and are in the unusual position of being simultaneously anendangered species (IUCN, 2000) and, in places, a pest species.

The Beijing Platform for action calls for bringing a gender perspective to all structures,institutions, policies and programs. Its paragraph on gender mainstreaming specifi callystates that “governments and other actors should promote an active and visible policy ofmainstreaming a gender perspective in all policies and programs so that, before decisionsare taken, an analysis is made of the effects on women and men, respectively.”1 This isconsistent with the approach of the United Nations Commission on Human Security whichquite successfully integrates gender concerns throughout their report. The report concentrateson distinct but interrelated issues concerning confl ict and poverty.

This text is the transcript of an interview with Dekha Ibrahim Abdi, in response to Norbert Ropers’article Systemic Conflict Transformation: Reflections on the Conflict and Peace Process in Sri Lanka(Ropers 2008). The interview was conducted by Oliver Wils, executive director of the BerghofFoundation for Peace Support and co-editor of this Dialogue, on 14 June 2008, during a workshop on“Insiders’ Mediation” in Schloss Munchenwiller, Switzerland.