Promoting grassroots mediation as a mechanism for peace reinforcement
Promoting grassroots mediation as a mechanism for peace reinforcement
Keywords:
Grassroots, Mediation, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Kenya, PeacemakingAbstract
This study reports findings on ethnographic research done in three counties in Kenya from January to June 2023. Two levels of exploration were applied. First, based on participant observation of 31 local trials, the study reports on how the affable ways of settling disputes provide a stage-setting for peacemaking and reconciliation. Second, through 62 interviews, 10 of which were with jurists in Nairobi, and 52 with local mediators in the three research counties, descriptive accounts of the merits of mediation, including its harmony-focused goal, help to clarify and further substantiate the peacemaking perspective in criminology, which advocates understanding, compassion, peace, and social justice. The underlying focus of the study was to learn why Alternative Dispute Resolution, in particular mediation, resonates profoundly among a significant number of Kenyans. Some key reasons are the celerity, convenience, congeniality, and cost efficiency, among others, entailed in mediating cases. A few limitations of the study are reported, including a less-than-robust sample and the absence of interviews with litigants.
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