Nakuru County Commissioner Erastus Mbui addressing security stakeholders during the County Engagement Forum on Prevention and Countering Violent Extremism on 25th March 2021 Photo by Bmaranga
Implementation of the Nakuru County Action Plan (CAP) on Prevention and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE) takes shape
MidRift Hurinet in partnership with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) and the Strong Cities Network (SCN) has pioneered a Program to address polarization, radicalization and extremism in Kenya, known as the PROACT project. The PROACT Project is being implemented in Nakuru, Kwale and Isiolo Counties by MidRift Hurinet, Human Rights Agenda (HURIA) and Isiolo Peace Link (IPL) respectively.
The project is guided by the National Strategy on Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) states that the end goal is to “rally all sectors of Kenyan social, religious, and economic life to emphatically and continuously reject violent extremist ideologies and aims in order to shrink the pool of individuals whom terrorist groups can radicalize and recruit”
PROACT project in Nakuru County aims at realizing “Increased resilience of communities to radicalization and recruitment”. This project impact will be made possible by ensuring: (a). Improved plan for coordinating prevention of violent extremism in Nakuru County; (b) Enhanced effectiveness of local violent extremism prevention initiatives; (c). Increased collaboration between P/CVE stakeholders in Nakuru County; (d). Increased access to at-risk individuals in Nakuru County; (e). Enhanced provision of psycho-social support for at-risk individuals in Nakuru County. (4)During the forum engagements, Nakuru County Commissioner Mr Erastus Mbui while addressing stakeholders urged them to work collectively for the implementation of the Nakuru County Action plan. The County Commissioner observed that there is a lot of casualness by Nakuru residents in handling security matters. “Kenyans are usually so easy to welcome, make friends and trust strangers without bothering to check people’s backgrounds, we need to normalize questioning suspicious issues,” he said.
The CAP Pillar stakeholders nominated two persons as co-chairs of the respective pillars. These co-chairs constitute the CAP secretariat under the leadership of the County Commissioner. They shall drive the process of CAP implementation. Madam Patricia Crosby of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) thanked MidRift Hurinet for bringing onboard stakeholders to discuss the implementation of the Nakuru County Action Plan (CAP) on Prevention and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE
Given youth vulnerabilities escalated by the current COVID 19 pandemic, radicalization and Violent Extremism has the potential to negatively impact generations of young people. In Nakuru, National and County governments together with civil society organizations have therefore scaled up efforts to limit young people from getting lured into violent extremism.
In addition to the prevailing poor social-economic conditions including factors such as poverty, inequality and unemployment, there is a widespread proliferation of organized criminal gangs that potentially expose young people in the county to radicalization and violent extremism.
By Kate Wanderi