NCIC to facilitate lasting peace in Mandera

Participants follow keenly the stakeholders forum organised by NCIC and Interpeace in Mandera County. (PHOTO: MATE TONGOLA/Standard)

The National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) has been urged to educate Kenyans on the responsible use of social media to help avert poll violence.

Various speakers who attended a three-day peace building forum in Mandera town called on the Francis ole Kaparo led Commission to clamp down on those misusing social media to incite and cause tension especially in Northern Kenya.

“We take issues of peace very seriously, and we will spare no effort in facilitating this initiative to bring lasting peace in Mandera,” said NCIC’s CEO Hassan Sheikh Mohamed who also called on the locals to be on the forefront in matters peace.

Participants at the forum that was officiated by Mandera Governor Ali Roba included Mandera Senator Billow Kerrow, all Members of Parliament from the County and other local leaders, Interpeace’s Johan Svensson and representatives of the local communities.

“When a wrong is committed, let us focus on the individuals suspected of culpability, not their clans collectively,” Roba said in his opening speech.

Also present at the forum was Mandera Women Representative Fathia Mahboub who urged the locals to responsibly use social media terming it as a useful tool that should not be allowed to fuel divisions.

The forum was organised by NCIC in conjunction with the International Peace building NGO, Interpeace, its main objective being to validate the findings of the consultative phase of the Mandera Peace building Programme.

With the support of the German Federal Foreign Office, the programme aims to integrate grassroots aspirations for peace, building upon local capacities and providing a strategic link with decision and policy makers at the county and national level.