This week a high-level meeting under the Joint Initiative for Strategic Religious Action in Kenya and Indonesia brought together government, international funders, and civil society actors in the peace and security sector in Kenya and Indonesia.
The dialogue which was hosted by the Kenya Community Support Centre (KECOSCE), a Mombasa based peace and security non-governmental organization was intended to share, learn and reveal experiences and approaches in prevention and countering violent extremism in Kenya and Indonesia.
It’s in that meeting that Chief Liaison Officer at the National Counter Terrorism Center Joseph Kanyiri said that Kenya had been able to reduce the effects of terrorism through the implementation of the National Counter Terrorism Strategy which had been cascaded to the 47 counties where it was domesticated as County Action Plans.
The National Counter Terrorism Strategy which has been in place for the last 8 years is now under review for the period between 2024-2029 and government hopes that the document that underscores respect for constitutionalism, human rights and psychosocial support will be ready for implementation by January 2025.
The five-chapter document has gone through public participation to understand the lessons learnt, open more spaces, transform the pillars to working groups and give prominence to women youth and male mentors.
It was revealed that there is need to continue mobilizing and pushing for prevention and counter violent extremism related policy reforms so as to mainstream gender and ensure the full participation of communities at the grassroots level.
Women being centre actors in PCVE as they are connected to the cultural, social and political fabric of their communities are therefore able to identify early warning signs of radicalization and thus prevent terrorism.
Above findings were publicized during a cross-country PCVE exchange and learning dialogue on localizing preventing and countering violent extremism strategies in Kenya and Indonesia that was attended by Kenyan and Indonesian Counter terrorism officials, civil society organizations in peace and security and international funders.
Kenya was represented by the National Counter Terrorism Centre Chief Liaison Officer, Mr. Joseph Kanyiri while Indonesia was represented by Mr. Andrika Chrisnayudhanto who is the Deputy for International Co-operation Indonesia Counter Terrorism Agency BNPT.
The meeting brought together 17 Civil Society Organizations in the area of peace, security and human rights.
Written By: Jonathan Mwanzia.