Abstract
This paper investigates the roles, contributions, and structural constraints shaping women’s participation in peacebuilding across Northeastern Kenya, with a focus on Garissa, Wajir, and Mandera counties. Drawing from empirical literature, county monitoring reports, civil society assessments, and recent Women, Peace and Security (WPS) analyses, the study highlights that women occupy central yet often undervalued positions in conflict prevention, mediation, and community resilience. Women participate actively across both informal and formal peace infrastructures: they mediate clan and household disputes using culturally grounded reconciliation practices, contribute to early warning systems through their extensive social networks, and provide critical psychosocial and economic support to survivors of violence. Devolution has further opened new avenues for women’s engagement in county peace committees, gender desks, and conflict resolution platforms, enabling a gradual shift toward more inclusive governance.
Despite these contributions, women remain significantly under-represented in formal decision-making and security structures due to entrenched patriarchal norms, gendered expectations, and persistent insecurity. Structural barriers including limited mobility, exposure to gender-based violence, inadequate resourcing of county peace institutions, and weak integration of national WPS commitments continue to restrict the scope and effectiveness of women’s participation. The study argues that meaningful progress requires locally grounded, conflict-sensitive interventions that strengthen women’s bargaining power through leadership development, livelihood support, and enhanced protection mechanisms. Additionally, improving county–national linkages and harmonizing institutional frameworks are essential for translating national WPS commitments into sustained community-level outcomes.
The analysis concludes that women in Northeastern Kenya are indispensable actors in sustaining peace and social cohesion. Their contributions, though often informal and unrecognized, form the backbone of community resilience and conflict prevention. Advancing WPS outcomes in the region therefore requires deliberate investment in gender-responsive, evidence-based strategies that elevate women’s agency and integrate their roles into broader peace and governance systems.
1. Introduction
The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda, launched by UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000), recognizes women’s central role in peace and security processes. IGAD’s regional WPS framework aligns with this global agenda by documenting and amplifying women’s contributions across the Horn of Africa.
Since the adoption of Resolution 1325 in 2000, the UN Security Council has strengthened and expanded its commitments through additional resolutions 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009), 1960 (2010), 2106 (2013), 2122 (2013), 2242 (2015), and 2493 (2019). In parallel, Resolution 2250 (2015) on Youth, Peace, and Security highlights the critical role, rights, and contributions of young people in sustaining peace. Collectively, these resolutions reaffirm the indispensable role of women across all dimensions of conflict prevention, peacebuilding, and post-conflict recovery.
In Kenya, the WPS agenda has been institutionalized through successive Kenya National Action Plans (KNAP). The latest, KNAP III (2025–2029), prioritizes localization through county-level action plans and monitoring systems. However, in historically marginalized, pastoral, and borderland counties such as Garissa, Wajir, and Mandera, significant implementation gaps persist due to weak institutions, limited funding, and entrenched social norms.
Northeastern Kenya’s cross-border pastoral systems, clan-based social structures, and recurring conflicts shape both women’s peacebuilding opportunities and vulnerabilities. Despite these challenges, women’s peace initiatives continue to emerge as credible mechanisms for preventing violence and strengthening social cohesion.
2.Methodology
This research employed a qualitative methodology, drawing on thematic analysis of empirical literature, monitoring reports, and county-level assessments from Garissa, Wajir, and Mandera. Data sources included policy documents, UN reports, civil society studies, and peer-reviewed academic articles. The research relied on document analysis to identify patterns, narratives, and recurring themes related to women’s roles in peacebuilding.
3.Results
Conflict in Northeastern Kenya reflects historical, environmental, and socio-political drivers, including:
- Competition over resources (water, pasture, grazing routes)
- Clan-based political contestation
- Cross-border insecurity driven by porous borders and armed groups
- Climate-induced shocks such as prolonged droughts
These conditions shape women’s experiences and contributions. While facing heightened vulnerability including displacement, gender-based violence (GBV), and economic precarity women also serve as primary actors in household and community stability.
4. Discussion
Conflict in Northeastern Kenya is shaped by a complex interplay of resource scarcity, inter-clan rivalries, historical marginalization, and persistent cross-border insecurity. Competition over pasture, water points, and grazing routes intensifies during drought seasons, often escalating into violent confrontations between pastoral communities. While the 2010 Constitution and subsequent devolution reforms created new opportunities for localized governance and community-driven peacebuilding, many county institutions in the region still face capacity, coordination, and legitimacy deficits. In this fragile environment, women operate at the intersection of vulnerability and influence. They are disproportionately affected by insecurity, displacement, and gender-based violence, yet they simultaneously serve as critical agents of peace whose informal networks and social capital often bridge divides that formal structures struggle to navigate.
- Informal Mediation and Clan Resolution
Women in Northeastern Kenya play an essential role in informal mediation and conflict resolution at the household, clan, and inter-community levels. Female elders, mothers, and respected women leaders invoke culturally grounded mechanisms such as maslaha (peace settlement), dialogue sessions, and negotiated compensation to de-escalate disputes before they erupt into violence. Their influence is often rooted in moral authority rather than formal mandate, enabling them to engage actors including youth and clan elders who may be inaccessible to government institutions. By facilitating reconciliation processes, calming tensions, and appealing to shared kinship values, women prevent hostilities from spreading and contribute to long-term social harmony.
- Early Warning and Prevention
Due to their daily responsibilities and extensive social interactions across villages, markets, water points, and households, women possess unique access to local information networks. This positions them as vital contributors to community-based early warning and conflict prevention systems. Women frequently serve as the first to observe unusual movements, early signs of tension, or shifts in local dynamics that may signal imminent conflict. Counties that have integrated women’s associations into formal early warning mechanisms have seen improvements in response times and information accuracy. Their contributions not only help avert violence but also strengthen trust between communities and local authorities.
- Community Care and Social Cohesion
Women play a central role in supporting survivors of conflict-related violence, including widows, orphaned children, and internally displaced families. Through informal care networks, women provide psychosocial support, household stability, and community solidarity in the aftermath of conflict. These roles are not merely humanitarian, they are deeply political, as they rebuild trust, mend fractured relationships, and reduce the risk of grievance-driven retaliation. Women’s abilities to foster social cohesion make them indispensable actors in sustaining peace and recovery within communities that have experienced cycles of violence.
- Formal Participation
Devolution has opened new avenues for women to engage in formal peacebuilding through county gender desks, community policing structures, peace committees, and inclusive governance processes. Although representation remains far below parity, women’s involvement is gradually influencing priorities within these institutions. Where women participate meaningfully, peace and security strategies tend to expand beyond traditional security concerns to include gender-based violence prevention, social welfare, and community resilience. However, limited resources, entrenched patriarchal norms, and political gatekeeping continue to constrain women’s full participation in decision-making spaces.
- Empirical Findings: Women’s Contributions to Peacebuilding
Empirical evidence from Northeastern Kenya demonstrates that women contribute significantly to peacebuilding through multiple interconnected roles. Their informal mediation efforts reduce tensions at the grassroots level, while their active participation in early warning systems enhances community preparedness and conflict prevention. Women’s provision of care and trauma support helps stabilize families and rebuild community trust in the aftermath of violence. Although their involvement in formal county peace structures is expanding, representation and influence remain unequal. Nonetheless, the cumulative impact of these roles highlights that women are not passive observers but central architects of local peace processes, shaping both social resilience and sustainable stability.
- Barriers and Structural Constraints
Despite their critical contributions, women in Northeastern Kenya face persistent structural barriers that limit their participation in peacebuilding. Deeply entrenched patriarchal norms restrict women’s public roles, mobility, and authority in community decision-making, often confining them to informal spaces. Insecurity further limits participation, as women peacebuilders are exposed to heightened risks, including gender-based violence and intimidation. Institutional constraints including under-resourced peace committees, inadequate training, and weak linkages between county and national Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) frameworks further reduce the effectiveness of women’s contributions. These challenges reflect broader governance weaknesses and highlight the need for sustained investments in gender-responsive peace structures.
- Programmatic Lessons
Successful peacebuilding programs in Northeastern Kenya demonstrate that locally led, conflict-sensitive approaches are the most effective. Initiatives that involve women elders, women’s associations, and community influencers from the design stage tend to gain immediate cultural legitimacy and increase community buy-in. Integrated interventions that pair protection measures with economic empowerment such as microfinance schemes, livelihoods projects, and social protection programs strengthen women’s bargaining power, mobility, and overall safety. Linking county initiatives with national and regional institutions helps harmonize policies, ensure sustainability, and embed women’s contributions within broader governance frameworks. These lessons emphasize the need for holistic strategies that put women at the center of peace efforts.
- Policy Recommendations
1- Strengthen capacity-building and allocate sustainable funding for county gender desks, peace committees, and community policing units to enhance women’s inclusion.
2- Invest in robust GBV response systems, including safe houses, trauma counseling, and legal support, while providing targeted protection for women peacebuilders.
3- Develop integrated peace and resilience programs that combine livelihood support with leadership, negotiation, and mediation training for women and girls.
4- Recognize, formalize, and support women-led customary peace mechanisms, enabling them to collaborate with county and national institutions.
5- Mainstream conflict sensitivity into all gender-focused programming, ensuring interventions do not inadvertently reinforce tensions or inequalities.
6- Improve cross-border collaboration mechanisms to address pastoral conflicts, mobility disputes, and clan-related tensions that transcend national boundaries.
7- Support evidence-based policy through continuous research funded and coordinated by IGAD’s WPS Evidence Hub to close data gaps and strengthen regional learning.
- Conclusion
Women remain indispensable architects of peace in Northeastern Kenya. Their roles as mediators, caregivers, mobilizers, and emerging leaders help de-escalate conflicts, build social resilience, and strengthen community cohesion. Achieving the full promise of the Women, Peace and Security agenda requires sustained investments that are locally anchored, conflict-sensitive, and integrative, linking protection, economic empowerment, and inclusive governance. IGAD’s Evidence Hub is well positioned to amplify these lessons, generate new research, and advance data-driven, gender-responsive peacebuilding across the region.
References
- Government of Kenya Kenya National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (KNAP) 2025–2029.
- UNDP/UNPBF Monitoring Report (June 2025) on Garissa, Mandera, and Wajir.
- Interpeace & NCIC: Voices of the People Wajir County Note.
- Peer-reviewed synthesis on women’s roles in pastoral peacebuilding (Wiley Online Library, 2024).
-
AP News (2024): National reporting on gender-based violence trends in Kenya.
Research paper for Women, Peace and Security (WPS)
Author: Abdisalam Ahmed Sheikh
Affiliation: Climate Governance Movement and Research (CGMR),
Nairobi, Kenya
Date: 11 November 2025
