The Role of Community Arts-Based Approaches to Youth Peace Building: The Case of Kibera, Nairobi County

Community arts-based approaches have long been used as a tool for peace and reconciliation. Arts have been used as a way of people to express emotions created by conflicts or as a way of bringing together two warring parties. Despite the use of community arts-based approaches as a tool for social cohesion in Kenya, Kibera Constituency has continued to experience recurring electoral violence which has led to loss of lives and destruction of properties. Given the complexities of conflict and violence in Kibera there is need to come up with new tactics that will help meet the challenges posed during peace building process. This study aimed to examine whether community arts-based initiatives for peace building are used to address socio-economic issues such as unemployment among the youth in Kibera. This study focuses on three areas: Firstly, examining the factors that motivate the youth in Kibera to engage in election violence; Secondly, to examine how community arts-based initiatives for peacebuilding address unemployment as a socio-economic issue in Kibera and lastly, To establish whether participating in community arts-based initiatives prevents youth in Kibera from engaging in election violence. The study is premised on three theories which include the Greed and Grievance theory, Frustration-Aggression theory and the Theory of Peace by Johan Galtung. The data collected was analysed using both the thematic analysis for the interview guides and Microsoft Excel for the structured questionnaire. The study established that unemployment is one of the major factors that promote young people to engage in election violence. It also established that community arts based initiatives has prompted Kibera youths to become peace ambassadors. The study further offers recommendations from the findings and provides suggestions for further research.