Strategic planning for durable peace: the role of effective disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of ex-combatants as part of the process, and lessons to be learned from MDRP and TDRP in the Great Lakes Region

Utilising Lund’s 1996 curve of conflict as a theoretical base, and after evaluation of Rohwerder’s 2015 report on conflict in the region, Kenya could be characterised as a country that in contemporary history tends to fluctuate somewhere between unstable peace and crisis depending on a variety of factors such as activities linked to bordering Somalia, issues linked to religion, and other internal conflicts. Arguably due to the size, length, and diversity of these conflicts, by 2016 Kenyan armed forces were ranked as the eleventh most powerful military in Africa, with approximately 29,100 armed forces personnel (World Bank, 2015), and spending on modernising equipment of Sh96.3 billion ($954 million) in 2015 according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, an increase of 16% on the previous year. In an age of increased conflict, Colletta, Kostner, & Weidehofer identified that reintegration of ex combatants is essential if there is to be an effective transition from conflict to peace, with Ginifer identifying that successful reintegration of ex-combatants can create a highly positive contribution to both conflict resolution / transformation, and the peacebuilding efforts of a community. In recognition of these researched opinions, and in response to a combination of high levels of armed conflicts and low levels of capacity, the World Bank in 2002 launched the Multi-Country Demobilization and Reintegration Program (MDRP) which ran until 2009, to create a strategic approach to the disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) processes in the Great Lakes region of Africa, with seven countries the subject of the programme; Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Republic of Congo (RoC), the DRC, Rwanda, and Uganda. With the success of that program, a follow up initiative, the Transitional Demobilization and Reintegration Program (TDRP) launched in 2009, with the same seven countries, but extending efforts further in terms of technical assistance to Chad, Comoros, Cote D’Ivoire, Mali, South Sudan, and Somalia. With a large amount of evidence and reporting stemming from both MDRP and TDRP activities, the question is – can Kenya harness the knowledge that has been created and learned as part of its own demobilisation and peacebuilding efforts?