Tuju unveils youth plan to tame ethnic hatred

Saturday, 11 June 2011 00:32 BY STAR REPORTER

President Kibaki's adviser on media Raphael Tuju has launched a countrywide campaign to promote peace.  The campaign  dubbed “Hope and Peace Touch” targets youth in areas worst hit by the 2007-2008 post election violence.
Two weeks ago Tuju and the chairman of National Cohesion and Integration Commission Muzalendo Kibunjia held the first meeting in Nyeri where youth got peace-building lessons. “The whole idea behind the initiative is to let these young men and women express their views on how to co-exist peacefully with other ethnic communities and discuss where the rain started beating us,” Tuju said
 Tuju said the convoy of the Hope and Peace bus will be in Nakuru today where another forum drawing participant from different communities will be held.“The Saturday (today) forum is very critical because we do expect huge participation, since Nakuru is a cosmopolitan town and those in attendance will be given opportunity to explain causes of ethnic hatred and ways of addressing them,” Tuju said.He said the choice of young people was because they are the instruments of change and have in the past been easily manipulated by leaders to perpetrate crime and push their political interests.“There wont be fighting for water if each household has a water tap nor will there be cases of cattle rustling if each person has at least his own livestock”  HE said
Tuju explained the key solution to most of these ethnic tensions is empowerment of each community because chaos erupts as a result of poverty.