WESTERN KENYA PEACE INITIATIVE – KOPSIRO SUB-COUNTY, MT. ELGON, BUNGOMA COUNTY
It was a tense start to 2026 in Kopsiro. Between January and February, communities living along the edge of Mt. Elgon Forest and those settled in the Chepyuk Scheme were caught in a spiral of mistrust. Livestock was being stolen. Land was being grabbed. Social media was being weaponised to inflame tensions. And then a life was lost.
The Western Kenya Peace Initiative, funded by Bread for the World and implemented by ADS Western, responded with urgency but not panic. On 26th and 27th February 2026, two simultaneous training events were held one at Kapkirwok Church of Christ, another at Full Gospel Church in Kipsigon drawing 171 participants from four locations: Emia, Chepyuk, Chongeywo, and Kapkateny.
The people who came were not abstract categories. They were village elders who had watched neighbours become enemies over inches of soil. They were women’s group leaders who had seen gender-based violence ripple out from land disputes. They were religious leaders trying to hold moral authority in communities fraying at the edges. And they were chiefs and local administrators who knew that security without peace was never going to be enough.
Facilitator Rev. Johnston Nyongesa himself a former(retired) Anglican Development Services Western project officer with over five years in community peacebuilding , led the sessions with the authority of someone who had walked this terrain before. Participants didn’t just receive information. They analysed their own conflict landscape, proposed solutions, and committed to action.
At the close of the two days, four peace champion structures had been established across the four locations, ready to receive referrals, mediate disputes, and stand as visible anchors of calm in communities that had seen too much conflict. Crude weapons had already been surrendered. An AK-47 had been handed in. The mountain was still troubled — but it now had 171 more people committed to peace.
“We did not arrive with judgment. We arrived with knowledge, warmth, and a programme designed to help communities see their conflicts in a new light.”
— Rev. Johnston Nyongesa, Training Facilitator
