Kenya has launched a national mediation hub designed to promote peace, alternative dispute resolution and preventive security across educational institutions.
The hub was conceptualized under the Jukwaa la Wasomi Initiative and is domiciled at the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies at the University of Nairobi.
The platform is designed to connect more than 30,000 campus- and school-based mediation hubs across the country to national government administration officers and their agencies.
Through these hubs, institutions will handle grievances, counter student unrest and address mental health challenges through dialogue rather than force.
The launch was held concurrently with the graduation of Certified Professional Mediators trained under the Jukwaa la Wasomi Mediation and Preventive Security Training Program.
The ceremony coincides with the 2026 International Day of Peace and the 2nd annual Jukwaa la Wasomi Summit.
The graduands form a strong network of peace ambassadors among young people, and the National Mediation Hub is intended to build on that foundation and extend it nationwide.
Cabinet Secretary for Interior and National Administration Kipchumba Murkomen said the programme will also help institutions stay calm as the country moves toward the polls.
Speaking during the ceremony, Murkomen said it is fitting that the hub is being launched at a critical point in the five-year electoral cycle, with the general election just over 10 months away.
“Emotions will run high, including in campuses where students will express different political views. Do not be passive observers. Be instruments of peace. Where there are hostile debates, sow civility. And where there is anger, sow calm,” he said.
He also criticized the manipulation of students by political actors, saying some are turned into hired goons.
“Before politicians go to their rallies, they go and mobilize students, which is okay. That’s definitely okay, because those are voters. Unfortunately, some of them do so with the aim of turning some of our
students into goons.
This group, these mediators who are here, you’re able to identify those situations as early as possible and direct our students in the right direction, not to be taken for granted or taken advantage of by wayward political players,” he said.
He also announced a new framework that will give students a formal role in security decision-making.
“We are unveiling a new framework that brings student leaders and academic administrators directly into security and intelligence committees. For the first time, the voice of students will be at the table where decisions about their safety are made,” he said.
He added that plans are underway to institutionalize the Jukwaa la Wasomi within the next two weeks.
“The university has for a long time been the training ground for national leaders. Here, young people argued about ideas, about the direction of this nation, about the kind of
Kenya we wanted to build. Somewhere along the way, university politics drifted from its roots and became more about small tribes and alliances instead of ideologies.
Part of what we are doing through this is to help restore nationalism to university politics, to remind students that their first loyalty must be Kenya, not a clique or a religion or a region or a shortcut to personal gain.”
Principal Secretary, State Department for Higher Education and Research Dr. Beatrice Inyangala said the Summit should go beyond celebration and confront the hard questions facing young people.
“The 2nd annual Jukwaa la Wasomi Summit gives us an opportunity to go beyond celebration and ask difficult questions: How do we build greater trust? How do we make dialogue part of our everyday culture? And how do we equip young people to handle disagreements constructively?” she posed.
She cited research on the scale of the problem: “Research tells us that 90 percent of our students have experienced violence, either as perpetrators or victims. Women tend to suffer more, at 65 percent, and men at 35 percent.”
The Jukwaa la Wasomi program is a government-led national initiative being implemented across learning institutions in Kenya.
It is delivered by the Universities and Colleges Students’ Peace Association of Kenya (UCSPAK) through the Ministry of Interior and National Administration. Partners include the Executive Office of the President, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, the Judiciary and other relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Implementation is overseen by a National Steering Committee made up of representatives from the relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies. UCSPAK began as the Zero Radicalization Campaign and was later mainstreamed into the country’s national security system.
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