Two years ago a small team from HCR set up a community-centred radio station in the remote town of Garsen in eastern Kenya’s Tana River County, training a team of volunteers from different tribal groups. Ahead of the August 2017 elections, the station was designed to promote peace and social development in an area that had all-too-often experienced violent conflict along ethnic lines.
Today, two years on, Amani FM has become a vibrant part of the community and a powerful voice for peace, as was seen this week as young people came out to celebrate in a number of “Peace Caravan” road shows around the county, culminating in a football tournament.
Crowds gather to watch the Amani FM Road Show, Amani Ni Mimi, or Peace Starts with Me
Hundreds of people turned up during the week to watch short peace plays and hear local leaders calling the community to reject violence and work together. Under the theme Amani Ni Mimi, or ‘peace starts with me’, community members shared their stories of the pain they experienced during communal conflict, saying that it must not happen again.
“Amani FM has shown us a good example of how to make Tana River a peaceful county,” said one community leader, “
The Amani FM birthday celebrations culminated in a football match between the community and the Rapid Deployment Unit of the police force in a demonstration that together the people of Tana River can live in harmony, stand against ethnic violence and eliminate extremism to make the County a great place to live.
Well done team Amani FM - we’re proud to be associated with you. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Members of the Rapid Deployment Unit lift the trophy for the Amani Ni Mimi community football match
Then: August 2017 and the Amani FM tower nears completion under sunny east African skies
Then: July 2017 at the end of the first Amani FM workshop ahead of the elections
Creative radio programmes like this one tackle the challenge of extremism and radicalisation of youth