THE ROLE OF AFRICAN RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS IN PSYCHOSOCIAL HEALING OF WOMEN AFFECTED BY TURKANA-POKOT ETHNIC CONFLICTS IN KENYA

Abstract

This study examined the Role of African religious institutions in providing psychosocial healing to women victims of armed conflicts in the Turkana and Pokot communities in Kenya. Specifically, it investigated the role of African religious dimensions of peace and conflict and their non-violent resolution as expressed in the traditional religious and philosophical oral texts of the Turkana and Pokot people. It demonstrated how they can contribute to our understanding and mechanisms or methods for providing psychosocial healing to women victims of conflict between Turkana and Pokot. Further, it sought to examine how African religious institutions are resourceful to the promotion of peace and justice and their implications on conflict resolution activities. The study was based on four specific objectives: To identify the root causes of inter-community conflicts among the Turkana and Pokot communities; To investigate what kind of traumatic experiences Turkana and Pokot women go through; To show which extent African religious institutions are utilized and intergrated in providing psychosocial healing to women victims of inter-ethnic conflicts; To identify the approaches from African religious institutions that can be used to deal with trauma in women victims of inter-ethnic conflicts. The study was guided by Anomie and ethnophilosophy theories. This study employed a descriptive research design that consisted of measures of central tendency (mean, mode median). The research area, Kainuk which borders the two communities has a population of 10535 people. The sample size of 182 respondents were selected for this study.