The Deputy Secretary General of the East African Community (EAC) in charge of political federation Beatrice Kiraso has called on EAC partner states to embrace peace building efforts if federation is to be achieved.

She made the remarks yesterday while opening a four-day regional conflict management and peace building workshop at the EAC Secretariat in Arusha, Tanzania.

The workshop brings together 30 mid-level technical and subject area experts dealing with conflict management from all the five partner states.   

Kiraso highlighted being politically federated as "EAC’s ultimate aspiration and this cannot be realised unless there is a peaceful environment that opposes conflicts.”

She decried the inadequate teaching of conflict studies at higher institutions of learning yet there has been a repetitive nature of conflicts in the region. 

"But I am glad to state here that such intellectual gaps can only be filled in training workshops like this one,” Kiraso said in reference to the ongoing training programme.

While highlighting that the workshop is among several capacity building programmes lined up by the regional bloc, she said that the EAC is currently structured to promptly deal with matters of peace and security.

Francis Nyamaswa, one of Rwanda’s representatives at the training programme expressed hope that the workshop would build a strong spirit for partner states to jointly counter conflicts in the region.

"Conflicts and disaster management problems in the region should be resolved peacefully and this should be done jointly,” he said, giving an example of the post election violence in Kenya that claimed up to 1,000 people early this year.        

Dr. Rose Oluoch, one of the course facilitators, said that the workshop would, among other issues, provide a platform for interaction and debate on how peace can be built in the region.

The training programme is under the auspices of the Nyerere Centre for Peace and Research (NCPR) and the EAC Secretariat.  

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