Through the world, conflicts are the consequences of the fear of the future lived through the past. It is the collective fear of the future based on a history of social uncertainty, due to the failure of the state to arbitrate justly between parties or provide credible guarantees of protection for groups, resulting in emerging anarchy and societal fractures. The solution for conflicts to get how causes interact, the dominant forces of the movement at a particular time, policies and strategies be made to address these causes.
Conflicts result into considerable human, social, economic and environmental destruction, creating huge structural imbalance solutions to conflicts result into considerable human, social, economic, and environmental destruction, creating huge structural imbalance. Solutions to conflict must include the means to rehabilitation, recovery, reconstruction, launching of good governance practices that can endure and become sustainable, system of government that unites rather than divides, build bridges of confidence and reconciliation rather than the pitfalls of alienation, share power rather than monopolize it, decentralize rather than centralize rather than centralize, give space to civil society.
Violent conflict will occur under circumstances like where there is human poverty, income poverty and social exclusion, low human dev-index, lack of freedom of choice.
Also, ethnicism is a factor in the intra-state conflict, members of the political class have shown no restraint in manipulating the people through feeding them with prejudices against and stereotypes about other ethnic groups to win their support for achieving their own self-centred objectives.
Personal interests and ambitions of such leaders are framed and guided by ethnic terms and the bells of ethnic terms and the bells of ethnic solidarity are used to rally groups at the risk of developing animosity against another group considered as the enemy tribe.
This kind of propaganda leads to incidences of people to people violence and programs and this can lead to genocide, e.g. in the 21st Century the three worst example were killing of Armenians by the young Turks in 1915, killing of Jews and Gypsies by the Nazis from 1938 to 1944 and 1994 Hutu Killings of Tutsi.
The cold war era witnessed conflicts in Angola, Mozambique and the horn of Africa.
In Kenya, the ethnic conflicts were seen in 1969 assassination of T. J. Mboya. 1975 death of JM Kariuki, Robert Ouko’s assassination of 1990, the SM Otieno case (1986), 1992 ethnic violence, Islamic fundamentalists of 1993-94 led by Sheikh Khalid Balala, Kenyatta government attack on Kisumu incidence of 1963 over KPU, attack on Kenyan Somalis in 1960s and 1984 Wagalla massacre in NE, formation of ethnic based associations GEMA and Luo Union (EA), 2007 post election violence that targeted Kikuyus etc.
M.S. Kamenyi and Njuguna Ndungu, ‘Sporadic Ethnic violence in Kenya: Why Kenya has no full blown civil war’, (2005. 123-156)
Ref. Paul Collier and N. Sambanis, Africa: Understanding Civil War.
Kenya had been cited as an example of peace and stability in a chaotic region. Peace and stability had been attributed to the quality of leadership or the peace loving nature of Kenyans. In addition the press of the bourgeoisie middle class that could lose in a civil war hence it supports peace but these are not explanations why Kenya had no civil war up to 2007/2008 post election violence.
Tullock suggests that an individual participates in civil war/revolution as a result of a national choice where he evaluates to costs and benefits of getting involved in armed conflicts. He states that participation in a civil war generates a public good while participations in crime generates a private good such as risk of death, but civil war may lead to change in government that benefits many.
In Kenya from 1992 with the coming of competitive politics violence has been experienced targeting certain ethnic groups. From September 1991 Kalenjin warriors unleashed terror on those supporting multi-party politics e.g. Luo, Kikuyu, Luhya and Kisii in the Rift Valley. They targeted the farms populate by these ethnic groups, looted and destroyed homes, drove away the occupants and killed indiscriminately. The attackers dress in informal uniforms, their faces marked with clay in the manner of initiating candidates, armed with traditional bows, arrows and machetes. As a result, thousands of people were displaced from their farms.
In August 1997 similar incidents erupted in Mombasa, Kwale districts in Coastal region - the Digo, a Mijikenda group, targeted members of tribes from outside the Coast Province (Wabara) e.g. Kikuyu and Luos.
After 2 weeks, 65 people (including 13 police officers) had been killed, property worth millions of shillings had been destroyed, more than 10,000 people displaced, tourism industry suffered falling by 70 percent and loss of more than 5000 jobs (Mazrui, 1997).
In 2001, 62 people died and several injured in clashes bringing the Kisii against the Maasai along Gucha Transmara border. More than 50 people died in a clash between Pokomo and Wardei tribes in Tana River district and in Kibera slums, Nairobi three days of clashes left 12 people dead and more than 50 houses burnt in fights between tenants and landlords.
These violent confrontations were a threat to the existence of a united Kenya, the rule of law and private property, contract and the market economy.
jerop5614 answered the question on January 2, 2019 at 17:40