As a child growing up in rural Kenya, Alice Wairimu Nderitu used to climb up into the branches of a large tree to eavesdrop.  Below her was a group of elders gathered to deliver justice on matters concerning the community.  As Alice watched them come to consensus from her perch, she decided that one day, she would be one of those elders promoting peace in her community. All of the elders were men, however. She was told that making peace was not women’s business.

Decades later, in 2010, as Commissioner of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission, she took a seat at the peace table with 100 elders from ten ethnic communities who had never negotiated peace with each other before.  Only a year and a half earlier, in 2007-2008, violence erupted in Kenya’s Rift Valley after the results of a flawed election were announced.  The election ignited historic grievances over land and deep-seated ethnic tensions.  By the time the post-election violence had abated, more than 1,300 Kenyans were killed and 600,000 displaced.  In 2010, with a constitutional referendum on the horizon, tensions soared.  Would the region again tear itself apart along ethnic lines?  Or would it unite in peace?  That was when Alice took her place at the table and began the 16-month peace process.  As the only woman among the three mediators, they led the elders in a dialogue that resulted in the region’s first peaceful elections in 20 years.