Kenya’s ethnically diverse Rift Valley province has experienced unrest since the introduction of large-scale colonial farming in the 1950s. The divisions flared into open violence following the disputed presidential elections in 2007. In 2008, the Global Peace Festival arrived in Kenya, bringing a model of interfaith and inter-cultural peacebuilding through cultural celebration and community service that is winning wide acceptance among concerned Kenyans.

In the Rift Valley GPF partners have launched ambitious character education programs addressing the roots of conflict, which have been brought to elementary and high schools as well as presented in home-based settings. The GPF-supported Sports for Peace program adopts a similar perspective, sponsoring athletic competitions that involve all ethnic groups and applying principles of good sportsmanship as a form of peace education.

“Rift Valley became the center of conflict and therefore we’ve been working closely to bring these communities, says Aketch Rangala, the GPSA coordinator for Sports for Peace “acknowledging and accepting and also appreciating each person’s diversity with the objective of bringing peace and reconciliation.”

On February 12th, the provincial capital Nakuru hosted the GPF’s 2010 Rift Valley Peace Initiative and regional Global Peace Festival kickoff, in partnership with the regional Administrative Police’s Peace Cops program. The Rift Valley program is part of regional initiative that will culminate in November during the 2010 Global Peace Festival and Convention in Nairobi.

Three hundred young leaders from seven Rift Valley districts were challenged by GPFF Chairman Dr. Hyun Jin Moon to bring peace to Rift Valley, Africa and the world, and to "dream the greatest dream of all - One Family Under God."

GPF and its service arm, the Global Peace Service Alliance, also organized the distribution of 20 water pumps donated for agricultural use in the Rift Valley. The region suffered a devastating drought in 2009 and the affordable, durable, manual pumps produced in Kenya were warmly received by regional officials. The essential need for clean, potable water for developing countries is one of the UN Millennium Development Goal targets and a key priority for the Global Peace Service Alliance.