Global Peace Leadership Conference: Shaping a Harmonious Future

The Global Peace Leadership Conference (GPLC) Africa 2024, which commenced on June 25th, took an unexpected turn as participants offered prayers for Kenya amidst ongoing protests against the recently rejected Finance Bill.

In lieu of the planned opening ceremony, which was cancelled out of respect for the demonstrations, the conference began with a prayer session led by Rev. Fr. Canice Chinyeaka Enyiaka, Ph.D., the Regional Representative for Africa of the Global Peace Foundation. Fr. Canice expressed solidarity with the Kenyan people, emphasizing the importance of unity and divine intervention in resolving the current unrest.

“We are one family under God and that is why we have gathered to pray for this nation. If we do not, we will be failing in our responsibility as humans who share this same walk as Africans. We ask the nation of Kenya to not be afraid. We know that Peace will prevail because God has the power to restore peace,” said Fr. Canice.

organized by the Global Peace Foundation in collaboration with the Inter-Religious Council of Kenya and other partners,GPLC aims to promote peace, development, and cooperation across the continent. The three-day conference, participants focused on leveraging Africa’s unique heritage, spirituality, and traditional values to foster a renewed approach to peace and sustainable development.

Following the prayer session, the conference proceeded with discussions in various breakout sessions. The Family Track, themed “Familial Relationships, Roles, and Leadership,” and the Community-Driven Peace Building Track, themed “Local Leadership with Moral Authority: A Catalyst of African Renaissance,” were key highlights of the day.

Speaking at the Community-Driven Peace Building Track, Rev. Dr. Sam Kobia, Chairman of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission, underscored the importance of unity in addressing critical issues facing the continent, including disenfranchisement, poor leadership, poverty, and lack of development.

“The basic ethos of Ubuntu is ‘I am because you are.’ This therefore means that if you are not at peace with yourself, with your neighbor, with God, and with the environment, then we should admit that something is fundamentally missing. Ubuntu is both an important philosophy and process for us to achieve peace in Africa,” said Kobia.

The conference attracted renowned leaders, scholars, and activists committed to fostering global peace and cooperation with the issuance of the Africa Renaissance Nairobi Declaration, under the theme “One Family Under God: Empowering African Renaissance as a Global Catalyst for Freedom, Peace, and Sustainable Development.”