Jesuit Hakimani Centre

Origin and purpose

Hakimani is a work of the Eastern Africa Province of Jesuits which includes Kenya, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. Its aim is to empower men and women to participate in their development toward a more just society, by promoting a fair distribution of resources and multiculturalism. It is involved in research, training, consultancy, advocacy, social action, and the print and broadcast media. The name "Hakimani" combines the Kiswahili words “haki” (justice) and “imani” (peace with faith). Jesuit planning for the centre began in 1988 but it was not until October 2001 that the centre opened at Shalom House on Ngong Road, Nairobi. In 2011 it moved to Riara Road, in the Hekima College complex, before settling at its current home at Loyola House.

Programmes

The range of its activities is indicated by the news items on its website in early 2016: national conference on climate change and food security; Catholic bishop urges government to prioritize agriculture; Youth, Creativity and Innovation Summit; study warns land subdivision to affect agricultural production. It describes its own activities in terms of:

The Faith Community Leaders Programme aims at empowering Jesuits and those in other faith communities to a faith that does justice. It also makes available information about social justice.
The Youth and Social Transformation Programme advises and accompanies youth in their efforts to form businesses, including joint ventures among those on different sides of a conflict. It supports local and national initiatives that would further engage young people in the economy.
The Governance and Civic Engagement Programme includes projects on open data governance, elections and representation, climate change, food security and public policy, and accountability and public participation. Through its independent research and recommendations it aims to influence policy and practice as well as integrity in leadership. It would broaden the range of those actively engaged in social justice efforts at the local and national levels.
The Peace Building Programme would empower people to take an active role in working toward reconciliation, peaceful coexistence, and development. It helps form solidarity groups with confidence to assume the responsibilities of governance in a time when counties have become the means of local government.

Activities summary

The Centre's annual report gives a detailed picture of its activities from the previous year. The following comes from the report of 2013.

During election year 2013 the Peace Building Programme reported on 9 counties that were "hot spots", and on intertribal conflicts. Its personnel were a part of trauma healing and reconciliation efforts in affected communities. The report mentions 48 initiatives undertaken, mobilizing, facilitating, organizing, informing, bringing together parties in conflict, educating youth, formulating programs for future action.

During 2013 the Governance & Economic Justice Programme sponsored a two-day conference on “Strengthening Bottom-Up Social Accountability: Citizen Participation in National & County Governance.” Through project “Think Positive Alternatives Exist” it worked in 30 counties to raise the capacity of religious and civil leaders, women, youth, and marginalised groups to affect social justice issues. Another program involved over 300 youth across Kenya in innovative thinking that would lead to self-employment, taking advantage of the assistance available to them. JHC is part of a study being conducted in Germany, Kenya, and Zambia to examine if fair and efficient taxation systems are keeping up with conditions under globalization. It will also examine whether rich and poor countries are similar in this regard. The year's work in this department involved 2,500 questionnaires in 30 counties of Kenya and publication of 600 copies of the research findings, with this account of the findings in Web Index Barometer 2013:

The Centre reports 550 study report downloads as of 2013. Further initiatives mobilized an interdenominational community to fight alcoholism and to revive a local dairy cooperative; trained 145 youth in five locations, bringing together Nakuru and Nyeri participants; and exhibited innovations by youth with 270 in attendance, linking the youth with experts and civic and business leaders.

During 2013 the Media, Research, and Publication Programme trained 31 religious women, 20 parish priests, and 15 religious men in the potential of media for evangelization. It also handled media and online coverage and publication of the Centre's programmes.