Dunia Moja Trust :. An overview

DMT is registered trust and a national not-for profit organisation, which was initially legal hosted by Kenya Human Rights Commission in Kenya. It was founded in 2008 with the goal of entrenching human rights and democratic values in Kenya via human rightsfilms screenings and dialogue forums.

Dunia Moja is a Swahili word, which translates to One World. The trust was formed against the backdrop of the 2007 post-election violence to forge a sense of national togetherness, as part of the peace building and governance and democracy initiatives that involves the Kenyan civil society, the Government and development partners.

Although a harmless socio-cultural and lingual grouping, tribalism has over the years become a compelling tool for political power. It has proved a handy weapon for bargaining for national resources and annihilating political adversaries.

The year 2007 was just the peak of tribal hatred that has defined the country’s political direction for decades. In essence, the presidential election was hardly about issues or capabilities of the key presidential candidates. The election could actually be seen as tribal.

Sadly, as Kenyans walk into the new decade, the same politicians who raised tribal emotions in the run up to 2007 polls have kicked off 2012 campaigns early enough. In what passes for a case of collective and selective amnesia, the political class retains ethnicity as their central focus of the ongoing early campaigns. In fact, forecasts by most party strategists as well as newspaper opinion writers are based on the tribal arithmetic.

The processes and forms of socio-economic and political inclusion and/or exclusion as outcomes of governance in Kenya require, therefore, a different paradigm in civil advocacy, capacity building and transitional justice. It is common knowledge that the poor, especially women and children, largely bore the brunt of the post election violence in Kenya in 2008, while the middle and upper classes of our society, as well as the political elite, and were comfortable in their gated-communities. Therefore, the context of the social, economic and political landscape in Kenya requires a different approach vis-à-vis using film media in human rights education.

DMT, hence, applies a holistic concept. It initiates discussions, debates, analysis, and actions on critical human rights issues in different social stratums. Our programming is centred on the interventionist work, particularly focusing on screenings and dialogue forums in the communities, which we seek to support across our network of advocacy groups. While we acknowledge that film has entertainment value, our goal is to highlight and promote the role of film in a nation’s social, political and economic development.

DMT also intends to use blogs and video advocacy, which is the process of using digital video and related online technologies in strategic and targeted campaigns, as an eye opener to human rights