Dr. Tecla Namachanja Wanjala is a globally recognized peace practitioner with over 30 years of experience. Formerly she was Vice and Acting Chairperson of Kenya's Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) and was subsequently included in the 1,000 Women jointly Nominated for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.
She is the founder and team lead of the Shalom Centre for Counselling and Development (SCCoDev), which is committed to creating, holding, and transforming trusted spaces for healing and reconciliation. You can read more about the Shalom Centre here.
Dr Wanjala serves as an MHCR Insider Reconciler Fellow. Insider reconcilers (InRec) are individuals currently facilitating reconciliation processes in active conflict and are also deeply connected to or involved in one or more parties to the conflict. According to anecdotal field data, InRec can be key players in peacebuilding processes and are often seen as trustworthy, efficient, and transformative facilitators. Tecla is working in the Mt. Elgon region in Bungoma County in the Western Region of Kenya to foster healing following some of the worst ethnic land clashes in 1991, 1992, 2006-2008, and 2018.
Since July 2021, Dr. Wanjala, with SCCoDev, has hosted six Community Healing Circles, each lasting five days and reaching a total of 120 people, many being women, ex-militants, ex-convicts, and the elderly, MHCR has provided support for these initiatives.
You can watch the video below “Healing the Mountain” to see how powerful Tecla and the Shalom Centre’s work in the region has been.
Tecla also was a guest on Episode 12 of the MHCR-produced ThinkPeace Podcast, “A Calling to Heal” which you can listen to here.