Arrows for Peace: “we shoot to score. Not kill”

In East Africa, cattle rustling – that is, stealing – is alive and very well. 

Rustling is linked to climate change, a knock-on effect from food shortages that can then see one tribe killing another’s cattle. More, it’s big business, an entrepreneurial crime estimated to cost the region north of USD 25 million per year. 

And for all that, these modern-times cowboys prefer bows and arrows.

What if the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) could take that sharpshooting talent and re-direct it away from violence and conflict? Toward – sport? Archery? Kenyans are famed the world over for running. For their legs. How about their – hands?

Thus was launched over several months in 2022, in and around Kenya’s several provinces, an initiative called Arrows for Peace. 

The NOC-K President, Paul Tergat, an IOC member, and himself a legendary runner, called Arrows for Peace “revolutionary and exciting in its innovative approach to sport”.

It’s not just because Kenya might soon enough develop Olympic-class archery talent, though the NOC-K is upfront about that. Arrows for Peace is driven by a foundation overseen by a woman: Irene Limika, a Kenyan national steeplechase champion. Another woman, NOC employee Susan Adhiambo, helps Limika direct the programme. And in a warrior culture, indisputably male-oriented, Limika and Adhiambo are upfront about encouraging girls and women, too, to take up bow and arrow. 

For sport.

“Arrows and bows – men are allowed to hold them in my communities,” Limika said. “Women traditionally are not allowed. I am breaking another world.” Moreover, as the NOC President observed in the field, “These female archers are very good, and now they are using arrows for sport and it is very good.”Tergat thinks this project may even change the local economy:“It’s a transformation, also because we use the local craftsmen to produce the arrows.”

Esther Wakhiya from Bungoma County, in western Kenya, said, “I’m viewing sports quite differently from what I thought. Who knew arrows can be a sign of peace? Not from this place!”

The 2022 project operated in three pieces. 

In February, a see-how-it-goes “pre-activity” was organised in Kajiado, about 80 kilometres south of Nairobi, on the way to Tanzania and Mount Kilimanjaro. 

Lessons learnt, follow-up camps were held in the famed Rift Valley, one in June and a second in September. Each ran for three days, ending in a competition. Evenings were given over to workshops on the Olympic values. Overarching point: to reach experts in violent thieving so they might – could – return to “particularly peaceful coexistence in their communities”.

Adhiambo said, “We told them, ‘You’re playing with weapons. What if you get shot?’ They said that would be OK. Can you imagine someone with that sort of attitude? They have no fear. These are kids – 14, 15 years old.

“We saw this is something we need to address. If this is the attitude of a kid, imagine when they become adults?”

How many were reached? From “grassroots sport”: 100 men, 60 women. From the “general public”: 200 men, 200 women. “Senior citizens”? Two men, 20 women. 

For the organisers, the next step is for government – or an NGO – to pick up on the programme’s reach. Adhiambo: “Everyone keeps coming back to us, saying, ‘When can we do this again?’” For Paul Tergat, it is clear that his NOC will remain committed so that Arrows for Peace doesn’t stop here: “We hope this project will continue for many years, and I want to thank Olympic Solidarity for supporting us, which is a key thing because it’s a project that is going to grow, and we’re hoping that going forward we will produce a lot of champions in archery.”