On completing her doctoral thesis, Dr. Rosemary Anyona joined a very select group of pioneering scholars from a period that now looks like a dream far away, shrouded in the forgotten history of the Kenyan academy. The pioneer of this select group was Dr. Robert Mudida, the first doctoral graduate of the Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies, University of Nairobi, [now Associate Professor], followed by Dr. Johnstone Opiyo [then Major, and later Lt. Col., Kenya’s first general service officer to receive a PhD], followed by Dr. Ibrahim Farah and Dr. Anita Kiamba, followed by Dr. Ochieng Kamudhayi, followed by Dr. Kizito Sabala, the last two interspersed by Dr. Anyona.
What made this group select were the themes informing the topics of their doctoral theses. What made it special was that they all made signal contributions to knowledge, as their external examiners from the University of Dar-Es-Salaam, University of the Witwatersrand, and the School of Oriental and African Studies [SOAS] of the University of London all acknowledged.
The themes of their theses are telling: structural sources of constitutional conflicts and constitution making in Kenya [Mudida], frontiers and the security system in the Horn of Africa [Opiyo], foreign policy and internal conflict in Somalia [Farah], negotiation leaders in peace processes in the IGAD region [Kiamba], negotiations in civil wars and the Somalia national reconciliation process (Ochieng’], implementation of post-civil war peace agreements in Africa [Anyona], and human security and the control and management of small arms among pastoral communities in the Horn of Africa [Sabala].
The study of conflict and security in Africa has now taken root in the country and the region. What was missing before this select group moved to set it right, were case studies and analyses from Africa, about African security and conflicts. Dr. Farah and Dr. Opiyo examined these issues from the strategic context of diplomacy and foreign policy, while Dr. Ochieng’ and Dr. Sabala examined the operationalization of the grand strategic context in regional processes. Dr. Kiamba examined the linkages between the strategic and perational levels, and the need to appreciate their roles. Prof. Mudida examined the source of all policy making, the grund norm of the constitution, the conflicts attending its making, and the consequences.
As is evident from this book, Dr. Anyona’s contribution is to provide different perspectives to the problems raised and analyzed by Dr. Kiamba and Dr. Ochieng’. Her book spreads further the wings of knowledge and endeavor about conflict processes and their mediation in the larger Africa. It is an intellectually daring book, and stimulating. In it, she takes a core theory that other scholars have made their lifetime commitment in the study of conflict and mediation in Africa. She says that the theory of ripe moments has not been properly appreciated; and that, as her case studies of Angola and Mozambique show, it needs reinstatement in order to enable us to appreciate why cases that looked similar led to vastly different outcomes. Her core concern is not with peace agreements that ensue from myriad peace processes in Africa, but their implementation, the possibility of their implementation, and what this means for peace processes in the continent. Her book’s ultimate perspective is to suggest that the theory of ripe moments shall not die as other theories do; and that as long as scholarship remains, it shall not grow old as others have. Her stimulating book refuses to let it do so.
Conflicts and the threat of conflicts define Kenya’s neighborhood and its operational environment. The earlier internal conflicts in Uganda, Mozambique, Angola and Zaire [as it then was], the long drawn war on terror, the internal conflicts in South Sudan and Sudan, and the conflicts that have defined Somalia since 1992 define aspects of Kenya’s foreign policy and diplomacy. But sometimes, as now, with the maritime conflict with Somalia, these conflicts nudge at the bone, and the solar plexus of Kenya. It is the duty of Kenyan scholars to investigate these closely, and propose solutions. Dr. Anyona’s contribution is to make it clear that in this endeavor, now and always, we are part - and always will be - of all that we have met.

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