The Writer

Building strong communities as the bedrock to development is a 79 pagecivil education handbook written by Joy Mbaabu and published by Amani Communities Africa and published in 2009.  It has two parts - one on cummonity leadership and the other on democracy and good governance, both with humurous illustrations to help the readers have fun and insights as they read.  The intention of the handbook is to build capacity of cummonity leaders to mobilize and lead small and large groups using democratic and good governance ideals. This way, communities become stronger, more resilient, innovative, independent and achieve sustainable development. They become less reliant on donors, governments and other outsiders for their survival and growth, and instead, become important partners in development.

Understanding Nationhood is a 43 page handbook for civic education authored by Joy Mbaabu and published by Amani Communities Africa in 2007. t was written at a time when it was critically important to rally the 42 communities of Kenya into a united and formidable one nation-state. Division along the diverse ethnicites, religions, tribes and cultures was becoming a source of violent conflict especially during elections time, when politicians could manipulate these diversities negatively to create strife and division so as to achieve their narrow and selfish interests. One way to minimize negative effects of divisions is through civic education, where citizens are encouraged and equipped with knowledge, skills and attitudes that enable them to view and use their diversities as sources of beauty and strength, appreciate each other and rally together towards meaningful development and peacefull co-existence

Bringing Women’s Rights Home is a 44page booklet written by Joy Mbaabu and published by Amani Communities Africa. It is a story of a five-year long journey of women’s human rights empowerment training for over 300 women from the world famous Maasai community of Kenya living in Kajiado district in the South Rift Valley of Kenya. It is sproun with pictures of the women and the trainers, enjoying time together as they hold deep conversations round issues of health, economic, social, political and other rights. It is an interesting and informative read.

Transforming Conflicts through non-violent strategies is a 38 page handbook written by Joy Mbaabu and published by Amani Communities Africa in 2010. It is a summarized report on a three year engagement with Kenya public university students and university administrators
on ways they can meaningfully engage to work out issues affecting students amicably thereby reduce strikes and other violent methods of expressing unresolved grievances. It was written when it was commonplace for university students to riot on the streets every time they were unhappy, injuring innocent motorists, pedestrians, fellow students, and rooting and destroying property of innocent business people. The handbook is a resource that helps in understanding the effects of violence, and spurs readers to embrace the many nonviolent strategies available in resolving conflicts amicably and transforming institutions into agents of positive societal transformation.