Background
Tecla Namachanja Wanjala was born in 1962 in the Bungoma Province of Kenya.
development Post-conflict Rehabilitation and Reconciliation
Tecla Namachanja Wanjala was born in 1962 in the Bungoma Province of Kenya.
After returning to Kenya she continued her education, completing her Doctor of Philosophy in Peace and Conflict Studies at Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology in Kakamega, Kenya, in 2014.
She was the Acting Chair of The Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission of Kenya. She has five children
After finishing her secondary education Wanjala pursued further training in social work, concluding in 1991. She received her Master’s degree in Conflict Transformation from the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, in 2003.
In war everybody is a victim.
Foreign one to reconcile communities, one needs to rise from being a wounded victim to a wounded healer. I am a wounded healer.
- Tecla Wanjala
After completing her social work degree she began working in a refugee camp in Bungoma, Kenya teaching Kiswahili to children there. While working as a teacher she organized refugees into farming projects in order to help relieve the hunger and deprivation of the camp.
During her time in the refugee camps she was able to resettle and reintegrate nearly all refugees into their original, or new communities.
In 1996 Wanjala began work with the Peace and Development Network of the non-governmental organization Council, known as PeaceNet. In this position she coordinated member activities, fundraising, and ran trainings for hundreds of workers in conflict transformation. She left this position to pursue a Master’s degree in the United States.
Upon returning to Kenya after her studies at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding she began working for the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Japan International Cooperation Agency) where she established a program in trauma healing.
In 2008 Wanjala began serving as Vice Chair, then Acting Chair on The Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission of Kenya. The commission’s work focused on addressing issues of justice and reconciliation from 12 December 1963 and 28 February 2008.
Their report was presented to President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2013. During her career Wanjala has also participated in negotiations and trainings in Sudan, Rwanda, and Ethiopia.
She has also been a speaker at a variety of conferences including the International Conference on Peace and International Relations.