MBBI Peacemaker of the Year 2019: Dorina Prech

Dorina Prech is the 2019 MBBI Peacemaker of the Year for her efforts in Kenya on peacebuilding and pastoralist voices advocacy. She is a Kenyan drylands specialist, advocating for policies and practices that are favorable to the marginalized pastoralist areas of the Horn of Africa. She has dedicated her career to ensuring that pastoralist voices are heard in government policies.

Dorina has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in International Relations from the United States International University-Africa, where she graduated with cum laude GPA. She is the first female from her extended family to graduate from university. She was also the top female candidate in her secondary education in West Pokot county and was awarded the Wings to Fly Scholarship by the Equity Bank. Dorina is also a recipient of USAID’s PEPFAR OVC Scholarship program; and the Dutch Government’s Young Experts Programme. She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Social Transformation at Catholic University’s Tangaza College.

When it comes to pushing the dryland pastoralists agenda, Dorina believes in holding leaders accountable and in telling them hard truths. Over the past four years, Dorina has been a part o fa committee that organizes an annual Pastoralists Leadership Summit, which brings together all the political leaders from the arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya. She has advocated for a policy agenda for the elimination of cattle rustling, a practice that has caused thousands of deaths in the pastoralist regions of Kenya over the years. At her job at the Frontier Counties Development Council, she has supported the establishment of Garissa University Institute of Peace and Security Studies, in memory of the 147 students that were murdered by terrorists in 2016.

Dorina is an alumna of the MBBI International Training Institute, after being trained in Istanbul, Turkey, and Belfast, Northern Ireland. She is a volunteer member of the MBBI Kenya Initiative, and is a part of the Implementation Committee for the Warriors to Peace Guardians Project.

Dorina is also a founding member and Member of the Board of Directors for the Drylands Learning and Capacity Building Initiative – a pastoralist knowledge management organization that promotes community voice and evidence into policy discussions and promotes synergy and collaboration between National and County Governments, community leadership and State and Non-State Actors and Donors.