African Union’s quest to silence guns by 2020 EDITOR: Bob Koigi, Kenya

The unprecedented rise in activities of insurgent groups and violent extremists in Lake Chad Basin and the Sahel alongside political related violence occasioned by contested elections, bloody transitions and the displacement of people triggered by climate change and natural disasters have seen African countries struggle to keep their citizens safe.

The rise in gun violence attributed to the above factors has reached epidemic proportions, with studies indicating that over 15,000 Africans lost their lives to the bullet last year.

African Union has since 2013 been chaperoning a Master Roadmap of Practical Steps to Silence the Guns in Africa by the Year 2020 as a flagship project of its development blueprint Agenda 2063.

This, with a view to getting member states to take practical actions in ensuring that firearms that are in the wrong hands are surrendered to governments and that they make deliberate efforts at championing peace.

Yet as we head to 2020, that dream remains far from being achieved as nations pussyfoot around even as the gun violence escalate while taking dangerous patterns.

The African Union draws its strength from its members and because the majority are undemocratic it becomes hard for them to sanction other members for ills that define them.

Of course, there have been some great strides at peace that are worth celebrating, including the South Sudan peace deal, peace talks in the Central African Republic and Madagascar and the historic Ethiopia-Eritrea truce.

To bolster these gains and ensure future conflicts are tamed, The AU and its members should start by embracing and living true to the Union’s mantra and values of democracy, human rights, respect for the rule of law and good governance.