Dekha Ibrahim Abdi, Kenyan peace activist, recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, died from a car accident. she was , 47

Dekha Ibrahim Abdi  was an ethnic Somali peace activist based in Mombasa, Kenya died from a car accident. she was , 47. A Kenyan citizen, she worked as a consultant to government and civil society organisations.

(1964 - 14 July 2011)

Personal life

Dekha was born in 1964 in Wajir. She was married to Dr. Hassan Nurrow Abdirahman with whom she had four children. The couple divorced in 2007 and in 2009, she married Abdinoor, a Somali ophthalmologist.^[1]

Career

Dekha was a trustee of Coalition for Peace in Africa (COPA) and of NOMADIC, a pastoralist organisation based in Wajir. She was also a founding member of the Wajir Peace and Development Committee, the Coalition for Peace in Africa, ACTION (Action for Conflict Transformation), and the Peace and Regeneration Oasis (PRO).
Dekha worked as a consultant trainer on peacebuilding and pastoralists' development with many local and international agencies in various countries, including Cambodia, Jordan, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Africa, Netherlands, Israel, Palestine, Zimbabwe, the UK, Uganda and Kenya. She was also an Associate of Responding to Conflict and previously worked as RTC's Trainer and Learning Coordinator.

Awards

In 2007, Dekha was honoured with the Right Livelihood Award, often referred to as the "Alternative Nobel Prize", which was presented at the Swedish Parliament by the Right Livelihood Award Foundation to those "working on practical and exemplary solutions to the most urgent challenges facing the world today". The Jury commended her "for showing in diverse ethnic and cultural situations how religious and other differences can be reconciled, even after violent conflict, and knitted together through a cooperative process that leads to peace and development".
She was also honoured with Hessian Peace Prize of Germany in 2009.

Death

On 7 July 2011, Dekha, her husband Abdinoor, and their driver were on their way to a peace conference in Garissa, when their car crashed into a truck. Her husband and driver died instantly. Dekha sustained heavy injuries and was airlifted to Nairobi. She died shortly afterwards at the Aga Khan Hospital at 11.45 am, 14 July 2011. She was 47 years old.^[2]

 

To see more of who died in 2010 click here