Adam, Abdullahi Abdulkadir2025-07-232025-07-232024https://hdl.handle.net/10566/20570Background: Managing intercommunal conflict through power-sharing is widely regarded as a viable democratic method in divided societies. Communities with conflicting identities or communities where civil war poses a threat to the country's stability often use power sharing to resolve long-standing patterns of conflict and live in peace with one another.1 In most conflict-affected countries around the world, power sharing has created success stories although that has not always been the case. Historically, there have been few successful examples of formalized power sharing on the African continent. For example, Nelson Mandela became the elected President of South Africa on 27 April 1994, and that put an end to the country’s long-existing policy of apartheid.2 In Kenya, the country's two major parties agreed on a power-sharing arrangement after disputed elections in 2007 to end ethnic clashes. 3 As a result of the agreement, both parties became equal partners in a grand coalition government. The agreement has proven effective in resolving ethnic conflict and restoring peace in Kenya. The power-sharing agreement was able to put forward a new constitution (approved by popular referendum in August 2010) and hold the next election peacefully (in March 2013) during its five-year tenure. Unlike South Africa and Kenya, many other countries have failed to use power sharing as a tool for conflict resolution and state building.enPower sharingConflict managementSomaliaCivil warState buildingThesis