M. D. Kinoti has lived through conflict in many areas of life. He grew up in a poor family in a rural community, with frequent conflict between the three wives and his 15 siblings. Tribal conflicts with the neighbouring ethnic groups meant that as a young kid, he was taught how to run and hide in the bushes if he heard gunshots from Somali raiders.

In university, he studied sociology and after graduation, he worked with a Christian development organization.

Frustrated by how poorly the church seemed to handle conflict, he wanted to understand what the Christian faith had to offer us and what we have to offer the world in the process of peacebuilding and conflict transformation. So, he pursued graduate and doctoral studies at Fuller Theological Seminary (USA). He found out that the Bible is full of stories encouraging peace. He wrote his PhD dissertation on the church's missional call to foster peaceful interethnic relations as a body and in the world.

Dr Kinoti has taught peace skills to organizational leaders in more than 20 countries since 2008. He is a trained cross-cultural mediator with a PhD in interethnic peacebuilding and a Professor of Leadership and Management at Regis University in Denver, CO, USA.