Kenyans reject Truth Commission, local trials

The Grand Coalition has come under scathing attack from angry Kenyans, who have been dismayed by the decision to have a Truth Commission instead of criminal prosecution for the perpetrators of political and ethnic clashes.

President Mwai Kibaki addressing journalists last Thursday when announcing the controversial decision by the cabinet.

President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga want to shield their key allies from both the International Criminal Court or a Special Tribunal constituted in Kenya. Individuals implicated in organizing, funding or complicity in violence were seen grinning behind Kibaki as he announced that he was getting them off the hook.

Opinion polls show that a vast majority of Kenyans want the ruling classes to be stripped of their positions and face criminal charges at the International Criminal Court. There is widespread belief that the international justice process will be more credible than justice in Kenyan courts.

The sad reality is that, 18 months after post election violence, nobody has been jailed with most cases ending in acquittals. This has not inspired confidence among the estimated 500,000 survivors of the clashes. Most of them still survive in squalid camps with little government assistance.

Kenyans want a radical change in their governance structure. For many years, attempts at economic, social and political reforms have either been frustrated or hijacked by the ruling elite. Politicians have vast powers to appoint cronies to state positions and to allocate resources as they wish. Economic liberalization has only benefited the well-connected and Kenyan industry is dominated by companies allied to or owned by politicians. Corruption is the order of the day as nothing works without a word from “above.”

Today, recruitment into government jobs is a waste of time as politicians manipulate the process to benefit supporters from their ethnic groups. The recent recruitment of personnel for the August national census has been marred by favoritism and bribery. Rather than benefit the millions of unemployed youth, temporary census jobs have been allocated to teachers and civil servants already on the government payroll. In several districts, youths have vowed to disrupt the census unless the recruitment of enumerators is repeated.

Over the years, little has been done to fight corruption, ethnic violence and other crimes committed by the rich and powerful. This has fostered a culture of impunity because guilty parties do not suffer any consequences. Politicians in Kenya have become demi-gods who can get away with theft, murder, incitement and adultery. Moral rectitude among Kenya’s leaders has plummeted as they engage in torrid love affairs with married women from poor families. Girls seeking assistance for school fees or jobs are forced to perform sex acts, sometimes within parliamentary offices.

The culture of evil among Kenyan leaders has sparked bitterness among ordinary people. For many years, there was little that could be done about it as the masses suffered their indignities in silence. The prospects of sending powerful personalities to the International Criminal Court offers a chance at national renewal. As stated elsewhere in this website, the international justice process offers a once in a lifetime opportunity to purge the Kenyan political system of vermin pretending to be leaders.

Though the cabinet announced that it will support criminal prosecutions through the Judiciary, few expect this to happen. If anything, most of the talk was on “forgiveness and reconciliation.” Cabinet ministers repeated similar themes throughout the weekend at various public rallies as though they had been ordered to sell the idea to Kenyans.

As a measure of how far the government was willing to go in shielding ministers from international prosecution, President Kibaki candidly revealed that they considered withdrawing Kenya from the statutes that created the International Criminal Court.

“One of the options considered was withdrawal from the Rome Statute under Article 127 and repeal of the International Crimes Act, 2008,” said the President.

There has also been speculation that, because Kenya signed the International Crimes Act after the post election violence had subsided, there was a legal argument that the new law can only be applied after its been enacted. According to the Constitution of Kenya, a law cannot be applied on crimes committed prior to its inception.

It is clear that politicians are using every legal loophole to escape justice. Among those mentioned in various human rights reports are Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Agriculture Minister William Ruto, Heritage Minister William ole Ntimama and Tourism Minister Najib Balala.

Political activist Mary Wambui, widely believed to be Kibaki’s second wife, has been implicated in organizing and funding ethnic militia.

Other prominent politicians who will face criminal charges in future include: Professor Peter Anyang Nyongo, Dr Sally Kosgey, Henry Kosgey, Elizabeth Ongoro, Franklin Bett, Kabando wa Kabando, Njenga Karume, John Pesa, Jayne Kihara, Ramadhan Kajembe and their respective supporters.

A host of councilors, security officers and political activists have been named by the Waki Commission of Inquiry and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.

In the past few months, as pressure mounted on the government to act against the masterminds of political violence, the suspects have vowed to implicate both the President and Prime Minister. The argument has been that Kibaki and Raila benefitted from the violence and, therefore, cannot avoid responsibility. While Raila used mass violence to protest what he sees as electoral fraud that denied him the presidency, Kibaki was silent as violence raged on his behalf.

Kibaki, Raila find Truth Commission an easy way out

This is official government policy: the perpetrators of political and ethnic clashes will not be prosecuted but Kenyans should instead forgive and forget all past injustices.

Anxious to avoid prosecuting their key allies, President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga used the weekend trip to Nyanza Province to continually stress upon political and ethnic reconciliation in a move widely at odds with majority opinion in Kenya.

According to opinion polls, most Kenyans want the perpetrators of violence to face justice in the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, Netherlands. However, both the President and Prime Minister do not want to expose their key supporters to the vagaries of trials for crimes against humanity.

Over the past two weeks, another option has emerged which has turned out exceedingly popular with guilty politicians: a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC).

The government is under international pressure to act against the masterminds of political and ethnic violence. Various investigations by a Kenyan judge, the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights, Human Rights Watch and other organizations have strongly implicated close allies of the President and Prime Minister in organizing and funding clashes that erupted around the December 2007 General Elections. At least 1,300 people were killed as half a million were evicted from their homes in tit-for-tat ethnic warfare.

The options so far have been a locally constituted Special Tribunal or to take the suspects to the International Criminal Court. The Truth Commission is now a third option.

On President Kibaki’s side, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta has been named as a key organizer of ethnic violence. Others are Kibaki’s long time ally, Njenga Karume, Mukurweini legislator Kabando wa Kabando, former Naivasha legislator Jayne Kihara and a host of high ranking professionals and business people from the President’s Kikuyu ethnic group.

Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party has a large cadre of its leadership implicated in the violence, as the worst of the clashes occurred in ODM dominated districts. Leading the pack is Agriculture Minister William Ruto, Tourism Minister Najib Balala and National Heritage Minister William ole Ntimama. Other ODM cabinet ministers linked to the ethnic killings are Franklin Bett, Dr Sally Kosgey and Professor Peter Anyang Nyongo. Ordinary members of parliament elected in the ODM party have also been mentioned. Indeed, ODM has been implicated in the violence so heavily that the party sees the investigations as a threat to its future.

The proposed Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) would be similar to one formed in South Africa following the end of Apartheid in 1994. The South African Commission – headed by respected cleric Desmond Tutu – granted amnesty to those accused of human rights violations in exchange for public testimony. Members of the security forces, intelligence agencies and black liberation movements gave chilling accounts of their actions over the previous four decades.

In a sense, a Truth Commission is like a Catholic confessional: forgiveness for sins after confessing.

Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Agriculture Minister William Ruto have presidential ambitions in the next General Elections scheduled for 2012. They both see the Truth Commission as a way of cleaning up their public profiles in time for campaigns. Uhuru is linked to the hiring of gangs of Kikuyu youth to engage in retaliatory attacks in the Rift Valley, while Ruto is accused of organizing or at least being complicit in Eldoret where his Kalenjin ethnic group attacked Kikuyu families.

Are Kenyans willing to forgive and forget everything that happened in 2007 and 2008?

Most Kenyans in opinion polls say that they never want a repeat of the near civil war that erupted in 2008. The only guarantee of long-term peace and stability in Kenya is by removing from power those responsible for ethnic and political clashes for the past two decades. Only a credible, internationally recognized judicial process can guarantee a future free from ethnic incitement. And nothing less than the ICC will satisfy Kenyans.

Therefore, President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga joint calls for forgiveness have not been taken kindly by majority of Kenyans. The move is viewed as an opportunistic political gimmick aimed at protecting the two men’s close friends from facing the frying pan of justice. Infact, Kibaki and Raila want to save their own skins because those already named in connection with the violence have vowed not to go down alone.

William Ruto and legislators from his Rift Valley province have vowed to implicate the Prime Minister should they be taken before court. Obviously, Raila would not want to be branded as an ethnic warlord, even though video tapes and newspaper cuttings show him making rather controversial statements during the 2007 campaigns. During a campaign tour of the Mount Kenya area, Raila told the Kikuyu, Meru and Embu ethnic groups that they would “shed tears” should he win the presidency.

The Truth Commission has already run into controversy days after President Kibaki appointed former diplomat, Bethwel Kiplagat as its Chair. Kiplagat worked for many years as a top civil servant in the administration of former President Daniel arap Moi.

Critics say that Kiplagat never uttered a word objection in the 1980s and 90s when detention, torture and assasination was rife. Already, some victims of the 2008 post election violence have vowed not to appear before the Truth Commission citing its composition and its intended purpose of giving politicians an easy way out. Most of the Truth Commissioners have had little visibility in the past, even less on human rights advocacy.

Meanwhile, a group of dissident politicians have exposed a government plot to withdraw Kenya’s membership from the International Criminal Court. Former legislators Paul Muite and Koigi Wamwere says the Kenyan government wants to withdraw from the ICC in order to protect ministers likely to face trial for crimes against humanity.

Muite and Koigi were speaking in Mombasa during a court case where former Laikipia West member of parliament, G. G. Kariuki is charged with incitement. Kariuki told a recent public gathering that Kenyans should unite and overthrow the government.

Ethnic warlords find Truth Commission an easy way out

Faced with criminal charges for the deaths of 1,500 people, Kenya’s ruling elite now find the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission a convenient means of escaping jail.

Since it became obvious last year that punishment had to be meted out on those who planned, financed and executed post election violence, there has been loud disagreement over what to do with the perpetrators. The dilemma is over whether to have a locally constituted Special Tribunal or whether to just take the suspects to the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

Both President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga are for a local tribunal. In fact, both men want Kenyans to “forgive and forget” the whole mess – their mess.

With a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC), all one has to do is confess all the gory details of their crime and get an amnesty! With such confessions, the culprits of post election violence will sanitize themselves early enough for the 2012 General Elections! How convenient!

It is unfortunate that a respected personality such as Bethwel Kiplagat can propose the TJRC as a means of solving Kenya’s woes. Doesn’t he realize that people responsible for killings and rape will literally walk away scot free? But then, Ambassador Kiplagat has vested interests in the formation of a TJRC for he is slated to become a top commissioner, if not its head. But is it possible that this hitherto respected personality could stoop so low as to demean the concept of justice just for the sake of getting a job? Well, among Kenya’s cruel and corrupt elite, greed and avarice know no limits.

Other people proposed for the TJRC include former Anglican Church of Kenya Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi and Presbyterian Church of East Africa clergyman Timothy Njoya. The rest are: Dr Maria Nzomo, Dr Elizabeth Muli, Tom Ojienda, Timothy Njoya, Dr Joseph Aluoch, Betty Murungi, Margaret Shava, Thomas Letangule, Abubakar Zein Abubakar, Joyce Miguda Majiwa, Tecla Namachanja, Maj Gen (rtd) Ahmamed Sheikh Farah and Dr Daadab Mohammed.

This list of names consists of people who have been hobnobbing with the political class for countless decades. Many in the above list have previously gotten high profile jobs thanks to lobbying by their political allies. Clearly, Kenyans should not count on the impartiality of the TJRC and its formation will promote impunity because those who have committed crimes against humanity will never be punished.

The best way – indeed the ONLY way – of ensuring that the events of 2007 -2008 are not repeated is to prosecute those implicated in funding, planning and participating in violence. Right now, the only mode of justice that Kenyans want is for the International Criminal Court to take over all cases and issue life jail terms to the likes of William Ruto, Uhuru Kenyatta and their cronies, most of whom are easily identifiable.

Kenyans are looking upon International Criminal Prosecutor, Louis Moreno-Ocampo for the much needed purge of an oppresive ruling clique.

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UPDATE:

Former UN chief Kofi Annan has now sent the envelope containing the list of post poll violence perpetrators to prosecutors at the International Criminal Court at The Hague. Read this breaking story and reactions by Kenyans >>

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