Uhuru, Ruto among 400 named in Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission report

TJRC: Land at the heart of most conflicts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GJDj4C-6Ocw
Published on May 21, 2013

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The Truth Justice And Reconciliation Commission - TJRC finally released its report and symbolically handing President Uhuru Kenyatta a copy of the report. The report is a damning account of many things that have historically gone wrong in the country; and probably to the surprise of many Kenyans, the TJRC boldly called out issues and names on a number of areas. Land is one such issue the TJRC report dwells on, hipping blame on founding president Jomo Kenyatta for the illegal allocation of thousands of acres of land including prime agricultural lands and beach plots to himself, family, friends and associates. And as NTV's Sheila Sendeyo reports, the chapter on land reads like a depressing litany of Kenya's historical injustices.

 

joseph opiyo 5 minutes ago

How will he deal with wrongs commited by his own father?

sharpshooter2897 38 minutes ago

Nowonder Uhuru didn't want anything to do with the TJRC



Uhuru, Ruto among 400 named in Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission report


Updated Wednesday, May 22nd 2013 at 00:04 GMT +3

President Kenyatta with TJRC Chairman Bethwel Kiplagat when he received the report at State House Nairobi. [PHOTO/PPS]

By FELIX OLICK

 

Kenya: Senior Government officials and politicians are among hundreds of Kenyans recommended for prosecution in the explosive report of the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) released yesterday.

President Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto are among those adversely mentioned over the 2007 post- election violence for which they face trial at the International Criminal Court. No action is recommended against them.
The report also names a senator and scores of MPs from across the country accused of involvement in land grabbing, fanning ethnic clashes and brutal crackdown by security forces at the height of repression.
TJRC recommends that the Director of Public Prosecutions investigate the adversely mentioned individuals, against whom the report finds there is “ample evidence capable of sustaining prosecution.”
It also names dozens of former MPs, former provincial commissioners and senior military and police officers implicated in all sorts of violations including land grabbing and torture.
Also listed includes a host of serving senior police officers, including retired police chiefs and intelligence officers who are implicated in the torture of detainees and political assassinations.
Others named are prominent personalities and militia leaders involved in 2007 post election violence in Rift Valley and activities of the Sabaot Land Defence Forces in Mt Elgon.
The report names high-ranking government officials, including an MP in a top leadership position in the National Assembly who once served as a former Cabinet Minister for illegal excision of forest land.
Others are accused of killings in politically instigated clashes, sexual violence, ethnic mobilisation and harassment of women and children. The TJRC report spotlights human rights violations cutting across three successive regimes.
Tuesday, President Kenyatta said the government would take the recommendations of the report seriously and reiterated his administration is committed to deepening healing and reconciliation in the country.
In a similar fashion to the Waki Commission, the Truth team details persons that should be investigated over irregular acquisition of land, massacres, political assassinations and ethnic violence including the gory 2007 post-election violence.

Ironically, the report recommends that TJRC chairman Bethuel Kiplagat should be investigated over the bloody 1984 Wagalla massacre and should not hold any public office.
“The Commission ?nds that between 2002 and 2008, President Mwai Kibaki presided over a government that was responsible for numerous gross violations of human rights,” the report reads in part
“These violations include: unlawful detentions, torture and ill-treatment; assassinations and extra judicial killings; and economic crimes and grand corruption”
The TJRC asks President Kenyatta to within the next three months issue a public apology to the families of those assassinated and the nation for the failure by previous regimes to resolve the murders. The report details far-reaching recommendations including seizure of illegally acquired land to address the thorny land problem at the Coast.
“While government officials benefited from illegal acquisition and allocation of government land to themselves and their close associates, coastal communities that were in dire need of re-settlement were excluded,” said the report
On extra judicial killings, the report recommends reparations for families of victims in accordance with the Commission’s Reparation Framework. It recommends the prosecution of police officers and other state agents who were involved in the torture and ill treatment of individuals during the mandate period.

Apologise, truth team tells police and judges

President Uhuru Kenyatta (R) receives the TJRC report from commission chairman Bethwell Kiplagat at State House May 21, 2013. The TJRC report has recommended that President Kenyatta apologises to Kenyans within a given timeframe for a number of injustices it documents were perpetrated on Kenyans during the period under review. PHOTO/PPS

By LILLIAN ONYANGO laonyango@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Tuesday, May 21 2013 at 20:19

In Summary

• “The commission recommends that the British government offer a public and unconditional apology to the people of Kenya for all injustices and gross violations of human rights committed by the colonial administration between 1895 and 1963,” the report says.
• It said President Jomo Kenyatta headed a government under which political assassinations were committed, political opponents were arbitrarily detained and top government officials and their allies acquired land illegally and irregularly.
• Between 1978 and 2002, the report says, President Moi presided over a government that was responsible for massacres, economic crimes and grand corruption as well as assassinations — including that of Dr Robert Ouko.
• Historical grievances over land constitute the single most important driver of conflict and ethnic tension in Kenya, the report says, adding, Moi’s successor Mwai Kibaki’s government, had the shortest list of violations.

The President has been asked to offer Kenyans a public and unconditional apology for all the injustices and gross violations of human rights committed since independence to February 2008.

This tops the list of apologies suggested by the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) for violations committed between December 12, 1963 and February 28, 2008.

In its report presented to President Kenyatta at State House Nairobi Tuesday, the TJRC also proposed that the government considers entering into negotiations with the British government to seek compensation for victims of atrocities and injustices committed during the colonial period.

“The commission recommends that the British government offer a public and unconditional apology to the people of Kenya for all injustices and gross violations of human rights committed by the colonial administration between 1895 and 1963,” the report says.

This, it says, should be done within 12 months, which means by May 2014.

State security agencies, in particular the Kenya Police, the Kenya Defence Forces, and the National Intelligence Service, should also ask for forgiveness for gross violations of human rights committed by their predecessor agencies.

The report made particular reference to acts of extra-judicial killings, arbitrary and prolonged detention, torture and sexual violence.

The Judiciary was not spared as the commission recommended that it acknowledges and apologises for failing to address impunity effectively and failing to perform its role of preventing gross human rights violations.

Says the report: “The judiciary should fast-track the establishment of the International Crimes Division of the High Court which shall be responsible for the trial of some of the cases referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions for investigations and prosecution.”

The commission also found all past administrations responsible for numerous gross human rights violations.

It said President Jomo Kenyatta headed a government under which political assassinations were committed, political opponents were arbitrarily detained and top government officials and their allies acquired land illegally and irregularly.

It indicated that during President Jomo Kenyatta’s tenure in 1963-1978, Pio Gama Pinto, Tom Mboya and JM Kariuki were assassinated for their political views.

Other violations experienced at that time were the Shifta War, killings, torture, collective punishment and denial of basic needs — such as food, water and healthcare.

Between 1978 and 2002, the report says, President Moi presided over a government that was responsible for massacres, economic crimes and grand corruption as well as assassinations — including that of Dr Robert Ouko.

Illegal and irregular allocations of land and unlawful detentions and systematic and widespread torture and ill-treatment of political and human rights activists were also rampant, it says.

Shortest list of violations

Historical grievances over land constitute the single most important driver of conflict and ethnic tension in Kenya, the report says, adding, Moi’s successor Mwai Kibaki’s government, had the shortest list of violations.

Between 2002 and 2008, the government was liable for unlawful detentions, extrajudicial killings and economic crimes and grand corruption.

Northern Kenya has been the epicentre of gross violations of human rights by State security agencies, the report says.

“Almost without exception, security operations in Northern Kenya have been accompanied by massacres of largely innocent citizens, systematic and widespread torture, rape and sexual violence of girls and women, looting and burning of property, and the killing and confiscation of cattle and other livestock,” the report read.

The inquiry established that during 1963-2008, the state adopted economic and other policies that resulted in the marginalisation of five key regions in the country: North Eastern and Upper Eastern; Coast; Nyanza; Western; and North Rift.

Further, it found that between 1895 and 1963, the British colonial administration in Kenya was responsible for horrific gross violations of human rights.

TJRC established that in order to stamp its authority in Kenya, the colonial rulers employed violence on the local population on an unprecedented scale.

Such violence included massacres, torture and ill-treatment and various forms of sexual violence.

Eunuch•a day ago

The TJRC did not pass the ceaser-wife's test and Bethwel Kiplagat blemish stinks.

That said the LAND is the elephant in Kenya's house. Can Uhuru handle that truth before him considering all other factors? Only time will tell and good luck HE.

see more

Olum-son Kagan•a day ago

"The President added that addressing the causes and effects of past injustices will contribute towards national unity, reconciliation and healing and enable Kenyans to move forward with a renewed sense of nationhood". Is this in reference to the same president, who while campaigning, said we should not look at the rear-view mirror? Just thinking aloud...

News

TJRC report key to Kenya’s transitional justice

Written by ICJ Kenya on 02 May 2013 .

The Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission was to release its final report on Thursday, May 2nd 2013, however, the Office of the President said they could not receive the report on behalf of the President who is on an official visit to the United kingdom.

The report of the Commission which was established in 2008 will cover investigations on the gross human rights violations and other historical injustices in Kenya between 12 December 1963 and 28 February 2008 when the National Accord was signed. Further, the report will summarize the findings of the commission and make recommendations on the measures to be taken.

The mandate of the Commission is spelt out in the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission Act No. 6 of 2008 and it includes the investigation of all of the violations on the gross human rights violations and other historical injustices in Kenya between 12 December 1963 and 28 February 2008; identification of the individuals, public institutions, bodies, organizations, public office holders, the State, state actors, or persons purporting to have acted on behalf of any public body responsible for or involved in the violations and abuses; identification and specification of the victims of the violations and abuses and making of appropriate recommendations for redress, including reparations; creation of a historical record of violations of human rights abuses; identification and recommendation of the prosecution of any person responsible or involved in serious violations of human rights, including socio-economic rights and to make recommendations for systemic and institutional reform to ensure that such violations do not occur in the future.

One of the objectives of the TJRC under the Act is to promote peace, justice, national unity, healing, and reconciliation among the people of Kenya through – providing victims, perpetrators, and the general public with a platform for non-retributive truth telling that charts a new moral vision and seeks to create a value based society for all Kenyans.

In addition, it should seek to provide victims and perpetrators with a platform to be heard; restore their dignity and confess their actions as a way of bringing reconciliation.

To fulfil its mandate, the commission went round the country collecting data and collating findings of injustices in the country through public hearings and in-camera sessions.

International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) terms the report as one of the agenda item issues that should propose solutions to long term and underlying historical injustices that make reconciliation a challenge in Kenya.

In a stakeholder meeting held on the 30th April 2013, under the theme of, “Kenya’s Transitional Justice Agenda: beyond the TJRC process,” it was noted that the TJRC is an important player in this dispensation and in furthering Kenya’s transitional agenda.

Further, it was emphasized that there was need to implement the transitional agenda citing that countries that have failed to implement have continued to experience cyclical violence, instability and continued impunity.

Moreover, it was underscored, that the TJRC together with other commissions such as the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC), National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC), Kenya National Commission for Human Rights (KNCHR), National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and the National Land Commission (NLC) had a constitutional and statutory duty to promote constitutionalism, protect the sovereignty of the people and secure the observance by all State organs of democratic values and principles as per Article 249 of the Constitution.

The recommendations of the long overdue report which was originally scheduled for release on August 4, 2012, are eagerly awaited for by Kenyans, Africans and other people of the world. This is particularly so given the different challenges countries e.g. South Africa, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka among others, have had in implementing the reports of their truth commissions.

The TJRC whose mandate expires in early May 2013, asked for a 9 month extension of its term last year citing financial and leadership wrangles. The extension which was granted by Parliament allowed it to finish pending work — making reparations, healings, reconciliation, which is continuing, and compiling the final report.

Immediately President Uhuru is presented the report, he is bound by law to publish it, make copies, and circulate them through at least three local newspapers and within 21 days; the report shall be tabled in Parliament.

Observers will be following keenly the steps and mechanisms the Government, being the first established under the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 will put in place to ensure the implementation of the recommendations of the TJRC.

Likewise, the aggrieved victims of human rights abuse and historical injustices, whose views were taken by the TJRC, will be reviewing the report to establish whether the TJRC discharged its mandate, and the report lives up to their expectations of truth, justice and reconciliation.

http://www.icj-kenya.org/index.php/media-centre/news/511-tjrc-report-key-to-kenyas-transitional-justice