The notion that the truth will set you free has enduring appeal in developing countries that are newly free of repressive governments, and anxious to explore past abuses in an effort to avoid repeating them. Kenya is no exception to this trend.
However, the country is also discovering that setting up a truth commission to probe human rights violations is less straightforward than it might appear. Although a commission has yet to open its doors in Kenya, fierce debate is already under way about the period of time that should be surveyed by the body.
“We do not want a situation whereby the commission will only target the former Moi regime, while we know very well that gross human rights atrocities were also committed during the Kenyatta era,” says Njeru Gathangu, chairperson of Citizens for Justice, a human rights lobby group in the capital, Nairobi.
Jomo Kenyatta served as Kenya’s first post-independence leader from 1963 to 1978. His successor, Daniel arap Moi, was the country’s president until 2002, when Mwai Kibaki took over the office.
Kamanda Mucheke, programmes director of People against Torture (PAT), another pressure group in Nairobi, also believes the present government should be investigated for certain actions allegedly committed during the 14 months it has been in office.
In particular, he cites a case exposed last week in which a businessman with links to the Kibaki administration has reportedly been part of a suspicious deal to supply equipment for processing immigration documents. The contract is worth about $36-million.
According to PAT, six politicians were assassinated during the Kenyatta and Moi eras.
“Every detail of how these people and others died must be uncovered by the truth commission. Kenyans need to know the truth, and now,” Mucheke says.
The activists’ concerns come in the wake of an announcement in April by Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Kiraitu Murungi that a ‘truth, justice and reconciliation commission’ (TJRC) will be formed before the end of this year.
Murungi broke the news about the TJRC while addressing representatives of national human rights commissions from eight countries in East, West and Southern Africa, which were meeting in the Kenyan capital for a training programme.
Government sources have said that the commission’s activities will be restricted to the time that Moi was in office.
Efforts to establish exactly when the TJRC will be formed and how much it is likely to cost have been fruitless. But according to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), discussions about the size and financing of the truth commission are already under way.
“At this time, we are helping the minister come up with these details, including how long it will last and how to ensure it is efficient. Nothing much can be said now because discussions are at a preliminary stage,” KNCHR chairperson Maina Kiai said in an interview.
“The financial burden of the TJRC need not be on government alone. We are inviting donors who are willing to chip in funds. Having such a body that will require transport [of] people from different places for purposes of testifying, is not a cheap task,” he added.
“And so, we are careful not to under-cost and come up with a body that will not deliver justice because of shortage of money.”
The extent of the commission’s independence from the government has also become a bone of contention.
“The president should not be the one to appoint members of the team because according to [past] experience, [government-appointed] commissions … have been used to deceive the public,” says PAT’s Mucheke, adding: “Their reports [have been] shelved or the commissions disbanded before concluding their work, if the government is covering up something.”
Instead, Mucheke and others believe legislation should be passed that guarantees the body’s right to operate free of government interference.
But the report of a government-appointed task force established last year to ascertain the viability of a truth commission in Kenya disputes this claim. It maintains that the body’s independence will not be compromised if there is good faith on the part of the executive.
“In this respect, the president must, when establishing the truth commission, publicly commit to Kenyans that he will give the truth commission ample powers, that he will fully support it morally with resources and that he will not interfere with its work,” said the task force in its report on establishing a commission in the East African country.
The force, set up in April 2003, conducted public hearings throughout Kenya to find out whether people wanted a truth commission to be established. It concluded that more than 90% of Kenyans favoured a human rights probe.
Calls for a commission came to the fore last year after reports about torture chambers in the capital forced Kenya to confront the horrors of its past. These chambers, situated in Nyayo House in Nairobi, were used by the Moi government to silence political dissidents.
The techniques used by torturers included passing electric currents through the bodies of detainees, hitting them with hot metal bars and using objects to violate them sexually.
Some members of the task force were moved to tears by what they saw and heard about Nyayo House.
“I could not imagine that human beings could do such things to fellow human beings,” Josephine Ojiambo said in an earlier interview, describing her feelings during a visit to the building in the company of torture survivors. PAT believes that more than 1Â 000 people passed through Nyayo House.
Another issue that is likely to top the agenda of the commission is a 1984 massacre in which more than 400 people were allegedly killed in north-eastern Kenya by government officers.
The Wagalla massacre, as it is commonly referred to, is said to have involved the victims being stripped naked and forced to lie on an airstrip in 40 degrees Celsius heat, before they were beaten, clubbed and shot at.
The officers are also accused of raping women, torturing people with burning wood and hot metal implements — and confiscating livestock, the source of livelihood for the animals’ owners. At the time, authorities said that those killed in the incident were shiftas: outlaws who were pushing for the secession of north-eastern areas to neighbouring Somalia.
In much the same way that Mucheke believes the Kibaki government should be scrutinised for alleged economic misdeeds, activists are also calling for the truth commission to encompass other financial crimes.
“The TJRC should be able to look at all aspects of human rights abuses, which will ensure a departure from past violations and atrocities against people by their government. Even economic crimes must not be left out,” said Steve Ouma of the KNHCR.
The most famous of these crimes is undoubtedly the Goldenberg scandal, which involved dubious exports of gold and diamonds from Kenya — something that cost the country an estimated $600-million.
An investigation of the exports was launched last year by authorities. Those implicated in the scandal include ministers in the present government. — IPS