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Let’s not pretend things are okay
By Ndung’u Wainaina
KENYA TIMES
16. April 2007
Corruption, economic crimes, human rights violations and social injustices are pinnacle barriers to realisation of access to justice, accountability, dignified livelihood and security. Political and institutional accountability is the moral and legal basis upon which tenets of democratic principles, the rule of law and human rights culture are nurtured and consolidated.
When a culture of impunity and negative socio-ethnic identities rule a society, a state of brutality, conflicts, self-help justice and insecurity become the hallmark of that society. Equally dangerous is when the political leadership decides to bury its head in the sand and disregard confronting injustices. This only helps to breed more conflicts and create spiral of murderous gangs as disenfranchised groups in the society try to seek justice, recognition and livelihood through violent and illegitimate means.
When President Kibaki was elected, he was emphatic that “corruption and culture of impunity was going to stop being a way of life”. This country is today in a situation where that statement has been reduced to a political gimmick and an idle talk. President Mwai Kibaki and his NARC government erred in scattering and trading off transitional justice for political exigencies of the moment. That err has come back to consume the NARC vision and the whole country for the old order is back in full force and blocking any substantive move on the reform agenda. We can no longer effectively and efficiently protect human rights, fight impunity, combat poverty, stop socio-ethnic conflicts and eradicate corruption.
Today, our yesterday thieves, tormentors and killers are sitting in the state front row of heroes being awarded national medals and are in the streets lecturing us about democracy and human rights. Killing of the soul, dream and spirit that Kenyans bestowed unto Narc in 2002 is in full swing. The president squandered an opportunity to purge the past and its evil acts and instead helped to entrench that past and its destructive character and perpetuate culture of impunity. We are caged in a trap which has forced us to resort to ethnicity and other social identities to seek answers and solutions to our national problems.
Constitutional reform which would have acted as the foundational basis for a new country is completely eclipsed and frustrated by the same past as people want to use it to settle political and social battles and negotiate their freedom. Accountability for human rights violations, economic crimes and social injustices is an important instrument in breaking the cycle of impunity and sporadic conflicts. President Kibaki failed Kenyans in two accounts: first, he never kept his word of holding the perpetrators of corruption, economic crimes and human rights violations accountable and secondly, his government quickly abandoned the due process of the law and increasingly turned to rule by law which has served to undermine the integrity of the state and the state’s institutions and bluntly violate citizens’ fundamental rights and freedoms.
Transitional justice framework is not restricted to the narrow notion of truth commission. Truth commission needs to be conceived from a focal point perspective where past mistakes’ issues are ventilated and major policy proposals agreed upon reflecting on the past misdeeds and what is required for future deterrence. Transitional justice can be seen in the context of broad framework that facilitates a country not to just interrogate its past but help in instituting governance, policy and principles upon which the future of the country is going to be anchored and built on
Yes, responsibility to the past horrendous acts will be shouldered not to persecute but put to accountability those responsible. Acknowledging the past mistakes and giving remedy is better than keep living in denial. That evil past will keep haunting and tormenting us. Spain, a country that chose amnesia is today facing what it postponed for centuries! The truth is that Kenya is fractured, divided and wounded. We cannot continue burying our heads in the sand saying things will sort themselves out once we have fixed our economy.
Political leaders come and go. Therefore we cannot live in behest of their benevolence dictatorship! Alex Boraine, former Deputy Chairperson of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) once said; “transitional justice offers a deeper, richer and broader vision of justice (and accountability) which seeks to confront perpetrators, address the needs of victims and assists in the start of a process of national reconciliation and transformation”.
By President Kibaki forgoing accountability policy of the past and prosecuting the heinous acts associated with it, he lost credibility and political legitimacy on two grounds. First, on moral basis, the President embraced impunity which dehumanises and degrades human dignity and denies justice. Secondly, on political basis, the President undermined the rule of law, the very political legitimacy of his government and empowered the old order to destabilise his government and short-circuit people’s vision and desired changes.
We need to rekindle and catalyse national dialogue and debate on the whole transitional justice agenda not as a political tool but as a process of reconstructing a new Kenya for the following reasons: first, instil a culture that all persons including the head of state are accountable under the law; secondly, provide citizens with avenue to address legitimate and credible grievances and avoid self-help justice; thirdly, restructure and transform state laws and institutions to serve and protect the interests and rights of citizens and not to act and serve as instruments serving and protecting state’s interests; fourthly, cultivate and nurture a human rights and the rule of law culture to eradicate culture of impunity and finally, promote and entrench accountability as a basic value and ethical feature of our public affairs discourse.
(Writer is a Programme Officer, NCEC and Director, International Center for Policy and Conflict. P.O.Box 11996-00400 Nairobi. Tel: 4445974, 4446313; email:
wainainan@icpcafrica.org)
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