TWO foreign commissioners at the TJRC did not sign the Land chapter in the report and intend to publish a separate dissenting chapter.
Prof Ron Slye, a US scholar, and Gertrude Chawatama, a Zambian judge, did not agree with changes introduced to the Land chapter that removed revelations based on letters of the Criticos family. Basil Criticos partnered in a large sisal farm in Taita Taveta with the Kenyatta family.
The other commissioners argued that the letters had to be removed because their authenticity could not be ascertained. They also argued that the claims were highly libelous.
Yesterday, TJRC Chair Bethuel Kiplagat could not explain why the dissenting version of the two commissioners was not published alongside the final report. He defended the integrity of the TJRC report which also indicts him.
“As per our rules, they have a right to dissent. It’s normal in such matters as these. But right now the report that stands is the report that we have handed to the president and which is very good in my opinion,” Kiplagat said.
The two commissioners left Kenya yesterday complaining that their dissenting opinion was deliberately left out and that the majority commissioners schemed against them.
Before leaving, Slye told the Star that the other commissioners told them they had voted to exclude the minority chapter. He said this is contrary to the whole ideaof a dissent. He said that Kiplagat was allowed to include his dissent on past human rights violations in the report.
“We were deliberately not told until two hours before the handover. And copies of the report were printed without our knowledge over the weekend without our dissent,” said Slye who refused to attend the State House handover.
Asked whether the commission would release the dissenting opinion, Kiplagat said, “We will have to look at that.”
Kiplagat said the challenge moving forward is how to guard the TJRC report where 42,000 people exposed many abuses to the commission.
“It can be thrown out because of what I heard yesterday from some of the adversely mentioned people. If they do what they were promising, who knows? It all depends on the courts,” Kiplagat said.
He asked all adversely mentioned persons to follow the law. He maintained that he will defend himself from the allegations in the report once the due process begins.
Meanwhile, the state broadcaster KBC failed to air the commission proceedings in October 2011 because the sessions to be aired had adversely mentioned former President Kibaki, the report says.
The action reminded TJRC commissioners of the “old days” of state control, said the report.
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