Impunity was not expected to find such fertile ground in the digital age. But here we are with all signs declaring the more things change the more they remain the same.
Impunity has gained even a more solid foundation than was expected under the 2010 Constitution that puts premium on integrity in public office. Even though the Constitution changed, analogue minds still run the executive show.
Two events - the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission report and William Ruto's multi-million shilling trip across Africa - illustrate 'analogue' habits are still dominant among the digital. With that, status quo thrives as a critical pillar of the Jubilee administration.
Just two months after the March 4 General Election, evidence of impunity reloaded is overwhelming. It takes citizens who have always buried their heads in the sand to ignore the musical chairs that was regime change.
First, there was the circus of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission, which presented its report last week to President Uhuru Kenyatta, with horns of impunity blaring from all fronts, including past and incumbent presidencies.
With the past succeeding itself to protect the status quo, the TJRC report may not go beyond its delayed ceremonial receipt at the sanctum of power, which, and with ample evidence from the report, is the custodian of impunity.
The cocktail of vested interests and the tender toes the report tramples on have laid the ground for its own death. Such inevitable death of truth and justice would be another injustice to taxpayers who funded the commission even as it appeared the TJRC assignment was another attempt to gloss over wrongs committed against the Kenyan people.
The man who presented TJRC report, its chairman Bethuel Kiplagat, was himself embroiled in the injustices the truth commission sought to expose and then bring to a just closure. With the chairman presiding over expose of injustices he is alleged to have been involved, doubts were immediately raised on the quality of truth there would be in the report that cost more than Sh1 billion.
There were compromises on the commission's independence and credibility on day one. Civil society and right thinking Kenyans raised these issues; with claim truth was on trial under the chair of a team leader whose credibility was in doubt and also under probe.
Kiplagat's alleged involvement in the matters the commission sought to probe like the Wagalla Massacre and claims of questionable land deals delayed its work. The commission struggled through controversies that may have compromised reconciliation through truth telling.
Worse, the TJRC chairman presented its findings to President Uhuru, who is himself mentioned in the report on three fronts. As president, the TJRC expects Uhuru to apologies publicly and unconditionally for injustices and gross violations of human rights committed since independence to February 28, 2008. But the president is also cited in the violations in his personal capacity as Uhuru Kenyatta, who is also a Kenyatta.
Founding President Jomo Kenyatta (1963-1978), Uhuru's father, second President Daniel arap Moi(1978-2002), Uhuru's mentor, and former president Mwai Kibaki(2002-2008), Uhuru's benefactor, have also been cited as perpetrators of these injustices against the Kenyan people. Asking the fourth Head of State to apologise for the sins of his fathers places an extraordinarily heavy burden on the president. Uhuru already has his own cross to carry at The Hague over 2008 post-election violence, with charges of crimes against humanity.
The founding president, his successor Moi, and Kibaki are some of Kenya's most-landed citizens. It is not that they worked harder than everybody else to be the largest land owners. The report claims they used their offices to acquire the most critical factor of production.
Land is at the core of injustices against the Kenyan people, especially the children of the Mau Mau, who were dispossessed during the war of independence in the 1950s.
During the campaigns for the March 4 elections, Uhuru vigorously denied links to land grabbing. But this report now claims the president is an inheritor of proceeds of impunity. It would therefore be unfair to ask him to lead action on the report. Conflict of interest is obvious.
The TJRC report asks the top citizen to apologise, but admission of such injustices alone won't resettle squatters at the coast and in the Rift Valley or would apology undo the Wagalla massacre or assassinations.
Just as apology won't ease the burden of Jubilee Deputy President William Ruto who declared himself a 'hustler'' during the campaigns only to show up at the presidency as a free spender, who gobbled Sh25,000,000 (or Sh18.5 million in officialspeak) in one trip, which did not have immediate value to the public. Therein lies the contradictions of kusema na kutenda, with hustling coming in the Jubilee with astounding extravagance. The deputy president’s attempt to fight facts hides more than it reveals. Two month can be such a long time.
Finally, this is not a stray column in The Star. The column has found a new residence after years on another platform. My loyal readers and new ones are welcome to this location, where the people's right to know shall always be respected.
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