Democracy should not be important only when it advances our interests: an open letter to the Kikuyu community.

My dear brothers and sisters, fellow members of the Kikuyu community,

I have agonized over writing this letter for some days now knowing just what politically charged times we live in and fearing that what I have to say may not go down well with everybody who reads it. But after weighing carefully the pros and cons, I came to the conclusion that what has to be said must be said even if it proves unpopular in some quarters because ultimately it is the truth that shall set us free. And even if we may not agree on what the truth is, we owe it to ourselves to have an honest conversation with the hope to moving forward together towards the truth.  

My fellow Kenyans of Kikuyu origin, it is time to come and let us reason together. Indeed the time for some serious soul-searching and deep reflection has been upon us for quite a while now. It is time to reflect and talk honestly about our community and the place it has occupied in Kenya’s history and continues to occupy in Kenya’s body politic.

Our community is the largest ethnic group in Kenya, and we have produced three of the four presidents that Kenya has had since independence. Whether we want to admit it or not, in a country of more than 40 communities, in a country which is so ethnically polarized as ours, in a country where resources tend to follow power, for one community to produce three out of four presidents in over half a century of independence is a big deal.

Our community also controls a significant part of the national economy and we are by far the most successful group from an economic point of view. By using the word “we” I am of course over-generalizing. I am aware that there are many poor in our midst - hawkers and casual workers in the cities, peasants and farmhands in the countryside, and the unemployed youth all over. I am also aware that often, our people have borne the brunt of the fallout from bad politics. From Molo to Burned Forest, from Kuresoi to Likoni, our men have been killed, our women have been raped, our children have been displaced. When the elephants have fought, we are the grass that has suffered and we continue to bear the scars of our suffering. But to the extent that when we have been called upon by our politicians to use our vote to ‘protect our own’ we have readily heeded the call and often acted as a block, then this generalization is justified.

Most of us who are economically successful view our success as being the result of an enterprising spirit that characterizes our community. Yet we have allowed ourselves to become hostage to a siege mentality and to regard ourselves as the targets of “envious hatred from less successful communities.” We point to the post-election violence of 2007 and 2008 and the Moi-era ethnic violence as the evidence that supports this view. Those of us who hold this view have come to regard the retention of political power as a prerequisite to our continued survival as a people, in a country where others have become hostile to a point where they can even be moved to contemplate genocidal violence against us.

Our politicians, professionals, priests and pastors were at the forefront of the struggle for democratic rights which President Moi trampled upon when he ruled this country for 24 years. At that time, democracy was an important value to us. For example, when Moi conducted farcical elections in 1988, which were targeted at muting our voice and that of the Luo in national politics, we carried our grievances loudly and for a long time. The ills of the 1988 elections are what motivated the political rebellion which led to multi-party politics in 1992.

When the 2007 elections went horribly wrong, which many people think was the only reason Mwai Kibaki retained himself in power, our sentiment was that democracy was no longer so important, so long as there was peace. A similar view has characterized our view of the 2013 elections, whose accountability mechanisms collapsed spectacularly. Instead of addressing legitimate concerns raised at the time and since, we have continued to arrogantly tell the rest of the country to “accept and move on!”

In the eyes of the rest of the country, democracy is only important to us when it favours our interests, and ceases to be so when we have political power. The names we are calling Raila Odinga on social media and elsewhere, at home and in the diaspora, are the very names that Moi called our leaders in the struggles for democracy in the 1980s.

In between this general narrative, there are minor narratives, like that of Raila Odinga declaring  “Kibaki tosha” and thereby significantly boosting Kibaki’s chances of succeeding Moi at State House, and that of Kalonzo Musyoka supporting Kibaki after the catastrophic 2007 elections, the only way Kibaki maintained himself in power in that turbulent period. According to this narrative, when his term ended, it was reasonably expected that the least that Kibaki could have done was to return the favour, if not to Raila, then to Musyoka. Instead, Uhuru Kenyatta, who had come full circle from being Kibaki’s principal opponent in the 2002 elections and leader of opposition thereafter, became president.

 According to many observers of our country’s history, Kibaki's apparent ingratitude is not just a personal attribute but a reflection of our community. The “punda amechoka” remarks attributed to Raila Odinga refers, however inelegantly, not only to this but also the longer history going back to the relationship between Raila’s father, Jaramogi, and Jomo Kenyatta,  which was also characterized by unrequited loyalty of the former to the latter.

The manner in which the our current president and his deputy went about constituting their government after the 2013 elections, reserving most of the important positions for our people, continues to feed this growing sense of grievance against us.

In the face of the many unanswered questions about the 2013 elections, our president has gone on to protect the IEBC thereby presenting the country with the inevitability of another election in 2017 under this body which his competitors have vowed will not happen since, according to them, to allow it would be to volunteer to be led once again to an electoral slaughterhouse with their eyes wide open.

Today, many view us as having a relationship of horse and rider with the rest of the country including increasingly even the Kalenjin, our bedfellows in Jubilee. The URP’s recent brickbats against Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru, greatly disproportionate to her alleged misdeeds, were based on this view.

President Kenyatta’s recent speech, in which blamed the violence in Mpeketoni on the opposition, is significant because in saying what he said, he sadly descended from the high position of president of the republic, to the low position of our tribal leader. Instead of uniting the nation, he chose to divide it.

The domination by our people of government positions did not prevent, or save us from, the tragic events of  early 2008. What our country desperately needs at this point is political justice. Many see us as using our dominant political and economic position to prevent the realization of this ideal. The vote is important and is the only thing that will protect all of us from the mass violence we have experienced in the past. Our current government has swept under the carpet the questions and doubts arising from the conduct and outcome of the 2013 elections which, together with those of 2007, have come to represent the view that no matter the efforts of others, our community alone decides who becomes the president of Kenya, and does so using whatever rules we choose.  

But the question that we don’t seem to want to address is this, what is the better guarantor of our survival, retaining political power for ourselves by all means or creating strong democratic institutions which will guarantee the rights of all Kenyans no matter who happens to occupy the House on the Hill?

If Kenya is to have a future that includes all of us, the pervasive fear that causes us to pour such scorn and vitriol on Raila Odinga every time he seeks to have a conversation about that future must be contained or it will consume us all. The insults must stop, the arrogance must cease, the myth that we are more equal citizens of this republic whose vision of its future is the only one that counts must be debunked once and for all.

We must find ways to reach out to others and deal with them as equal stakeholders in the fortunes of the land of our birth as we address the common problems threatening to tear our country apart. And if on some point you feel differently; if you feel that I have been unfair to you because I have lumped you together with those pursuing a vision of Kikuyu hegemony over the affairs of our land, then it behooves you to join me in calling out those who do so in our name. For at such a time as this, when our country faces such existential challenges, remaining silent is not an option.

Yours sincerely,

Njonjo Mue.

KQ's dreams won't be realized unless it styles up!

In the name of patriotism, I try not to be too critical of Kenya Airways, after all it's the national carrier... and the Pride of Africa. But recent flights to and from Amsterdam have compelled me to speak out also in the name of patriotism. I don't want to see our national carrier go out of business for lack of proper passenger feedback. I'd rather tell them to style up than vote with my feet and just stop flying KQ. So here goes:

1. That was a sorry excuse for a breakfast! The flight departs at 8.15 a.m. That means one has to be at the airport at 6.15 a.m., that means waking up at around 4 a.m. So finally when you get to your seat, you are quite hungry. And then what do you get? Some microscopic cereals without milk, a small yoghurt and a tiny bread roll. And, wait for this, no butter; instead, they've squeezed some Blue Band into a tiny container similar to those that one is given to place their stuff in for lab tests. As for lunch, KQ can't afford salad dressing, and that Blue Band again!

2. Our captain on the flight to Amsterdam had this dazed and disengaged voice that told you that either he had been up too late the night before, or that he had long lost interest in his job. The couple of announcements he had to make seemed like such a chore. On approaching Schiphol, he duly told us that we had began our descent to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. That was a slip of the tongue, but with another Boeing 777 still missing with passengers and crew at that point after making unscheduled left turns in the sky, it was not very comforting to hear this from our captain. More importantly, it communicated a lack of precision that was discomfiting.

3. As for in-flight entertainment, the selection of both music and movies was poor. Half way through watching my movie, it just blacked out and told me the service was no longer available. Just like that! Being the practical person that I am and since I was rather enjoying the movie, I decided, not a problem, I will watch it on the return flight. Shock on me. On the return flight, it was not just one movie that didn't show, the entire in-flight entertainment of my seat was not functioning. I asked the cabin crew what was up and the answer I got? "Actually, there are 30 seats whose entertainment sets are not working and as this is a full flight, there's nothing I can do." Really??

4. On the return flight, we happened to be graced by the President of Burundi. But it was not enough for us to be informed of this great privilege. No. Every announcement had to be prefaced with "Your Excellency the President of the Republic of Burundi, Honorable Pierre Nkuruzinza, ladies and gentlemen...." And I mean every announcement from welcoming us on board, giving us safety instructions, telling us the captain had now switched off the fasten the seat belt sign, informing us dinner was on the way, telling us about the weather in Nairobi, welcoming us to JKIA, etc. all had to start with "Your Excellency the President of the Republic of Burundi, Hon Pierre Nkuruzinza, ladies and gentlemen..." It was maddening, it was like being in a political rally.

I arrived home on Saturday to the news that KQ had received the first of their new dream liner fleet. But it doesn't matter how many dreamliners they acquire, if their service does not improve, they will soon go out of business. We are patriotic and would love nothing better than to support the national carrier, but for all its alleged glamour, flying still amounts to little more than being trapped for eight hours in a metal cage 39,000 feet above sea level. If I am going to endure that necessary imprisonment, I expect the service on board to be of a standard that helps me momentarily to forget the fact of my incarceration.

Finishing on the right side of history...

Over the last two days, and this being the day Martin Luther King Jr. was felled by an assassin's bullet, I've been starkly reminded that standing up for justice can be costly. But those who, at great risk to themselves, speak up for 'the least of these' must continue to do so confident in the knowledge that God himself is able to protect them, including protecting them beyond physical death. For if we give up our life for the cause of justice, we continue to live in the hearts of those for whom we made the ultimate sacrifice. And we finish on the right side of history, knowing that ultimately good will overcome evil, justice will outlive injustice, love will triumph over hate, hope will outlast despair and life will conquer death.

Truth team: It’s not too late to snatch victory for victims

By Njonjo Mue

In the last two weeks, two important conferences have taken place to evaluate the importance of truth commissions in the search for justice for victims of human rights violations and promoting good governance.

On February 27 and 28, the National Victims and Survivors Network held a conference at Kasarani calling for implementation of the recommendations of the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC).

This was followed a week later by an international conference at McGill University in Canada on the importance of truth and reconciliation commissions in promoting democratic good governance.

While formally unrelated, these conferences raise important questions about the role of truth commissions in consolidating democratic transitions.

The Kasarani conference brought together 65 Kenyan victims and survivors of human rights violations. Investigating these violations formed the core mandate of the TJRC.

The aims were to evaluate the TJRC report and explore strategies for pushing for implementation of its recommendations.

The conference provided victims and survivors with the first real opportunity to interrogate the outcome of the truth seeking process and discuss the status of the report and prospects for its implementation.

Of specific concern was that almost a year since the TJRC completed its work at considerable public expense, there had been deafening silence from the government on the fate of its report.

The TJRC Act provided specific timelines on the presentation of the report to the President, its publication in the Kenya Gazette, its tabling before Parliament, and the implementation of its recommendations.

The government was required to report periodically to Parliament on the progress of implementation. But none of this has happened.

REFUSED TO PUBLISH

Instead, the final days of the TJRC were marred by allegations of political interference with the report-writing; the President was three weeks late in receiving the report; the Government Printer has so far refused to publish it despite having been paid by the TJRC; and instead of facilitating the implementation of the report’s recommendations by establishing an implementation committee, Parliament amended the TJRC Act to give itself power to reopen the report to remove parts it did not like.

In this environment, justice for victims and survivors has become a mirage that seems to recede beyond reach with every passing day.

The gathering at McGill University brought together international experts to explore the factors that condition the success of TRCs in creating social cohesion as a foundation for democratic good governance.

They examined diverse national experiences including from Canada, which has an ongoing TRC to investigate the history and abuses of the Indian Residential School System.

There was common agreement that TRCs had become an important, if imperfect, tool to address past wrongs through restorative justice. But for a TRC to become effective, it should not be a process that merely creates more processes, nor should it be mere catharsis.

Rather it should lead to concrete action that begets true benefits and delivers real justice to victims through reparations and reform of abusive institutions. And to promote good democratic governance, TRCs should also contribute to genuine reconciliation.

Measured against these indicators, the Kenyan truth seeking process is at serious risk of failure. During its lifetime, the TJRC delivered little truth, justice or reconciliation, and the steps Kenya has taken so far in achieving good governance have been made in spite, and not because, of the TJRC.

But it is still not too late to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat for victims. The government could yet salvage the TJRC’s legacy by working in good faith to implement its recommendations.

The writer is a human rights lawyer and programme adviser for Kenyans with Peace, Truth and Justice

Published in Saturday Nation of 22 March 2014 and can be accessed here: http://mobile.nation.co.ke/blogs/Truth-team--It-s-not-too-late-to-snatch-victory-for-victims-/-/1949942/2252920/-/format/xhtml/-/37sfwez/-/index.html

It's Not Too Late To Save Truth Report

FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 2014 - 00:00 -- BY NJONJO MUE

In the last two weeks, two important conferences have taken place to evaluate the importance of truth commissions in the search for justice for victims of human rights violations and promoting good governance.

On February 27 and 28, the National Victims and Survivors Network held a conference at Kasarani calling for implementation of the recommendations of the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission.

This was followed a week later by an international conference at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, on the importance of truth and reconciliation commissions (TRCs) in promoting democratic good governance. While formally unrelated, these conferences raise important questions about the role of truth commissions in consolidating democratic transitions.

 The Kasarani conference brought together 65 Kenyan victims and survivors of human rights violations. Investigating these violations formed the core mandate of the TJRC.

The aims of the conference were to evaluate the contents of the TJRC report and to explore strategies for pushing for the implementation of its recommendations.

 The conference provided the victims and survivors with the first real opportunity to interrogate the outcome of Kenya’s truth seeking process and discuss the current status of the report and the prospects of implementation of its recommendations.

 Of specific concern was that almost a year since the TJRC completed its work at considerable public expense, there had been deafening silence from the government on the fate of its report.

The TJRC Act had provided very specific timelines as to the presentation of the report to the President, its publication in the Kenya Gazette, its tabling before Parliament, and the implementation of its recommendations which was to be overseen by a proposed Implementation Committee. The government was required to report periodically to Parliament on the progress of implementation. But none of this has happened.

Instead, the final days of the TJRC were marred by allegations of political interference with the report-writing process; the President was three weeks late in receiving the report; the Government Printer has so far refused to publish the report despite having been paid to do so by the TJRC; and instead of facilitating the implementation of the report’s recommendations by establishing the proposed implementation committee, Parliament amended the TJRC Act to give itself power to reopen the report to remove the parts that it did not like. In this environment, Justice for victims and survivors has become a mirage that seems to recede further beyond reach with every passing day.

The gathering at McGill University brought together international experts to explore the factors that condition the success of TRCs in contributing to creating social cohesion as a foundation for democratic good governance.

They examined diverse national experiences including from Canada which has an ongoing TRC to investigate the history and abuses of the Indian Residential School System; Argentina which had one of the first TRCs established in 1983; South Africa, whose TRC was among the most celebrated in the world and which has continued to provide inspiration for subsequent truth commissions; Sierra Leone; Australia; Northern Ireland; Guatemala; Brazil; Uruguay and Kenya.

 There was common agreement that TRCs had become an important, if imperfect, tool mandated by law to address past wrongs through restorative justice.

But for a TRC to become effective, it should not be a process that merely creates more processes, nor should it be mere catharsis.

Rather it should lead to concrete action that begets true benefits and delivers real justice to victims through reparations and the reform of abusive institutions.

And to promote good democratic governance, TRCs should also contribute to genuine reconciliation which may be defined as anything that that enables people to live peacefully together.

 Measured against these indicators, the Kenyan truth seeking process is in serious risk of failure. During its lifetime, the TJRC delivered little truth, justice or reconciliation, and the steps Kenya has made so far in achieving good governance have been made in spite, and not because, of the TJRC.

But it is still not too late to snatch victory for victims from the jaws of defeat. The government could yet salvage the TJRC’s legacy by working in good faith to implement its recommendations.

The writer is a human rights lawyer and a program adviser for Kenyans with Peace, Truth and Justice.

- See more at: http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-159714/its-not-too-late-save-truth-report#sthash.vafcZK3X.dpuf

As things fall apart...

'Things fall apart
The centre cannot hold'

Hapless shoppers are attacked
As they shop and dine in malls
Inquiries are promised
But never began
Road users die daily
In myriad incidents
mis-named accidents
Insecurity abounds
From the leafless North
To the leafy suburbs
The cost of living
Goes through the roof
With new taxes and levies
Everywhere.
In the midst of all this
The National Assembly
Suspends all other business
To discuss the important matter
Of who Should fly
The national flag
And which category of leaders
May use the title
'Your Excellency.'

'Things fall apart
The centre cannot hold.'

Mamdani is wrong, it’s not impunity that heals but justice

During a debate recently held at Kenyatta University, Prof Mahmood Mamdani spoke on the topic, “Can Courts End Civil Wars?” The main thrust of his argument was that during or in the immediate wake of conflict, criminal prosecutions should play no role in efforts to reconstruct society. I attended the debate and disagreed with Mamdani. I later set out my reasons in this opinion piece carried in the current issue of The East African.

-------------------

During a debate recently held at Kenyatta University, Prof Mahmood Mamdani spoke on the topic, “Can Courts End Civil Wars?” The main thrust of his argument was that during or in the immediate wake of conflict, criminal prosecutions should play no role in efforts to reconstruct society.

He argued that criminal violence should not be conflated with political violence because the latter has a constituency. He further stated that prosecuting perpetrators in the wake of political atrocities would exacerbate rather than solve the problem because political violence is not just driven by perpetrators, but by issues.

In light of recent and ongoing experience in many African countries where gross human-rights violations continue to be committed in the guise of contestation for political power, Prof Mamdani’s thesis is disturbing.

It comes dangerously close to giving political elites a blank cheque to commit atrocities against their own people and avoid accountability by claiming a political motive for their criminal activities.

While we must concede that criminal trials cannot by themselves end civil war, Prof Mamdani errs by going to the opposite extreme in suggesting that politics alone should take centrestage.

“The rule of law requires a stable political order,” he asserted during the debate, adding that politics always trumps the law in post-conflict societies.

However, the role of criminal prosecutions and accountability in the immediate aftermath of conflict cannot be gainsaid.

Empirical evidence shows that where there is no accountability for atrocity crimes, they are likely to recur. At the end of the decade-long Sierra Leone civil war, for instance, the first peace agreement signed in Lome in 1999 provided for a blanket amnesty for all actors in the conflict, but it was not long before vicious fighting broke out once again.

The government of Sierra Leone then requested the United Nations to facilitate the setting up of a Special Court to prosecute those most responsible for the atrocities.

The court indicted several high-level actors including rebel leader Foday Sankoh, who subsequently died in custody while undergoing trial, and former Liberian president Charles Taylor, who is currently serving a 50-year jail sentence for his crimes during the civil war.

Criminal prosecution of perpetrators was a key variable that contributed significantly to the ending of the Sierra Leone conflict and its transition to democracy.

Criminal accountability also helps a society to restore the rule of law and affirms the human rights of victims, thereby helping to reinstate the social contract and to send a clear message to victims that the state is able and willing to protect them.

Underlying most atrocity crimes is a narrative of dehumanising and disenfranchising of “the other.” Criminal accountability sends a clear message that all citizens are equal members of the polity deserving of equal protection from the law and not mere objects to be sacrificed at the altar of the search for political dominance.

Where victims’ needs for justice are left unaddressed, victim communities themselves become vulnerable to mobilisation by warlords to seek revenge against what they consider enemy communities.

However, isolating and prosecuting individual perpetrators individualises guilt and stops the cycle of communal violence.

The struggle for political stability in most post-conflict societies beginning in Latin America in the late 1970s and sweeping through Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa especially after the end of the Cold War has given rise to a new field of human rights termed transitional justice.

It refers to the set of judicial and non-judicial measures that have been implemented by different countries in order to redress the legacies of massive human-rights violation.

These measures include prosecuting those responsible for human-rights abuses; establishing the truth about the nature of the violations; delivering reparations to victims; and implementing institutional reforms to change those institutions that aggravated or caused the conflict and creating new ones to promote human rights. 

None of these measures is sufficient in and of itself. Transitional justice mechanisms must be implemented in a comprehensive, mutually supportive and carefully sequenced manner.

But where crimes against humanity, genocide, war crimes and other gross violations of human rights have been committed, perpetrators must be held criminally accountable, no matter what the motive for their actions or the constituency that they purport to act for.

Njonjo Mue is a human-rights lawyer and a programme adviser to Kenyans for Peace, Truth and Justice

See article at this link: http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Mamdani-is-wrong--it-s-not-impunity-that-heals-but-justice/-/434750/2226690/-/item/1/-/129q54oz/-/index.html