Land to dominate TJRC hearings

Land is emerging as the main issue of concern as the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission prepares to start public hearings next month.

Many of those who have recorded statements with the commission cite land as their number one concern.

Commissioners and experts said of the statements already analysed, 35 per cent of people raised concerns over unfair land distribution, unfair loss of land, lack of land tenure rights, among others.

The next major thorny issue is extrajudicial killings with 34 per cent of respondents voicing their fears. The commission has recorded 29,020 statements from those who want to testify.

Statement-taking and analysis are still going on as the commission plans to start public hearings in Garissa County on April 11. The TJRC is investigating violations between 1963 and February 2008.

Two commissioners, who briefed journalists during a retreat in Mombasa on Saturday, Maj-Gen Farah and Prof Ronald Slye, said witnesses had been divided into clusters and a representatives would be selected to testify when the hearings begin.

“The TJRC hearings will create a national narrative so that the Kenyan in Nyanza will hear and understand what it was and is like to live in Mandera.

“We are providing a forum before which the voices of many Kenyans will be heard, and through those voices we will seek a true and complete history of Kenya,” Prof Slye said.

The commission will be in northern Kenya for a month with public hearings planned for Garissa, Wajir, Mandera and Moyale.

The commission can recommend prosecutions for perpetrators of violations. It can also recommend amnesty and further investigations into the allegations.

Meanwhile, the commission investigating the conduct of suspended TJRC chairman Bethuel Kiplagat starts its work on Monday.

The commission has been holding private sessions where those with complaints against Mr Kiplagat were given a chance to raise them.