Team barred from probing Kiplagat

Questions over the human rights record of the boss of the Truth Commission will have to wait until a case he has filed in court is determined.

Mr Justice Aggrey Muchelule has issued a temporary order stopping a tribunal set up to look into the past of Mr Bethuel Kiplagat from doing so.

The judge’s order come after Mr Kiplagat challenged the authority of the tribunal set up to investigate his past.

The chairman of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission, who has stepped aside to allow investigations, filed an application before the tribunal chaired by retired judge Onesmus Mutungi.

However, the tribunal concluded that it had power to look into his past conduct. Mr Kiplagat, who is represented by lawyer Kevin McCourt, had said the team could only look into his conduct after his appointment as chairman of the Truth Commission, not his past.

He argued that there was a conflict between the mandate of the tribunal and that of the National Assembly.

The Truth Commission will investigate the death of former minister Robert Ouko, the Wagalla Massacre and the Ndung’u report on illegal land allocation, in which Mr Kiplagat is adversely mentioned.

On Wednesday, the judge had this to say to Mr Kiplagat:

“He cannot sit in judgment when the issues are being discussed. Justice will cry if he were allowed to sit in judgment, be a witness and an accused all at the same time. My advice is that he should do the honourable thing.”

However, Mr Justice Muchelule said that if the tribunal made adverse findings and after the case is heard it turns out that the tribunal did not have jurisdiction then Mr Kiplagat would suffer irreparable damage.