The law has gagged us, Truth team told

Elders representing residents of Lamu on Thursday walked out on the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission after telling the team that they could not give views until the Indemnity Act was repealed.

Pleas from commissioners, led by chairman Bethuel Kiplagat, fell on deaf ears as the 20 elders left the Lamu Town Hall.

The Indemnity Act, passed by Parliament in June 1970, protects Kenya’s security forces and government officials from prosecution for any atrocities committed during operations against the Shifta insurgency between 1963 and 1967.

The war on the Shiftas, a secessionist movement, was concentrated in what was then known as the Northern Frontier District. It comprised present day North Eastern Province and adjacent districts including Lamu, Tana River, Isiolo and Marsabit.

Its fighters wanted the Somali-dominated region to secede and join Somalia. Under the Indemnity Act, no legal proceedings can be taken against those who committed atrocities in the “prescribed area” between December 25, 1963 and December 1, 1967.

In addition, victims of atrocities cannot be compensated because it is assumed they were executed “in good faith in the interest of public safety or maintenance of public order”.

“We the Bajunis, Bonis, Sanyes, Pokomos, Mijikendas, Ormas, Somalis and Kenyan Arabs are the first internally displaced people, before and after independence, but we have been gagged by the Indemnity Act. We want it repealed soonest possible to give way for our free, fair and legal participation in the Kenyan TJRC process,” said Mzee Mohamed Ali Baddi, the Coast regional coordinator of the National Victims Network.

His group entered the hall and presented memoranda on the need to repeal the Act and left 45 minutes later, as most residents stayed away. Residents told the press that last Friday, a message was passed in mosques on the island that no one would give views to the TJRC.

Speakers said the Act gave immunity to perpetrators of injustices committed against the people of northern Kenya. However, Mr Kiplagat and commissioner Ronald Slye assured the residents that TJRC would be empowered to carry out prosecutions.