Truth team seeks yet another extension

The term of the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) might be extended by a further nine months although it is yet to hand in its findings four years down the line.

Another new lease on life for the commission, whose public support waned almost immediately after it assumed office due to wrangling, is meant to enable the team to finish its report.

“Their time has expired, and they have sought an extension which, as a committee, we are considering and we will present their case once Parliament reopens,” said Parliament’s Justice and Legal Affairs Committee vice-chairman Njoroge Baiya.

Although Mr Baiya and chairman of the Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee Abdikadir Mohammed led in the rejection of an extension of the term for TJRC early last month, there seems to have been a change of heart.

Parliament began a six-week recess on October 11 and resumes on November 20, giving it 55 days to conclude pending business before January 15 when its term expires. When the MPs come back, they will be asked to consider TJRC’s application.

With two days to the expiry of its term, the TJRC hosted a section of MPs at a hotel in Mombasa to lobby them to give them nine more months. The TJRC had formally invited MPs to the Mombasa meeting through the Speaker.

The commission did not confirm to the Sunday Nation how many MPs attended the meeting, but there were said to have been 61. Mr Baiya said the committee saw no need to attend the meeting, but this did not mean they were not taking TJRC’s application seriously.

“TJRC is part of Agenda Four items to address part of injustices and it’s a process that the country has invested a lot in. It will be undesirable if they do not finish their work,” the MP said.

Since the expiry of their term, staff at TJRC offices have been uncertain about their future.

“Like everyone else, we are also waiting for a verdict about the extension from Parliament,” said an official, Tabitha Njoka.

TJRC was formed in 2008 as part of Agenda Four of the National Accord with a specific and self-explanatory mandate but is yet to hand in a report.

It was initially given a two-year term. After the expiry of its mandate last year, it has requested and been granted three other extensions.

The mandate was previously extended by nine months, then by another six months which expired on May 3 before they were given another three-month extension. (READ: Truth team asks for more time)

When they were seeking the second extension, the team told MPs that all they needed was just a few days to conclude their report.

On October 3, MPs rejected their plea for more time, saying the team was notorious for seeking extensions but had always failed to do its job.

The Muslim Human Rights Forum has urged Kenyans to reject these manoeuvres by the TJRC and a group of MPs with a notoriety for being “guns for hire” and demanded that the commission be wound up.

The commission received 40,098 statements and 1529 memoranda from individuals and groups.

The forum’s chairman Al-Amin Kimathi said that granting the extension would be “tantamount to rewarding complacency, ineptitude and wastage of public funds”.