Why does Kiplagat want this job so much?

Bethuel Abdu Kiplagat has not a hair out of place. His English is impeccable. He also speaks French and Spanish with admirable ease. His mannerisms are high society, unmistakably coloured with refreshing, warm candour. His handshake is firm and confident.

His well-kept bush of white hair cuts the image of an African sage. From a distance he looks frail and rusty; but a face-to-face encounter with him presents a robust man full of energy and good cheer who takes only one meal a day.

His uncanny resemblance to Nelson Mandela, that saintly patriarch of the anti-apartheid struggle, turns heads whenever he walks down a street — at home or abroad. Indeed, in some informal circles he is touted as “Kenya’s Mandela”.

He was a revered diplomat who once served as Kenya’s voice and face in the United Kingdom, France and between 2003 and 2005, he was Kenya’s special envoy to the Somalia peace process. He has also brokered peace in Rwanda, Uganda and Sudan.

Away from Eastern Africa, he has facilitated peace negotiations in Mozambique (1988-1992), and as director of the Nairobi-based Africa Peace Forum, been intensively involved in security issues in the Horn of Africa.

A widely travelled man, Mr Kiplagat has built an enviable reputation internationally as a well-cultivated, diplomat, peace maker, suave bureaucrat and a man of God.

Just two years ago, the African Union appointed him its ambassador of peace. Indeed, Mr Kiplagat is among a rare breed of Kenyans who have been appointed to a panel of “eminent” persons.

In 2006, Mr Kiplagat was one of the seven eminent persons that constituted the Africa Peer Review Panel where he was in the distinguished company of respected Nigerian intellectual Adebayo Adedeji, Graça Machel (South Africa); Marie Angelique Savane (Senegal), Mohammed Babes (Algeria), Dorothy Njeuma (Cameroon) and Chris Stals of South Africa.

Back home, President Kibaki appointed him to chair a committee of eminent Kenyans tasked to draw a roadmap for the enactment of a new Constitution. He was also appointed chancellor of Egerton University, an honour bestowed on him by President Kibaki when he came to power in 2003 and broke the tradition of the President being the chancellor of all public universities.

Enough of accolades.

The irony is that today Mr Kiplagat, 79, is latching onto a straw, caught up in an ugly fight to head the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission meant to bring about healing from historical injustices Kenyans have suffered since independence.

This circus now threatens to leave an indelible stain on his sagely cotton white mane and cast his long-built reputation to the dustbins of ruined careers, tattered egos and broken dreams.

Since the commission’s appointment in 2009, Mr Kiplagat, and the commission, have known little peace which saw him suspended over a string of accusations touching on his integrity.

Victims of past injustices and sections of the civil society advised him to step aside, saying his association with the Kanu regime which committed the sins the commission is addressing casts doubt on his ability to deliver justice.

In a dramatic reversal of roles, the peace maker has found himself in the dock over alleged involvement in events leading to the Wagalla massacre, land grabbing, oppression of civil rights activists and the assassination of former Foreign Affairs minister Robert Ouko under whom he served as permanent secretary.

However, the Anglican Church elder has consistently pleaded innocence and expressed confidence he will be vindicated if subjected to a credible justice institution. The most damning allegations touch on the Wagalla massacre and the Ouko murder.

A ministry of Foreign Affairs official told the inquiry that Mr Kiplagat led policemen to search Dr Ouko’s office but could not tell whether the officers took away any documents. However, Mr Kiplagat appeared before the Gor Sungu House team investigating the matter and denied any possible link with the Ouko murder.

“I wish I could know who was involved in the murder. This was my friend and those raising such claims should bring evidence,” he said.

Victims of the Wagalla massacre accuse Mr Kiplagat of attending the meeting that sanctioned the security operation that resulted in the mass killing of Degodia clansmen.

They argue that given the alleged Kiplagat role, they were unlikely to get justice from the commission.

In the February 1984 operation, people were arrested from their homes, hurdled to the Wagalla airstrip where they were tortured, starved to death or shot dead by the security forces.

Others were sprayed with petrol and set ablaze, marking one of the lowest points in Kenya’s human rights history. (READ: Kiplagat gets legislators' backing)

Never involved

But Mr Kiplagat says he never attended the meeting. “I was never involved. I had just come from London and as the Foreign Affairs permanent secretary the matter was not in my docket.”

In response to criticism that he was a passionate apologist of the oppressive Nyayo regime, Mr Kiplagat claims he has always championed democratic ideals.

“I was among the few government officials who went before the Saitoti Commission in 1990 and suggested that Kenya should be a multi-party democracy,” he says.

Despite all efforts to lock him out of the commission — including setting up a tribunal to probe allegations against him — a stiff-necked Kiplagat has fought his removal hammer and tongs.

Acting TJRC chairperson Tecla Namachanja has insisted that Mr Kiplagat is unwelcome until all allegations against him are investigated thoroughly and he is cleared by a tribunal.

No less a personage than archbishop Desmond Tutu, the towering figure of post-apartheid healing process in South Africa, has told Kiplagat to pave the way.

In February 2010, the former chairman of South Africa’s epic truth commission, led former chairpersons of truth and justice teams from around the world in calling on Mr Kiplagat to pack and go.

“All truth commissioners must be seen to be upholding the highest standards of ethics and integrity. They need to be seen to be scrupulously independent and objective. We are constrained to point out that ambassador Kiplagat does not meet these essential standards,” they said.

They ominously concluded: “If the current state of affairs is not addressed the TJRC will not be able to deliver truth, justice and accountability for past injustices and gross human rights violations.”

Mandera Central MP Abdikadir Mohammed has declared that Parliament will pull all stops to block Kiplagat from “disrupting” the conclusion of the truth process.

“It is unacceptable that a gentleman who cost the commission a lot of time by insisting that a tribunal should clear him went on and used the courts to derail the tribunal,” said the MP.

But perhaps, the Kenya Chapter of the International Commission of Jurists has best captured the civil society’s position on the matter. Its executive director George Kegoro wrote to Mr Kiplagat imploring him to resign and free the wheels of national healing to roll on to completion. (READ: Truth team vows to fight Kiplagat return)

Highly recommended

“We know that you have very good credentials and come highly recommended. However, your mandate is ultimately people-driven and is derived from victims, members of the public and civil society who have fought hard to realise the establishment of a truth seeking process.

“We know that you love this country and as an honoured diplomat, you are aware of when to fight a good fight and when to ‘hang up the boxing gloves’ – your tenure at the commission unfortunately falls within the realm of the latter. Kindly, resign in order to restore dignity to this process.”

But Mr Kilagat has support, too. Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo says the diplomat should go back to work as there does not seem to be any court proceedings about him. “He needs to justify his earnings. If he does not report back to work, he will be violating the law and creating grounds for his own removal,” Mr Kilonzo said.

Political commentator Herbert Kerre, a supporter of the Namachanja thinking, reckons that the matter is now beyond whether Mr Kiplagat’s accusers are right or wrong.

“This is a job requiring the highest threshold. Like Caesar’s wife its chair must be beyond reproach,” he said while calling on the man to leave. “What drives the octogenarian who should by now be sitting on the cool shores of Kipkaren River, totting his grandchildren and reminiscing about the glorious days in the diplomatic service?”