Book explores 2008 violence and the long wait for peace and justice

Kenyans who fled to Uganda during the post-election chaos in 2007-2008 demonstrate outside Treasury Building in Nairobi on March 16, 2016 demanding compensation from the government. PHOTO | ROBERT NGUGI | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • One of the major talking points in the book includes the touching experiences of IDPs narrated through in-depth interviews and focus groups discussions.
  • For instance, one IDP says: “I am not willing to go back to Kapsabet and if I got some capital to start a business, I would not go to start a business there after three episodes of violence in 1992, 1997, and 2007-2008. I was too traumatised to return there.”

Book: Transitional Justice and After: Kenya’s Experience with IDP Resettlement and Peace-Building Since the 2007/2008 Post-Election Violence

Author: Dr Mumo Nzau

Publisher: The Catholic University of Eastern Africa Press

Price: Sh5,000

Reviewer: Dr Kioko Ireri

 

Transitional Justice and After is a 240-page book authored by Dr Mumo Nzau, a lecturer at the University of Nairobi and other universities. He is also a governance and national security strategist. The book, founded on research data collected qualitatively in the Rift Valley, examines Kenya’s transitional justice experience since the 2007-2008 post-election violence (PEV).

Specifically, Nzau’s work focuses on three areas: (1) evaluating the peace-building process undertaken in the Rift Valley as a result of PEV; (2) analysing challenges in the resettlement programs to peace-building; and (3) exploring the prospects for resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) as a path to restorative transitional justice.

The data corpus for the book is based on a central question: Is resettlement of IDPs the best path towards restoring justice for the victims of the 2007-2008 post-election violence mainly in the Rift Valley and Kenya in general?

The 2007-2008 PEV left over 1,300 people dead and more than 600,000 internally displaced.

The book’s storyline revolves around transitional justice — a set of processes designed to respond to past human rights violations. The violations include mass murder, torture, rape, genocide, war crimes — generally the entire rubric of crimes against humanity. Transitional justice takes two dimensions — retribution and restoration. Nzau’s book pursues the latter, which entails truth and reconciliation — the most popular form of restorative justice in Africa.

Transitional justice is approached from three theoretical perspectives: the legalist, pragmatist, and emotional psychology. Nzau’s research is founded on the emotional psychology perspective where elimination of the conditions that breed atrocities depends on achieving emotional catharsis in the community of victims and an acceptance of blame by the perpetrators. As such, national reconciliation can’t be achieved without first establishing a consensus on the truth about past abuses. This is because resentful groups will continue to use violence to voice their emotions.

Rift Valley is the focus of the book as it was the epicentre of the 2007-2008 post-election violence and the focal-point of the subsequent peace-building process in Kenya. The region also featured prominently in the 1992, 1997 and 2007 general elections — as the epicentre of election-related violence and internal displacements. Two reasons explain why the release of the volume is timely: First — from a policy standpoint — it provides useful insights and critical analysis of the IDP question in Kenya and the way forward. Second — it comes at a time when the nation is politically polarised along ethnic lines ahead of the August 8 general election.

The book is divided into seven chapters. In Chapter one, the author introduces the problem of internal displacements in Kenya and the justification for its investigation. Chapter two reviews the literature founded on the theory of transitional justice. Chapter three examines the phenomenon of internal displacements in Kenya — dating back to post-independence period through 2008. Institutional and policy environment of IDP resettlement and peace-building in Kenya is the focus of Chapter four. Findings from the qualitative data are reported in Chapter five. In Chapter six, Nzau analyses IDP resettlement as a transitional justice mechanism in the country. Lastly, in Chapter seven, the author makes submissions on his research achievements, as well as recommendations on the way forward.

One of the major talking points in the book includes the touching experiences of IDPs narrated through in-depth interviews and focus groups discussions. For instance, one IDP says: “I am not willing to go back to Kapsabet and if I got some capital to start a business, I would not go to start a business there after three episodes of violence in 1992, 1997, and 2007-2008. I was too traumatised to return there.” Based on the interviewee’s statement, the book reports a correlation between violence and elections — for example — in 1992, 1997 and 2007.