An open letter to vice-chair Betty Murungi

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. That’s why I have decided to write this open letter because your name, Ms Betty Kaari Murungi, is synonymous with human rights and civil society in Kenya.

I cannot but critically analyse the picture of the swearing-in ceremony now that you have “eaten” the kithitu – taken the oath – to be vice-chair of the truth commission ceremony. Madam, I want to bring that historic picture into sharp focus so that we can reflect on its moral, political and even legal implications.

But let me state the bottom line upfront – I find it impossible to explain your presence in the company of the three most important men in that picture.

Let’s start with Chief Justice Evan Gicheru, the man who swore you in. I need not remind you that Mr Gicheru swore in Mr Mwai Kibaki at night, an act that triggered violence and brought Kenya to the brink of collapse last year.

As the head of the judiciary – the guardian of legality – Chief Justice Gicheru was duty-bound to act with caution until the electoral dispute had been resolved.

In my view, he abused his office by acting in a partisan political manner. Mr Gicheru has lost the confidence of the bar and the public because of his failure to reform the judiciary and uphold the rule of law.

Politically, you are answerable to Mr Mutula Kilonzo, the Justice minister, who is the other important man in the picture. No one doubts that Mr Kilonzo is both a brilliant and even clever lawyer. But that is beside the point.

It is his political history that is relevant to his oversight of the TJRC. Mr Kilonzo was a long-time lawyer for Mr Daniel arap Moi, who ruled Kenya with a heavy hand for 24 years.

I am sure you remember Mr Kilonzo as a rabid defender of the Kanu-Moi regime at the height of its repression. In fact, Mr Kilonzo was a vocal opponent of the Task Force on the Establishment of a Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission which I chaired in 2003. Don’t you find it ironic that he has now taken charge of the TJRC?

Then there is Ambassador Bethuel Kiplagat, your chairman, and the last important man in the picture. The man has a long and storeyed career. He was a central figure during the Moi reign when most of the atrocities you will investigate were committed.

This is the most ominous cloud that hangs over his head. The second is that he may be called to testify before his own truth commission on the grisly murder in February 1990 of Dr Robert Ouko, Kenya’s minister for Foreign Affairs under whom he served as Permanent Secretary.

These are not trivial matters. Can a person who was such an integral part of a brutal and repressive system – and vigorously defended the Kanu regime at its zenith – be a credible steward of excavating the sordid past? Madam, I am not saying that the TJRC should be led by a living saint. Such people only exist in religious texts.

But the chair should be someone who has had nothing to do with a government in which most of the atrocities that the TJRC will investigate were committed. You perfectly fit this bill yourself, and would make the most credible chair of the truth commission.

So I must ask: why do you think President Kibaki did not pick you to lead the TJRC? Is the answer not obvious? You would have nothing to hide, cover up, or protect because your hands are clean.

In fact, your family was a target of the repression that the TJRC would investigate. I would be damned if President Kibaki would have appointed an internationally acclaimed human rights advocate like you to head the truth commission.

Madam, let us look at another picture – this one of the TJRC in session. I assume you will either sit to the immediate left or right of Mr Kiplagat. If I were you, I would sit to his left because it is politically symbolic – after all Mr Kiplagat is already to the right politically.

But wherever you choose sit, look to your left and then to your right. On both sides will be fellow commissioners. Do you recognise any of them as individuals who have fought for human rights? Is anyone of them a member of the fraternity or sisterhood of reformers? I don’t think so unless I did not see all the names.

If you feel like a stranger during the TJRC sessions, it will be because you are. The whole circus will be Orwellian. Now there is talk of amending the law to “expand” both the mandate and composition of the TJRC.

You know this means packing it with political cronies from diverse ethnicities and religions. Such a move will only make it a bigger nightmare. The state intends to add the post-election violence to your mandate so that you can absolve warlords who planned and funded crimes against humanity of criminal responsibility.

That is why Cabinet ministers who have always opposed a truth commission now passionately support it. Madam, unless you exit quickly, your stellar legacy in human rights will be blotted by an irremovable stain. You have taken the kithitu on the Biblia but you can still walk out before it is too late.

Let me conclude with the swearing-in picture. It is reminiscent of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. The world is turned upside down and the pigs, who don’t believe in reform, purport to lead the country towards truth, justice and reconciliation. That is what is so surreal about you in that picture with the trio of Mr Kilonzo, Mr Gicheru and Mr Kiplagat.

Makau Mutua is Dean and SUNY Distinguished Professor at the State University