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July 27, 2009

Church peace broker to lead Kenya’s truth and justice commission

by Fredrick Nzwili
Ecumenical News International

NAIROBI — Bethuel Kiplagat, a retired diplomat who has been involved in World Council of Churches peace efforts in Africa, soon after his appointment to head  the country’s Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission is telling fellow Kenyans to prepare to confront a painful past.

“Nobody should fear. Our mandate is to find the truth, not to nail anybody,” said Kiplagat, who was Kenya’s ambassador in France in 1978, and its high commissioner to Britain from 1981 to 1983 as well as being the top foreign ministry official during the rule of former president Daniel arap Moi.

Kiplagat, who is also a former deputy general secretary of the National Council of Churches in Kenya, assured his compatriots that those who confess their crimes will not face retribution. He was appointed by President Mwai Kibaki on July 22 to work with another five Kenyans and three international experts.

“We want people to trust, speak openly and frankly with each other so that we can know where and when things started to go wrong,” Kiplagat told journalists after his appointment.

The Catholic Information Service for Africa quoted human rights lawyer Paul Muite as saying, however, that the former foreign affairs permanent secretary in Moi’s government is not fit to chair the commission. Muite said Kiplagat was the top official when his boss, then foreign minister Robert Ouko, was killed in what is thought to have been an assassination plotted by politicians at the time.

The 72-year-old retired diplomat is expected to help Kenyans find out the truth about historical injustices, political assassinations and public resources plunder, since independence in 1963. The commission will also deal with the post-election violence which afflicted Kenya from late December 2007 to January 2008 after a poll that opposition parties said had been rigged.

“I think he is the right man,” retired Anglican Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi told Ecumenical News International. “The work load is heavy, but I think he has wide experience.”

The former diplomat has had a long relationship with the Geneva-based WCC and the Nairobi-based All Africa Conference of Churches in leading efforts peace efforts for Sudan, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Somalia and Madagascar. In January, Kiplagat led a WCC initiative in Namibia to help bring the Africa Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone Treaty into force.

“We also call on the international community to extend its support to the work of the TJRC, which is a key component of the reform agenda agreed on during the Kenya national dialogue and reconciliation [process],” said Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary-general in a statement.