Focus on masterminds of the 2007 violence, not human rights activists

Last week The Star newspaper put out a headline that Hassan Omar and I had “saved Raila from the ICC” attributing the statement to Mr Uhuru Kenyatta’s British lawyers.

The article that followed was careful not to directly mention Hassan or me, stating instead that we worked at the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights at the time, which the lawyers had adversely mentioned.

I have read the submissions responding to the ICC’s publication of the redacted evidence that the Prosecution has on Mr Kenyatta. Nowhere do those submissions mention Hassan Omar or me. This is not acceptable, and in the current political environment, is very dangerous. But no, I will not report the paper to the Media Council, nor do I want it to be banned as some seem to want.

What The Star did was take what has been whispered and gossiped within the circles around Mr Kenyatta, Mr William Ruto and by some haters in the blogosphere. The gist is that by producing human rights reports, the KNCHR and NGOs contrived to put some people in trouble and that had there been no report, there would have been no cases in the first place.

HOGWASH

That is hogwash, of course. Human rights people are not in the business of “fixing” people. In fact, human rights people often focus too much on the rights of suspects at the expense of victims.

But let’s be clear: Violence happened. People were killed in Eldoret, Kisumu, Naivasha, Nakuru, Nairobi and Mombasa. People were raped. And hundreds of thousands internally displaced. Thousands of those displaced and now living in Kisii, Kisumu, Siaya and Kakamega have been forgotten and ignored. With or without human rights reports, these facts remain.

But for the record, the KNCHR and NGOs documented reports of violations from their research and investigations. The facts were verified and counter-checked. But human rights groups do not produce evidence for trials. They document and then use those facts to call for thorough and deeper investigations that can be held up in court.

The documentation had various purposes. First, to ensure there was a record of the events and their horrible impacts; second, to spur action by authorities to investigate more; and third, to enhance lobbying and advocacy efforts for accountability.

BALANCED AND DIVERSE

Now, the KNCHR decided to document the violations as they happened in mid to late January 2008. I was involved in setting up the teams to do the documentation, aware that with the ethnic and political divisions, the teams needed to be balanced and diverse in order to ensure the information received was not manipulated to suit particular agendas.

Once the teams were set, and trained, I opted out of the process because I was due to retire in July 2008 and it was unlikely the project would be completed by then. At no time after that did I sit in any meetings to review the information received. And at no time did I engage with the process. In fact I was more out of than in Kenya that year after receiving serious threats on my life.

I know Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto know these facts. And I know that they know I know. For as I found out after leaving the KNHCR, they had help within the Commission. After the Commission’s report, the Waki Commission did more thorough and public investigations, which were handed over to the ICC after politicians refused to set up a Special Tribunal.

It is they who took the duo to The Hague, not Waki, KNCHR or NGOs. The fact is that Mr Ruto’s team blames the PNU side that included Mr Kenyatta. And the pro-Kenyatta whispering brigade blames ODM, which included Mr Ruto.

These accusations against human rights people arise because our politicians believe that everyone is like them: Utterly selfish and sycophantic and unable to be loyal to principles and values. But truth is, many Kenyans are different.

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