By LUKOYE ATWOLI
Sunday Nation 14 June 2009, Page 23
Many people are working themselves into a frenzy over the millions of Kenyans who lost money in the ill-fated pyramid schemes, with allusions to dozens who have committed suicide as a result of the losses they suffered.
It is well and good to commiserate with fellow Kenyans and point the accusing finger at the masterminds of the schemes that resulted in such massive losses, but in the interests of truth and honesty, it must be pointed out that the larger portion of blame lies elsewhere.
Many have blamed the government for a weak regulatory framework that allowed rogue “businessmen” to fleece ignorant citizens of billions of shillings. The Central Bank of Kenya has come under withering attack for allowing the schemes to operate. Even the former Cooperatives minister has been dragged into the fray since some of the schemes were registered as cooperatives.
The truth
Despite the fact that it would be impolitic to speak ill of the millions of Kenyans who are nursing massive losses, it is imperative, however, for us to shine some light on the truth about pyramid schemes. At the height of excitement over the huge profits people were making in these schemes, the CBK published a warning in the media, indicating that these organisations were not authorised to take deposits.
This warning, and many others, were dismissed by most “investors” as a case of sour grapes. Some accused the government of standing in the way of citizens out to make an honest shilling. Even as some of the schemes were collapsing, new ones were springing up under different names.
It was even recently reported in the media that one of the collapsed schemes had resurfaced in a neighbouring country and quietly continued fleecing people there before its inevitable collapse. It is therefore the height of hypocrisy for those of us who took a huge risk and lost to turn around and ask the taxpayer to expend resources in investigations and compensation for those losses. As is oft repeated in business circles, a lot of the investment decisions we make have an element of risk.
The risk
What is never highlighted is that the risk is often a real one, and the majority of risk-takers often lose their investment on their way to success in business. It would be better for those who lost money in the pyramid schemes to dust themselves up, learn the lesson and move on.
Asking the government to get involved in investigations and compensation would imply that those who “invested” earlier in the schemes and made huge profits should also be tracked down and asked to return the money. Those asking the Central Bank to make regulations governing pyramid schemes are probably doing so in the heat of the moment, and obviously not much thought has gone into such demands.
Regulating pyramid schemes would be akin to regulating violent robbery – setting up rules and procedures concerning who may be robbed, how they may be robbed and when the robbery may take place. At this point in time the only thing government should do is to investigate if anyone was involved in wrong-doing and punish them appropriately under the existing legislation.
Dr Lukoye Atwoli is a consultant psychiatrist and lecturer at Moi University’s School of Medicine. www.lukoyeatwoli.com
Monday, June 15, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
Oil industry bleeding us dry
By LUKOYE ATWOLI
Sunday Nation, 07 June 2009, Page 21
Some time late last year, the ministry of Energy promised to institute controls on the price of petroleum products because the oil industry in this country had failed to heed the cry of the common citizen and continued pursuing profits without a social conscience.
The ministry even went ahead and published some complicated formula in the press using taxpayers’ money and asked for comments within a given timeframe after which the regulations would become law.
Whimpering
It is now over six months since the regulations were published and recently the minister for Energy was heard uncharacteristically whimpering that unless oil companies act responsibly, “the ministry will be forced to regulate the price of petroleum products”.
Either the minister is unaware of the progress made since the proposed regulations were published, or he is just being mischievous and hoodwinking Kenyans with meaningless populist statements.
Indeed, such repetitious behaviour has become characteristic of this grand coalition monster, and we were not disappointed last week at the Madaraka Day celebrations when the principals came together to repeat platitudes that meant nothing to anyone but themselves.
The failure to act on regulation of prices of petroleum products is seriously hurting the economy. Indeed, it would even be surprising if the economy will “grow” at the projected 1.7 per cent this year if the current trend continues. The price of petroleum products affects everything from cost and availability of food and other basic necessities to transport, infrastructure and even healthcare.
Yet even as Kenyans continue to suffer unspeakable hardships today, one of the oil companies was recently quoted in the press indicating that the price of oil was inevitably headed north. None of the multifarious explanations given for this ever show why the price of local petroleum products rises within days of some global convulsion, but it drops very slowly if at all whenever the reverse situation obtains.
The dishonest talk of exhausting old stocks seems only to apply when international oil prices drop, but when the prices rise, the “old stock” story becomes irrelevant as Big Oil scrambles for profit.
The oil industry cannot be blamed for playing this cynical game for the companies are not established for charitable purposes. If they had their way they would indeed inflate the prices of their commodities to the highest price possible to still make a sale.
Powerful lobby
It is, however, the responsibility of government to look out for the interest of the citizens on whose behalf it governs. Part of its responsibility is to ensure that as many of its citizens as possible are comfortable, and this includes regulating the prices of essential commodities.
Big Business has a very powerful lobby in this country and this will continue to be the case as long as we worship wealth for its own sake and not for the good that it is capable of.
Assuming that the proposed regulatory mechanisms have not been secretly shelved, Kenyans need to hear from the responsible ministry what progress has been made in ensuring that the price of petroleum products is bearable and does not unduly disrupt economic growth while lining the pockets of a few magnates.
Kenyans also need to demand accountability from this government if we are to stop top public servants from getting away with blatant dishonesty and doublespeak which only results in more Kenyans descending into the clutches of poverty. Pronouncements of a new agenda for jobs and food security such as those made on Madaraka Day must be seen for what they really are – pure hot air.
Dr Lukoye Atwoli is a consultant psychiatrist and lecturer at Moi University’s School of Medicine.
Sunday Nation, 07 June 2009, Page 21
Some time late last year, the ministry of Energy promised to institute controls on the price of petroleum products because the oil industry in this country had failed to heed the cry of the common citizen and continued pursuing profits without a social conscience.
The ministry even went ahead and published some complicated formula in the press using taxpayers’ money and asked for comments within a given timeframe after which the regulations would become law.
Whimpering
It is now over six months since the regulations were published and recently the minister for Energy was heard uncharacteristically whimpering that unless oil companies act responsibly, “the ministry will be forced to regulate the price of petroleum products”.
Either the minister is unaware of the progress made since the proposed regulations were published, or he is just being mischievous and hoodwinking Kenyans with meaningless populist statements.
Indeed, such repetitious behaviour has become characteristic of this grand coalition monster, and we were not disappointed last week at the Madaraka Day celebrations when the principals came together to repeat platitudes that meant nothing to anyone but themselves.
The failure to act on regulation of prices of petroleum products is seriously hurting the economy. Indeed, it would even be surprising if the economy will “grow” at the projected 1.7 per cent this year if the current trend continues. The price of petroleum products affects everything from cost and availability of food and other basic necessities to transport, infrastructure and even healthcare.
Yet even as Kenyans continue to suffer unspeakable hardships today, one of the oil companies was recently quoted in the press indicating that the price of oil was inevitably headed north. None of the multifarious explanations given for this ever show why the price of local petroleum products rises within days of some global convulsion, but it drops very slowly if at all whenever the reverse situation obtains.
The dishonest talk of exhausting old stocks seems only to apply when international oil prices drop, but when the prices rise, the “old stock” story becomes irrelevant as Big Oil scrambles for profit.
The oil industry cannot be blamed for playing this cynical game for the companies are not established for charitable purposes. If they had their way they would indeed inflate the prices of their commodities to the highest price possible to still make a sale.
Powerful lobby
It is, however, the responsibility of government to look out for the interest of the citizens on whose behalf it governs. Part of its responsibility is to ensure that as many of its citizens as possible are comfortable, and this includes regulating the prices of essential commodities.
Big Business has a very powerful lobby in this country and this will continue to be the case as long as we worship wealth for its own sake and not for the good that it is capable of.
Assuming that the proposed regulatory mechanisms have not been secretly shelved, Kenyans need to hear from the responsible ministry what progress has been made in ensuring that the price of petroleum products is bearable and does not unduly disrupt economic growth while lining the pockets of a few magnates.
Kenyans also need to demand accountability from this government if we are to stop top public servants from getting away with blatant dishonesty and doublespeak which only results in more Kenyans descending into the clutches of poverty. Pronouncements of a new agenda for jobs and food security such as those made on Madaraka Day must be seen for what they really are – pure hot air.
Dr Lukoye Atwoli is a consultant psychiatrist and lecturer at Moi University’s School of Medicine.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Kiambaa: A blot on the national conscience
By LUKOYE ATWOLI
Sunday Nation 24 May 2009, Page 10
Troubling events are taking place all over this country, indicative of our nation’s serious slump to the scale of failed states. No event is too big or too small for Kenyans to give it an ethno-political bent. A couple of illustrations will suffice.
A few days ago, a funeral ceremony was held for the dozens of people killed in a church on the outskirts of Eldoret town at the height of the post-election madness last year. The President attended the ceremony, but senior politicians from the Rift Valley and the ODM wing of government were conspicuously absent.
At a separate event, some politicians accompanying the American ambassador to a function in the Burnt Forest area reportedly chose to avoid going with him to the Kiambaa burial site due to some other “commitments”.
The reasons given for these incidents cannot be examined here, but suffice it to say that these two events graphically illustrate the depth of division in this country.
Many people today believe that our national leaders have become so parochial that only events affecting members of their ethnic communities are considered important enough to warrant “national” attention.
It is clear that one wing of government is reluctant to be associated with any event that seems to indicate some sort of connivance or tacit acknowledgement of responsibility for the post-election conflagration.
The other wing is only too eager to heap all the blame on their opponents despite evidence that Kenyans from many ethnic communities participated in and were seriously affected by the violence, according to the Waki Report.
The politicians’ behaviour seems to mirror the attitudes on the ground, and anyone who has engaged the average Kenyan will come away with the feeling that the uneasy coexistence we have with our neighbours is a powder keg just waiting to explode at the slightest provocation.
There is evidence, too, that some sort of revisionism is taking place at various levels across the country concerning the post-election violence.
It is not restricted to the causes, triggers or other antecedents related to the violence, and it has now extended to actual events during and after the onset of the violence.
The trend began early last year when the police spokesman claimed that Kenyans were watching a “Rambo movie” when they saw a young protester in Kisumu being shot dead on national television. It has now extended to cover many other atrocities, and the Kiambaa church attack has not been spared.
Indeed, early last year, there was near unanimity concerning the magnitude of the violence and its spread, and the only apparent disagreement was about why it happened. This year, new theories are emerging that certain incidents actually happened differently, or did not take place at all.
Most Kenyans thought that the church was set on fire by a band of youth supposedly angered by the outcome of the election or some other grievance. But a new explanation is now being propagated that there was a gas explosion, or someone accidentally started the fire while trying to escape from the surrounded church.
It may be difficult to follow the various chains of logic involved in explaining away events in which human beings actually lost their lives and left behind orphans, widows and widowers, but such is the magnitude of our bitterness that it seems perfectly normal for us to engage in this sophistry.
The natural result of this revisionism is that we lose sight of the significance of our dalliance with destruction, and it feeds the perception that we are still on the brink of the precipice and can topple over any time. This is what needs to concern the authorities in this country, and not the petty political wrangles that are currently occupying them.
Instead of learning from these events and beginning to take steps towards real change in our way of doing things, our top leadership prefers to keep its head buried in the sand, hoping against hope that Kenyans will somehow wake up in the morning having magically forgotten their prejudices and “historical injustices”.
Unless Kenyans demonstrate that they are ready to take charge of their own destiny, the politicians we so faithfully wait upon will continue to divide us for their own benefit. Kiambaa will remain a blot on our national conscience until we deal with the deep divisions and resentments it represents.
The very mention of the name will continue to evoke strong feelings in most Kenyans, and the measure of reconciliation will be how we deal with that particular memory.
As things stand today, there is not even the illusion of reconciliation and re-integration, just an uneasy co-existence waiting for the next excuse to explode in unspeakable violence.
Dr Lukoye Atwoli is consultant psychiatrist and lecturer at Moi University’s School of Medicine.
www.lukoyeatwoli.com
Sunday Nation 24 May 2009, Page 10
Troubling events are taking place all over this country, indicative of our nation’s serious slump to the scale of failed states. No event is too big or too small for Kenyans to give it an ethno-political bent. A couple of illustrations will suffice.
A few days ago, a funeral ceremony was held for the dozens of people killed in a church on the outskirts of Eldoret town at the height of the post-election madness last year. The President attended the ceremony, but senior politicians from the Rift Valley and the ODM wing of government were conspicuously absent.
At a separate event, some politicians accompanying the American ambassador to a function in the Burnt Forest area reportedly chose to avoid going with him to the Kiambaa burial site due to some other “commitments”.
The reasons given for these incidents cannot be examined here, but suffice it to say that these two events graphically illustrate the depth of division in this country.
Many people today believe that our national leaders have become so parochial that only events affecting members of their ethnic communities are considered important enough to warrant “national” attention.
It is clear that one wing of government is reluctant to be associated with any event that seems to indicate some sort of connivance or tacit acknowledgement of responsibility for the post-election conflagration.
The other wing is only too eager to heap all the blame on their opponents despite evidence that Kenyans from many ethnic communities participated in and were seriously affected by the violence, according to the Waki Report.
The politicians’ behaviour seems to mirror the attitudes on the ground, and anyone who has engaged the average Kenyan will come away with the feeling that the uneasy coexistence we have with our neighbours is a powder keg just waiting to explode at the slightest provocation.
There is evidence, too, that some sort of revisionism is taking place at various levels across the country concerning the post-election violence.
It is not restricted to the causes, triggers or other antecedents related to the violence, and it has now extended to actual events during and after the onset of the violence.
The trend began early last year when the police spokesman claimed that Kenyans were watching a “Rambo movie” when they saw a young protester in Kisumu being shot dead on national television. It has now extended to cover many other atrocities, and the Kiambaa church attack has not been spared.
Indeed, early last year, there was near unanimity concerning the magnitude of the violence and its spread, and the only apparent disagreement was about why it happened. This year, new theories are emerging that certain incidents actually happened differently, or did not take place at all.
Most Kenyans thought that the church was set on fire by a band of youth supposedly angered by the outcome of the election or some other grievance. But a new explanation is now being propagated that there was a gas explosion, or someone accidentally started the fire while trying to escape from the surrounded church.
It may be difficult to follow the various chains of logic involved in explaining away events in which human beings actually lost their lives and left behind orphans, widows and widowers, but such is the magnitude of our bitterness that it seems perfectly normal for us to engage in this sophistry.
The natural result of this revisionism is that we lose sight of the significance of our dalliance with destruction, and it feeds the perception that we are still on the brink of the precipice and can topple over any time. This is what needs to concern the authorities in this country, and not the petty political wrangles that are currently occupying them.
Instead of learning from these events and beginning to take steps towards real change in our way of doing things, our top leadership prefers to keep its head buried in the sand, hoping against hope that Kenyans will somehow wake up in the morning having magically forgotten their prejudices and “historical injustices”.
Unless Kenyans demonstrate that they are ready to take charge of their own destiny, the politicians we so faithfully wait upon will continue to divide us for their own benefit. Kiambaa will remain a blot on our national conscience until we deal with the deep divisions and resentments it represents.
The very mention of the name will continue to evoke strong feelings in most Kenyans, and the measure of reconciliation will be how we deal with that particular memory.
As things stand today, there is not even the illusion of reconciliation and re-integration, just an uneasy co-existence waiting for the next excuse to explode in unspeakable violence.
Dr Lukoye Atwoli is consultant psychiatrist and lecturer at Moi University’s School of Medicine.
www.lukoyeatwoli.com
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Minister’s secession call is dangerous and irresponsible
By LUKOYE ATWOLI
Sunday Nation 17 May 2009, Page 10
Early last week an assistant minister in the grand coalition government was quoted as saying that Coast Province should secede from the rest of Kenya in order to manage its own resources.
He also made claims to the effect that the province contributes “over 60 per cent of national tax revenue”, yet it remains the least developed region in the country.
There are two problems with this minister’s assertion. One, the statement is factually incorrect for it is difficult to say with certainty that the province contributes that much to the national coffers without the involvement of the “up-country” folks.
The national economy is so intertwined that all regions contribute one way or another to the so-called national cake.
The more serious problem, in my opinion, is that this statement was made by a minister of government.
If he truly feels that his province should be self-governing and not part of Kenya, the first thing he should do it to resign his ministerial post and fight for secession from the back bench of Parliament. Even better, he should vacate his parliamentary seat and retreat to his province to lead the fight for secession from there.
Without taking these steps, his remarks can only be interpreted as attempts at seeking cheap publicity by making inciting statements that may only curry favour with certain segments of his constituents.
Such statements do very little to encourage national healing and cohesion, a key task this government set for itself at its formation early last year.
It is a pity, therefore, that the two principals – President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga – would continue to entertain such an individual in government after he had made potentially treasonable comments in public.
THE MINISTER MADE THOSE REMARKS as Kenyans are preparing themselves for another round of constitutional review, and the issue of majimbo is making a stealthy comeback.
Both sides of the grand coalition government now seem to agree on a majimbo system of government, even though nobody has bothered to define what majimbo means in the first place.
The most vitriolic contentions arising out of the constitutional referendum debate of 2005 revolved around the issue of devolution, with one group rooting for majimbo (later renamed ugatuzi due to the emotional undertones of the former term) and the other vehemently opposed to it.
The Yes campaign seemed to favour a centralised system of government with limited devolution as espoused in the Wako draft, while the No campaign rejected this and favoured the Bomas draft option of significant autonomy for the regions.
As the majimbo debate is revived, remarks like the assistant minister’s only serve to obfuscate issues and bring to the fore the ignorance and confusion surrounding the majimbo issue.
The truth is that no matter what any well-meaning individual or group tries to do to inculcate a sense of nationhood among Kenyans, “leaders” such as this minister remain stumbling blocks in the path of progress.
A recent survey showed that most Kenyans opposed to majimbo view it as a means of evicting “foreigners” from certain areas and favouring “indigenous” people with jobs and other opportunities.
Whether this is the case or not is unclear, since no political party has come out openly and discussed the implications of whatever form of devolution they favour to the common mwananchi.
In the absence of such clarification, it behooves our political leaders to be more careful about what sort of verbiage they spew out in public forums. The use of terms like “outsiders” to refer to other Kenyans should be restricted to unschooled village louts with no vision of the world beyond the nearest shopping centre.
As long as other politicians remain mum on this issue, it can only be assumed from these utterances that their vision of majimbo is one of exclusionist politics with a significant dose of ethnic cleansing.
THE HYPOCRISY OF OUR POLITICIANS IS exposed every day in their lack of guile when faced with multiple microphones and a crowd of eager listeners.
Politicians of various shades in this country proclaim daily their commitment to East African integration in the interest of a larger market for Kenyan goods and greater say on the international stage.
Yet when they address their constituents, who are assumed to be clueless ignoramuses, they turn into railing demagogues with pretences to protecting “communal” interests.
In this era of a shrinking geopolitical space and global interconnectivity, our politicians should realise that their audience is far broader than the few village folks they deign to address.
Dr Lukoye Atwoli is a consultant psychiatrist and lecturer at Moi University’s School of Medicine
Sunday Nation 17 May 2009, Page 10
Early last week an assistant minister in the grand coalition government was quoted as saying that Coast Province should secede from the rest of Kenya in order to manage its own resources.
He also made claims to the effect that the province contributes “over 60 per cent of national tax revenue”, yet it remains the least developed region in the country.
There are two problems with this minister’s assertion. One, the statement is factually incorrect for it is difficult to say with certainty that the province contributes that much to the national coffers without the involvement of the “up-country” folks.
The national economy is so intertwined that all regions contribute one way or another to the so-called national cake.
The more serious problem, in my opinion, is that this statement was made by a minister of government.
If he truly feels that his province should be self-governing and not part of Kenya, the first thing he should do it to resign his ministerial post and fight for secession from the back bench of Parliament. Even better, he should vacate his parliamentary seat and retreat to his province to lead the fight for secession from there.
Without taking these steps, his remarks can only be interpreted as attempts at seeking cheap publicity by making inciting statements that may only curry favour with certain segments of his constituents.
Such statements do very little to encourage national healing and cohesion, a key task this government set for itself at its formation early last year.
It is a pity, therefore, that the two principals – President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga – would continue to entertain such an individual in government after he had made potentially treasonable comments in public.
THE MINISTER MADE THOSE REMARKS as Kenyans are preparing themselves for another round of constitutional review, and the issue of majimbo is making a stealthy comeback.
Both sides of the grand coalition government now seem to agree on a majimbo system of government, even though nobody has bothered to define what majimbo means in the first place.
The most vitriolic contentions arising out of the constitutional referendum debate of 2005 revolved around the issue of devolution, with one group rooting for majimbo (later renamed ugatuzi due to the emotional undertones of the former term) and the other vehemently opposed to it.
The Yes campaign seemed to favour a centralised system of government with limited devolution as espoused in the Wako draft, while the No campaign rejected this and favoured the Bomas draft option of significant autonomy for the regions.
As the majimbo debate is revived, remarks like the assistant minister’s only serve to obfuscate issues and bring to the fore the ignorance and confusion surrounding the majimbo issue.
The truth is that no matter what any well-meaning individual or group tries to do to inculcate a sense of nationhood among Kenyans, “leaders” such as this minister remain stumbling blocks in the path of progress.
A recent survey showed that most Kenyans opposed to majimbo view it as a means of evicting “foreigners” from certain areas and favouring “indigenous” people with jobs and other opportunities.
Whether this is the case or not is unclear, since no political party has come out openly and discussed the implications of whatever form of devolution they favour to the common mwananchi.
In the absence of such clarification, it behooves our political leaders to be more careful about what sort of verbiage they spew out in public forums. The use of terms like “outsiders” to refer to other Kenyans should be restricted to unschooled village louts with no vision of the world beyond the nearest shopping centre.
As long as other politicians remain mum on this issue, it can only be assumed from these utterances that their vision of majimbo is one of exclusionist politics with a significant dose of ethnic cleansing.
THE HYPOCRISY OF OUR POLITICIANS IS exposed every day in their lack of guile when faced with multiple microphones and a crowd of eager listeners.
Politicians of various shades in this country proclaim daily their commitment to East African integration in the interest of a larger market for Kenyan goods and greater say on the international stage.
Yet when they address their constituents, who are assumed to be clueless ignoramuses, they turn into railing demagogues with pretences to protecting “communal” interests.
In this era of a shrinking geopolitical space and global interconnectivity, our politicians should realise that their audience is far broader than the few village folks they deign to address.
Dr Lukoye Atwoli is a consultant psychiatrist and lecturer at Moi University’s School of Medicine
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Kenya needs a national cohesion chief urgently
By LUKOYE ATWOLI
Sunday Nation 10 May 2009, Page 10
The recent appointment of a substantive minister to the Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs ministry is laudable despite the misgivings of many in the reform lobby.
A country claiming to subscribe to the rule of law, even when this is not self-evident as in our case, should not continue for long without a minister in this important docket.
This is even more critical considering the ongoing circus that is our Grand Coalition Government, an amorphous creature crying out for an urgent constitutional cathartic to relieve its bloated innards and create systems that work.
Window dressing
An urgent task for the minister will be to fill the post of the Secretary for National Cohesion with clear terms of reference, a competent team and a budget to help fulfill the responsibilities of the office.
Following in the footsteps of his predecessor and performing a window dressing by giving someone an appointment without the requisite facilities will just not do this time.
Despite the novelty of the position, the National Cohesion secretary has the potential of helping this country to begin the process of healing by identifying the real obstacles to lasting peace and reconciliation and developing programmes to deal with them.
It is a pity that a government that committed itself to finding solutions that will ensure lasting peace in this country is still dilly-dallying in implementing its own recommendations.
The National Cohesion Secretary will find some key issues that must be dealt with urgently which, if left unattended, will continue to pose a real threat to our national survival.
The question of internally displaced persons (IDPs) must be addressed urgently and conclusively. Despite the trumpeted success of ‘‘Operation Rudi Nyumbani’’, a large number of the internal refugees only returned to sites near their farms — the so-called transit camps — and continue to subsist on the philanthropy of humanitarian actors to this day.
A smaller but no less significant group continues to occupy the original post-displacement camps and, as the rains begin to pound these areas, their health and safety has become a real concern.
Continued government denials and assertions that ‘‘most of the IDPs have been resettled’’ do not do much to assuage the acute suffering these families are experiencing.
As long as the IDPs remain unsettled, they continue to serve as a painful reminder of that dark period in our recent history that many in the establishment would like to forget in a hurry.
Unfortunately their situation cannot be so easily wished away, and the government needs to develop a detailed plan on how to handle the remaining IDPs in the short term, as well as a long-term policy on internal displacement to guide future interventions.
Reconciliation process
Another key task for this office is preparation of the ground for the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC).
This is because although many Kenyans continue to assert the necessity of a reconciliation process, most do not actually comprehend the technicalities involved. Unless the process is properly managed, it has the potential to degenerate into another forum for blame-shifting instead of being the opportunity for healing.
Many Kenyans believe the TJRC will be the forum to name and shame their perceived ‘‘enemies’’, while some politicians view it as a potential weapon to destroy their opponents in the tried and tested Kenyan fashion — give a dog a bad name and hang him.
The misguided enthusiasm for the TJRC must, therefore, be tempered with a dose of realism that will enable Kenyans to see it for what it really is — a mark of a failed criminal justice system.
The TJRC is actually a safety valve that enables a nation to move beyond the perpetual grouses around ‘‘historical injustices’’ and other perceived failings of the State, and facilitates a rebirth of the nation with new values and aspirations.
Without a commitment by the citizenry to a clean break with the past and an unconditional acceptance of the TJRC outcome, the whole process will turn out to be a monumental waste of time.
Indeed, a bungled TJRC is worse than no process at all, for it has the potential to ignite fires that are far more voracious than anything we have ever witnessed before.
The National Cohesion Secretary will, therefore, be tasked with preparing the country for the TJRC and other processes arising out of the National Accord and related legislation. The success of the cohesion and TJRC processes may be the defining achievements of the holder of the Justice docket.
Indeed, a new constitution may be unattainable unless the processes associated with these functions of National Cohesion and the TJRC are actualised.
Dr Atwoli is a consultant psychiatrist and lecturer at Moi University’s School of Medicine www.lukoyeatwoli.com
Sunday Nation 10 May 2009, Page 10
The recent appointment of a substantive minister to the Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs ministry is laudable despite the misgivings of many in the reform lobby.
A country claiming to subscribe to the rule of law, even when this is not self-evident as in our case, should not continue for long without a minister in this important docket.
This is even more critical considering the ongoing circus that is our Grand Coalition Government, an amorphous creature crying out for an urgent constitutional cathartic to relieve its bloated innards and create systems that work.
Window dressing
An urgent task for the minister will be to fill the post of the Secretary for National Cohesion with clear terms of reference, a competent team and a budget to help fulfill the responsibilities of the office.
Following in the footsteps of his predecessor and performing a window dressing by giving someone an appointment without the requisite facilities will just not do this time.
Despite the novelty of the position, the National Cohesion secretary has the potential of helping this country to begin the process of healing by identifying the real obstacles to lasting peace and reconciliation and developing programmes to deal with them.
It is a pity that a government that committed itself to finding solutions that will ensure lasting peace in this country is still dilly-dallying in implementing its own recommendations.
The National Cohesion Secretary will find some key issues that must be dealt with urgently which, if left unattended, will continue to pose a real threat to our national survival.
The question of internally displaced persons (IDPs) must be addressed urgently and conclusively. Despite the trumpeted success of ‘‘Operation Rudi Nyumbani’’, a large number of the internal refugees only returned to sites near their farms — the so-called transit camps — and continue to subsist on the philanthropy of humanitarian actors to this day.
A smaller but no less significant group continues to occupy the original post-displacement camps and, as the rains begin to pound these areas, their health and safety has become a real concern.
Continued government denials and assertions that ‘‘most of the IDPs have been resettled’’ do not do much to assuage the acute suffering these families are experiencing.
As long as the IDPs remain unsettled, they continue to serve as a painful reminder of that dark period in our recent history that many in the establishment would like to forget in a hurry.
Unfortunately their situation cannot be so easily wished away, and the government needs to develop a detailed plan on how to handle the remaining IDPs in the short term, as well as a long-term policy on internal displacement to guide future interventions.
Reconciliation process
Another key task for this office is preparation of the ground for the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC).
This is because although many Kenyans continue to assert the necessity of a reconciliation process, most do not actually comprehend the technicalities involved. Unless the process is properly managed, it has the potential to degenerate into another forum for blame-shifting instead of being the opportunity for healing.
Many Kenyans believe the TJRC will be the forum to name and shame their perceived ‘‘enemies’’, while some politicians view it as a potential weapon to destroy their opponents in the tried and tested Kenyan fashion — give a dog a bad name and hang him.
The misguided enthusiasm for the TJRC must, therefore, be tempered with a dose of realism that will enable Kenyans to see it for what it really is — a mark of a failed criminal justice system.
The TJRC is actually a safety valve that enables a nation to move beyond the perpetual grouses around ‘‘historical injustices’’ and other perceived failings of the State, and facilitates a rebirth of the nation with new values and aspirations.
Without a commitment by the citizenry to a clean break with the past and an unconditional acceptance of the TJRC outcome, the whole process will turn out to be a monumental waste of time.
Indeed, a bungled TJRC is worse than no process at all, for it has the potential to ignite fires that are far more voracious than anything we have ever witnessed before.
The National Cohesion Secretary will, therefore, be tasked with preparing the country for the TJRC and other processes arising out of the National Accord and related legislation. The success of the cohesion and TJRC processes may be the defining achievements of the holder of the Justice docket.
Indeed, a new constitution may be unattainable unless the processes associated with these functions of National Cohesion and the TJRC are actualised.
Dr Atwoli is a consultant psychiatrist and lecturer at Moi University’s School of Medicine www.lukoyeatwoli.com
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