Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News
BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2011
On Sunday February 13, 2011 Citizen Television will begin serializing the Wagalla massacre. The big question which is still lingering into most Kenyan’s minds is why President Mwai Kibaki has not acted on the government officials who planned the massacre? They include Bethuel Kiplagat of then Ministry of Foreign Affairs, John S. Mathenge, Permanent Secretary Office of the President, David Mwiraria, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs and John Gituma, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Others were Brigadier Joseph R. Kibwana, Department of Defence, B. N. Macharia of the Treasury; Z. J. M. Kamencu, Deputy Secretary in the Office of the Presiden, J. P.Gitui, D.C.O Police Headquarters, J. K. Kaguthi and J. P. Mwagovya of the Office of the President, C. M. Aswani, Provincial Police Officer, North Eastern Province, Lt. Col. H. F. K. Muhindi of 7KR; J. K. Kinyanjui, director of Land Adjudication Nairobi; and finally Benson N. Kaaria Provincial Commissioner, North Eastern Province.
One may argue that the president is reluctant to act, given that when the massacre was planned he was the vice president. It is to be recalled that when the issue was raised in the parliament by the former Member of Parliament for Wajir West, the late Ahmed Khalif Mohamed, on 21 March 1984 to be debated Kibaki was among the members of the parliament who dismissed the claim as baseless. Others were Keneth Matiba, A. Y. Boru and Samuel Ng’eny.
Although he dismissed the case as baseless, the signatures in the visitors’ book at the DC’s office proved that the mentioned government officials did indeed attend the meeting on February 8, 1984 at the DC’s office, Wajir two days before the massacre took place.
According to the eye witness the operation was initiated on February 10, 1984 by the Kenyan Security Chiefs. The operation against the Degodia clan had started on February 9 when the North Eastern PC, Benson Kaaria, ordered all those whose houses had been burnt down by security forces to leave Wajir Town, a day before the rounding up started.
During the meeting it was resolved that an operation be taken out with the objectives of disarming the Degodia and forcing them to provide the names of bandits who were committing crimes in the district.
On January 11, 1985 when the Principal State Counsel, M. Ole Keiwua, wrote on behalf of the Attorney General to Ibrahim Khamis Adan and Alinoor Yussuf Mohamed Hussein through their lawyers, Munikah and Company Advocates, asking them, in accordance with the rules of civil procedures, to supply specific information about the death of their fathers, the request was ignored.
The information was ignored, probably because it included the particular dates and times when the deceased persons were killed; whether by the Kenya Army Personnel, the Kenya Police or 1982 Airforce personnel; and the names of the specific officers responsible for the deaths of the deceased.
Kibaki and other Mps loyal to dictator Moi dismissed it on the ground that there was no substantiation proof that the massacre was planned. It is against the background that when Kibaki appointed Bethuel Kiplagat to be the chairman of Truth, Reconciliation and Justice Commission, a body formed in order to try and understand why a powerful class of society used crude and inhuman methods against the lower class members of the society after such powerful members were disarmed of their excessive power and privilege, Kenyan people rejected his appointment.
Khalif accused the government forces for placing more than 4000 people in a concentration camp and for over 300 people who had been immediately executed, and over 600 confirmed missing.
According to the Standard (November 9, 1980), Kaaria had publicly said he would eliminate all Somali-speaking people in the country unless they exposed shifta who had killed a District Officer. It was against the background that Khalif directly accused PC Benson Kaaria, and the Somalia government of collusion in the murder.
The fact that Kibwana who joined the Kenya Navy at its inception on December 10, 1964 and was Chief of Military Intelligence (1982-1985), can explain why he had to be used for such ugly plans. Moi promoted and appointed him Chief of the General Staff on December 1, 2000 up to 2005 on retirement.
President Kibaki rewarded him further after his retirement by appointing him the chairman of the post of Kenya Ports Authority chairman shortly after his retirement. This is not the first time Kibaki has rewarded government official implicated in the crime against humanity. Former police boss, Ali Mohamed who is among the Ocampo’s 6 wanted in Hague to answer charges against the crimes against humanity was appointed Post Office boss.
Now that all the Ocampo’s 6 have joined Kibaki’s PNU camp, can well explain why his vice president Kalonzo Musyoka was going all over African countries to persuade them to support Kenya during the just ended African Union meeting in Ethiopia for the Ocampo’s 6 to be tried here in Kenya.
Although this does not rule the fact that President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga could be called to account for their actions and utterances during and after the 2007 General Election, according to a re-issued report by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR).
The report which also faults the seemingly partisan position taken by one of the senior Church leader in the election run-up and the comments made by Electoral Commission of Kenya chairman Samuel Kivuitu during the tallying of the presidential votes, noting that they stoked the fires, can explain further the Ocampo’s 6 should be tried locally here in Kenya.
According to the report, Articles 27 and 28 of the Rome Statute, on which the International Criminal Court is founded, expose Kibaki and Raila to possible prosecution for acts of omission or commission in relation to war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide.
Article 27, titled “Irrelevance of official capacity”, removes any immunity to prosecution on the basis of status in society. Section 2 of the same article makes irrelevant the provisions of the Kenya Constitution that grant a sitting head of state immunity from prosecution.
It reads: “Immunities or special procedural rules which may attach to the official capacity of a person, whether under national or international law, shall not bar the Court from exercising its jurisdiction over such a person.”
The two leaders’ responsibility for crimes committed under their watch is captured in Article 28 of the Rome Statute which says that “a superior shall be criminally responsible for crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court committed by subordinates under his or her effective authority and control, as a result of his or her failure to exercise control properly over such subordinates, where:
(i) The superior either knew, or consciously disregarded information which clearly indicated, that the subordinates were committing or about to commit such crimes;
(ii) The crimes concerned activities that were within the effective responsibility and control of the superior; and
(iii) The superior failed to take all necessary and reasonable measures within his or her power to prevent or repress their commission or to submit the matter to the competent authorities for investigation and prosecution.”
People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya
Tel 254-20-4441372
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org