File | NATION National Cohesion and Integration Commission chairman Mzalendo Kibunjia with a section of Kalenjin community elders in Nakuru during talks dubbed The Nakuru County Peace Accord, an agreement between the Agikuyu, Kalenjin and other communities.
Nation: Kenya is heading towards a crucial General Election, but there are indications that the country is far from being cohesive as was intended. What would you say has been the commission’s achievements in bringing about national integration?
KIBUNJIA: If you compare Kenya today, with six months to a General Election with same period in 2007, I think I can confidently say we have put some speech governors on some politicians who previously were known to incite Kenyans on basis of ethnicity, race and religion. Today, you cannot openly be a warlord and get away with it. Even Kenyans will frown.
There has also been an appreciation of the need for ethnic diversity in employment in the public service. Previously if you said that State House for example has more Kikuyus than other tribes or the police has more Kalenjins than other tribes you would be branded a tribalist. People could only say those things in the privacy of their bedrooms. Today we can discuss the issue in public, thanks to the Ethnic Audit that we published where we openly said there is a crisis of exclusion where the Big Five ethnicities dominate the Civil Service and excluded small ethnicities. This must be debated and addressed.
The commission has also monitored pulses of areas where there is likely to be trouble and engaged communities to live in harmony. We have been in Moyale when it was burning. We said the issue there was politics and not water and pasture as earlier claimed. When Government started arresting politicians or threatened them with arrest, things cooled down. We have continued to monitor those areas. We have engaged and restored relative harmony in Tana River, Isiolo, Mt. Elgon. Migori, Nakuru, Tharaka-Tigania border, Lamu, Borabu-Sotik Border and many more. We have done this not alone but with many stakeholders whom we are very grateful for.
We have also sensitised media on conflict sensitivity reporting and the development of guidelines on election reporting.
Overseeing a peaceful constitutional referendum was through the UWIANO platform with our partners, Peacenet, NSC, and UNDP Kenya that provided a short code number where Kenyans could report potential violence incidents and have us and our partners to respond. We are replicating this to monitor campaigns for the General Elections.
With support from the Ministry of Education we have lobbied successfully for the scrapping of the Education secondary school quota system that produced a 5 kilometre radius graduates who have no idea how the rest of the country looked like.
Q: Have Kenyans really understood the commission’s mandate and how they can help in achieving the commission’s goals?
Share This Story
Share
A: To a large extent, yes. This is evidenced by the number of complaints we receive from individuals and organisations that intend to partner with us, based on the public awareness campaigns conducted by the commission. In addition, the commission has open objectives of positive discussions on cohesion and integration. Here is a bit of statistics. Since its inception, the commission has received numerous complaints — that fall both within and without its mandate.
In 2010 for example, the commission received 110 complaints and 6 out of these were alleged to be hate speech. (5%) In 2011, the commission received 56 complaints and 5 out of these were alleged to be hate speech (9%)
In 2012 so far, the commission has received 88 complaints and 15 of these are alleged to be hate speech (16.9%)
The fact that Kenyans are coming to the commission to complain shows that they know of the existence of the commission barely two years after it was formed, and with a presence only in Nairobi and occasional outreach in the counties. I think also that most Kenyans realise that we were not formed to only prosecute hate speech, but to promote and facilitate equity of opportunity for ethnic groups in Kenya and their peaceful co-existence. Unfortunately there is a deliberate attempt by some to only judge us on hate speech when it really is a very small component of our work, important as it is. We are doing much more than just hate speech.
Q: Are you concerned that some of the factors that led to 2008 post-election violence are still in existence, and do you foresee a repeat of election-related violence?
A: Yes. I am aware many of them exist and others have come up for example the ICC process, MRC, discovery of oil and other minerals... All these may contribute to tension but not to the extent of what we experienced in 2008. From the Kriegler Report, the factors that led to the 2008 post-election violence are myriad. Nevertheless, the commission has attended to the ones that are within the NCIC’s mandate such as hate speech — including engaging Kenyans in the Diaspora; engaging communities with the aim of taking the issue of peace as one of their core business.
In Nakuru County Elders of Kalenjin and Kikuyus supported by other minority communities will sign a peace accord. From our engagements with the public, one thing that comes out clearly is that Kenyans do not want to engage in violence again.
I really do not think in all honesty that Kenyans will fight in 2013 because of elections. This is due to the measures the commission, the State and non-State actors have put in place to mitigate factors that led to the 2007/8 post-election violence
Q: Some intelligence reports suggest that competition for county positions, especially that of governor, may spark violence in a number of multi-ethnic regions. They point to recent fighting in Marsabit as an example. What measures have you put in place to avoid such violence?
A: The commission has engaged the elders in discussing the need for peace in many areas as well as inclusivity and tolerance. We are doing that in Nakuru, Marsabit, Tana River, Bungoma, Migori and Lamu counties.
The commission, along with other government agencies such as NSC have come up with an Uwiano platform that helps with early warning and early response mechanism.
Q: Would you advocate for pre-election agreements between communities on sharing of positions and would NCIC be involved in such negotiations?
A: Yes, NCIC has been engaging communities in multi-ethnic counties to go for ‘Negotiated Democracy’ so that no community feels left out or marginalised within a county. This is because the voting patterns in Kenya is predominantly ethnic, and so communities with large numbers within the counties could easily lock-out the minorities. In this case the minority groups will feel marginalised. This is a recipe for conflict. We are telling Kenyans not to begin their counties on a foundation of exclusion like we have done to ourselves in the last 50 years. You don’t want to go to elections with some groups in your counties feeling they are already losers from day one because they do not have numbers.
Remember also if the county does not take care of minorities and marginalised they can go to court and have the county assembly declared unconstitutional. In those circumstances the National Government will run the activities of the county until the matters are resolved by the courts. Let us get it right the first time by being inclusive.
Q: Recently, you announced the imminent signing of a peace agreement between Kikuyu and Kalenjinin Nakuru. Does the commission have the capacity to do similar deals in other counties ahead of the elections?
A: The commission initiated peace and reconciliation dialogue between the two communities because they are the major protagonists in any violence in the county. The social contract was a culmination of over 14 months long project. Reconciliation occurs at different levels: national and county, and it is our intention to identify conflicts between communities in various counties and help restore peace between them. Clearly there are challenges of political competition, but we have provided a framework to resolve issues when they occur. Such did not exist in 2007. Also this agreement is for residents of Nakuru County not the former Rift Valley.
Q: What is the commission’s position on the emergence of tribal groupings like the KAMATUSA and GEMA?
A: The Commission does not necessarily condemn ethnic groupings but, where the intention is to discriminate against or exclude other ethnic communities, then the commission does not condone that. So, the issue here is the intention behind the groupings. This applies to all ethic groupings, and not just GEMA and KAMATUSA.
Share This Story
Share
Q: During the so-called prayer rallies by politicians pushing the formation of these groups, what was alleged to be hate speech was witnessed, and yet your commission was not seen to have taken any action. Do you have the capacity to stop incitement by politicians during the electioneering period?
A: Some people do not seem to identify the differences between hate speech and incitement. The commission strictly deals with hate speech, and some of the utterances that were made were analysed by the investigators at the commission and were found not meet the threshold for prosecution. Equally, the commission cannot work in isolation. We work together with the police, CID, ODPP and other stakeholders. In essence dealing with incitement during the elections will be given a multi-pronged approach in a well-coordinated manner. The commission monitored the prayer rallies and recommended prosecution against some leaders.
Q: Yet there has been no prosecution and conviction of any of them. Is it lack of legal teeth or simply the fear of upsetting the political class?
A: Sophistication and the nature of the offence vis a vis the freedom of expression. The commission does not have prosecutorial powers.
Q: For instance, a section of ODM members have accused you of being too quick to react when it comes to Prime Minister Raila Odinga, but somewhat slow when it comes to PNU utterances. Comment?
A: Do not forget that when we invited the Prime Minister to launch our Kenya Kwanza campaign, we were accused by some of the politicians from the PNU side of supporting the Prime Minister. These are complaints we receive often depending on the person in the spotlight.
We have had a number of politicians from the PNU side being investigated. As a commission, we operate in a non-partisan manner. However, we have no control over people’s perceptions. The commissioners and technical staff are from across several ethnic communities. So, there is no way we can favour people from specific communities.
Recently too, when we took action on some musicians and we were accused of being anti-Kikuyu and pro-Luo. It’s a tough job: you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
But I am inspired because I saw a Kenya without tribal prejudices when I was growing up. That is the Kenya I want to bequeath when my tenure at the commission ends.
Q: Recently, there were allegations that the commission itself is divided along ethnic lines. Is this the case?
A: Definitely No. The commissioners who were mentioned to be divided based on the need to fill the position of the vice-chair were interviewed by the media and they stated clearly that they were not interested. This is just propaganda. We are a united house and so will remain until we leave the commission
Q: The commission has often pointed out ethnic imbalances in the civil service but without any impact? Who is supposed to correct the wrongs the commission pointed out?
A: The impact is massive. The ministries have started posting people from ethnic communities to different slots, where there were imbalances.
We have people recruited in the Police Service from marginalised groups even if they do not meet the requirements.
The universities chancellors, vice-chancellors and council chairs met in Naivasha under the Ministry if Higher Education and came up with very appropriate recommendations on how to correct the ethnic balances in their institutions within the next three years.
It should be remembered that this is a process that will take time, and not an event that takes place at specific points. The people who have already been employed cannot be sacked because that would violate their rights. It is a delicate balance that has be handled very carefully.
Q: At the launch of the “Kenya Kwanza” campaign, you suggested legislation to force the private sector to practice ethnic balance in employment. Is it possible to legislate national integration?
A: What we are saying is that we as a nation, we want to have the face of Kenya in all our employment establishments. If you are private company doing business with the Government and say in a year you rake in billions of shillings of our taxes, it is only fair that we ask you to have the face of Kenya in your establishments instead of employing only one or two tribes, yet you are getting taxes from every Kenyan. If you don’t, then we deny you business.
Share This Story
Share
This is voluntary if you don’t want to get business from our Government then you don’t have to declare your workforce. This should be extended to all employment agencies