Kenya: Time to tell the story of Kenyan women

Kenyan Women Speak on the Proposed Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission

Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs) conduct investigations and report the truth about violations of human rights in particular countries, usually after a period of repression, violence, dictatorship, or military rule. As one of several useful mechanisms of transitional justice, TRCs help a nation deal with a painful past and facilitate reconciliation between communities, perpetrators, and those victimized.

Kenya’s December 2002 general election ended forty years of uninterrupted and repressive regimes characterized by rampant human rights violations and massive, officially-sanctioned corruption. As part of the new government’s promise to establish accountability and move toward democracy, its leaders appointed a task force to solicit Kenyans’ views on establishing a Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC). They incorporated a justice component, given the particular circumstances of Kenya’s transition. The Kenyan Human Rights Commission and Transparency International-Kenya took the lead in organizing public debates. While the objectives of the debates emphasized gaining women’s participation and understanding women’s experiences and perspectives, women’s voices were absent in these early debates.

In response to this critical gap, Urgent Action Fund-Africa collaborated with the Federation of Women Lawyers in Kenya (FIDA-Kenya) to organize the first all-woman forum about the proposed TJRC, held in Nairobi in May 2003. Participants heard testimonies from survivors of human rights abuses, discussed key issues about establishing a Kenyan TJRC and developed recommendations for the TJRC Task Force. The Forum’s final report, summarized here: provides background information about TRCs; includes the full text of the keynote address; summarizes survivors’ testimonies and views on reconciliation; and presents recommendations to the TJRC Task Force. The full report is available upon request.

Background

Women's and children's experiences under repressive regimes often are ignored or underrated, even by the victims themselves.
But in such circumstances, women suffer devastating family disintegration due to the death, detention, and torture of their spouses and other family members; they bear the brunt of caring for families single-handedly. Many have lost homes and jobs. Such have been the experiences of women and children under Kenya's repressive regimes from 1963 – 2002.
With Kenya's new government recognizing that a true democratic transition cannot overlook the gross human rights violations and economic crimes committed by Kenya's former leaders, optimism prevails.

Keynote Address
Fatuma Ndangiza, Executive Secretary of Rwanda's National Unity and Reconciliation Commission (NURC), affirmed the solidarity between Rwandan and Kenyan women. She offered hope that, though the countries' contexts differ markedly, Rwanda's lessons of truth telling and reconciliation might help Kenya as it plans to embark on this difficult journey.
To get at truth, NURC turned to the traditional local gacaca tribunals, which called for countrywide hearings where a broad cross section of Rwandan citizens identified the causes of the conflict as: bad governance, repressive regimes, poverty, poor economic planning, pre-colonial and colonial manipulation, and denial of exiles' right to return. This 'gacaca' system of justice contributes not only to truth telling but also to relieving the burden on the national justice system, which is unable to cope with the large numbers of persons awaiting trial.

NURC sees women's participation in the reconciliation process as crucial since Rwanda has so many women-headed households and since women comprise the majority of genocide survivors. Ms. Ndangiza emphasized that women must participate fully in the democratic process if change is expected.

Testimonies of Kenyan Survivors and Victims

Several women attested to the trauma and anguish suffered over the last 50 years. Many Kenyan women have been left with shattered lives, unanswered questions, and ongoing fears for themselves and their families. Their testimonies point to the need for truth, justice, and restitution as precursors to reconciliation.

Shattered Lives

Kenyan women’s suffering has taken many forms: frequent and often long-term separation of family members, isolation from their communities, political retribution, sexual violations, and loss of jobs, homes, and ancestral lands. One woman, whose husband currently serves in the new government, spoke of how her husband’s time in detention impacted the family:
“I was only allowed to see my husband once a year, and in the presence of two officers. My children were isolated while in school. I was retired in the ‘public interest’ and evicted (on 24-hour notice) from the house that I was occupying.” This woman’s family was constantly under police surveillance. She herself suffered arrest and torture at the hands of the Kenyan police.

Another woman lived through the trauma of her husband’s assassination and its aftermath:
“My husband’s lawyers, the state machinery, his friends and confidants, fellow members of parliament, and the public trustees . . . All did nothing to assist us. I have lived in fear over the years, and endured a heavy burden of caring and educating the children without their father.” After 28 years, the dispute over her husband’s estate remains unsettled.

This woman sees a TJRC as perhaps the only means to resolution. Her daughter, who also testified, believes that knowing the truth about what happened to her father may relieve some of the family’s trauma.

One survivor spoke of the mayhem visited upon residents of a coastal town:
“We lost all our belongings and had to seek refuge in a church. Also while searching for ammunition the police searched my private parts. Some officer said to me. . . I have not had sex for two months. Come now and let’s go to the bush. Though he did not rape me, I felt violated because I was beaten and robbed. Women and children walked long distances, and many died.”

Unanswered Questions

Many questions remain for Kenyan women. They want to know who ordered the violence, why such atrocities were committed, and how reconciliation can be achieved when the perpetrators have not even asked for forgiveness. The daughter of the man assassinated 28 years ago wonders what became of a 1975 report identifying 22 suspects to be investigated for her father’s disappearance and murder. A survivor who witnessed the 1984 Wagalla Massacre, in which 4,000 people were killed, questioned the absence of media attention and the complicity of other Kenyans in this conspiracy of silence.

Persistent Fears

Property still may be taken away and women subject to reprisal if they speak out. One woman testified that women are afraid to come forward because perpetrators live among them even now as residents and leaders. Another woman lamented lost educational opportunities. Her son, a university student, was seized on trumped up charges of spying. He was jailed for five years and held for months in the infamous Nyayo House torture chambers in Nairobi. She agonizes about what will become of him and the younger children in her village, who now view the university as “a place where to find trouble.”

Kenyan Women Forum’s Recommendations

Kenya must continue forward on its long journey to truth, justice, and reconciliation. First and foremost, Kenyan women seek truth and justice. They expect accountability. They want assurances of stability, safety, and support. Some ask for official acknowledgement of their suffering or an apology from the perpetrators. The Forum’s recommendations to the TJRC Task Force, paraphrased below, ref lect these needs:

• Establish Kenya’s TJRC as soon as possible.
• Ensure women and victim representation on the Commission, but exclude perpetrators.
• Pursue truth and justice before reconciliation and healing.
• Encourage those victimized to come forward and give evidence.
• Create safe spaces and support systems to help traumatized women cope.
• Build trust between politicians and citizens through dialogue.
• Strengthen existing democratic institutions (courts, administration, military, and police) to foster respect for human rights.
• Offer no guarantee of amnesty for perpetrators.
• Research alternative methods of justice to help with reconciliation.
• Produce an accurate historical record.
• Address the socioeconomic impact of the violations.
• Provide legal and medical support where required.
• Ensure mechanisms that will prevent recurrence of abuses.

These recommendations speak to the gendered impact of the gross human rights violations the Kenyan Women’s Forum exposed.
Kenyan women bore the brunt of Kenya’s economic and human rights violations. They struggled to hold their families together through difficult times. Still, countless families were destroyed and fell apart. Kenyan women received no support and no recognition, yet they endured. It is time their stories were heard.

Without truth and justice, there can be no reconciliation.

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