Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission blames State for massacres

Tuesday, May 21st 2013, By AUGUSTINE ODUOR
Kenya: President Uhuru Kenyatta has been asked to apologise for all the massacres committed by Government forces in the country.
The Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission ( TJRC) report wants President Uhuru to apologise for the failure of the State to avert the killings.
The report, released yesterday also recommends that all the victims be compensated within two years of the issuance of the report.

The TJRC also wants all persons mentioned in the report for having planned, implemented and also covered up the killings to be barred from public office.
And within six months after its made public, the Commission wants the State to release to the implementation committee all the minutes of the relevant meetings by State agencies on the same.
The report wants stern action taken to all persons who were mentioned in the Wagalla, Loteteleit, Murkutwa, Lotirir, Turbi and Bubisa and the Malka Mari massacres.
It termed the official figures on the Wagalla Massacre as “gross underestimation.”
The report further shows that the official figure of 57 is way below the estimated deaths that took place and termed it a “thoughtless manner” in which the State has traditionally treated massacres.
The Commission finds that the security operation conducted in Wagalla, Wajir, in February 1984 resulted in the massacre of hundreds of civilians.
“Commission was unable to determine the precise number of persons murdered in this massacre but accepts that a large number died, possibly close to a thousand,” read the report in part.
The report further says that State security agents committed numerous other atrocities, which included torture, brutal beatings, rape and sexual violence, burning of houses and looting of property.
“The commission finds that the Wagalla Massacre, including the detention, torture and killing of the male members of the Degodia tribe at the airstrip, and the rapes, killing of livestock and burning of homes in the villages, was a systematic attack against a civilian population and thus qualifies as a crime against humanity,” reads the report.
It says that the Kenya Army is held responsible for the actual execution of the massacre.