20101102
africanews

The Chairman of Kenya's Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC), Mr Bethwel Kiplagat has stepped aside to allow a tribunal to investigate allegations levelled against him. Mr Kiplagat becomes the third high profile figure to lose his position in less than a month.

In a press statement on Tuesday, Mr Kiplagat said that he believed that he is innocent until proved guilty. "In order to allow the Tribunal to carry out its mandate, I am, therefore, as of today stepping aside from my day to day responsibilities at the TJRC," Part of the statement said. He also added that he had agonised over the issue before making what her termed as 'the difficult decision'.

"However, it is my fundamental belief in the rule of law, my commitment to peace in this country and my sense of duty to those that appointed me and the many that support the Commission that has guided my every decision," he said.

Mr Kiplagat has been under fire from TJRC commissioners, some who have quit, over allegations that he was involved in past injustices committed against a section of Kenyans. Hence, it has been said, he was not fit enough to chair the commission that is meant to unearth the truths behind the injustices since he was part of the KANU regime the committed the crimes.

He has been adversely mentioned in the Wagalla massacre that happened in 1984, which saw over three thousand men killed at an airstrip in the Northern Frontier region in Kenya.

In the incident, Somali men who were suspected of having links to Somalia elements were rounded by the army up and taken to the W agalla Airstrip and kept for five days without food or drinks only to be shot dead when they attempted to flee. They were suspected of trying to lead an armed rebellion aimed at seceding from the Kenyan state, to form the so-called the larger Somalia.

Kiplagat has also been mentioned in different probes over the murder of former Foreign Affairs Minister Robert Ouko in 1991. Kiplagat was the then Permanent Secretary in the ministry when Ouko was killed.

Although Kiplagat has maintained his innocence, many a commissioner have been calling on him to resign, but he has maintained that only a tribunal can recommend his dismissal. It is on this premise that the Chief Justice formed a five-member tribunal to investigate the Chair and give the recommendations in six months.

Other high profile individuals to lose their positions in the recent past include William Ruto who was the Minister of Higher Education after he was suspended, and Moses Wetangula who stepped aside last week over a scandal involving the purchase and sale of the Kenyan embassy properties in Japan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Belgium.