Kenya gets human rights body
2003-01-06 23:05
Nairobi - Unsolved high-profile murders and major cases of graft are to be re-examined in Kenya by a special commission that will be set up by the east African nation's new parliament, a government minister said on Monday.
"The government will set up a commission to handle various human rights violations that have been committed in Kenya since independence," Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Kiraitu Murungi said during the swearing-in of the new cabinet in Nairobi.
Kenya's ninth parliament is due to hold its opening session on Thursday, after an alliance of opposition parties last month scored a landslide electoral victory over the Kenya African National Union (Kanu) party, in power since independence from Britain in 1963.
"Cases like the murder of Julie Ward and the 1990 killing of foreign minister Robert Ouko and other massive corruption cases like the Goldenberg scandal" will be revisited, Murungi said.
The charred and dismembered remains of Ward, a British tourist, were found in the Maasai Mara game park in September 1988.
Despite protracted court proceedings, nobody has been convicted of her murder.
Massive corruption
In 1990 foreign affairs minister Robert Ouko was murdered and his body burnt, before being discovered in a field near his home.
A commission of inquiry was formed under British detective John Troon, but its work was repeatedly interrupted by the deaths of key witnesses.
"We will also look into massive corruption cases like the Goldenberg scandal that has not yet ended," he said, referring to the fraudulent payment in the late 1980s of millions of dollars under a government export credit scheme.
"We have learnt a lot from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa and other commissions in Latin America," he added.
"Whether the unlucky ones will be free or be prosecuted will be the work of the national assembly," he said.
Murungi also reiterated that plans were under way to clean up Kenya's notoriously corrupt judiciary.
"We will thoroughly clean up the corruption, incompetence and other malpractises that have dogged its operations," Murungi said. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA