Anti-Kiplagat protest planned during Wagalla massacre memorial

By Boniface Ongeri

This year’s ceremony to mark the infamous 1984 Wagalla Massacre in Wajir shifts to Nairobi on Tuesday.

It will be the first time the event will be held away from Wajir where more than 2,000 people were reportedly killed by government forces in a security operation in 1984.

Focus will be on the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) and its embattled Chairman Bethwel Kiplagat. The organisers said the Nairobi venue is to protest purported return of Bethwel Kiplagat to the commission.

During TJRC sittings in Wajir, last year, witnesses said Kiplagat, then PS at Foreign Affairs ministry, was one of the dignitaries who visited Wajir on the eve of the massacre.

Kiplagat has, however, maintained that he was nowhere near Wajir during the massacre and dismissed a tribunal investigating him saying it has no jurisdiction. Bishar Ismail of Wagalla Massacre Foundation Trust and Nur Osman of TBT Network said the Government is not serious in resolving past human rights violations.
"There is concern the credibility of the process has been compromised and process to address injustices abandoned," Bishar said.

"We do not want Kiplagat leading the commission," Bishar said.