Task forces aren't created to find truth; they are designed to delay justice

Former Deputy President William Ruto (centre) flanked by the Environment CS Keriako Tobiko (left) Forest Management Task Force Chairperson Marion Wakinya Kamau (right) and the Task force members when Ruto launched the task force at his offices in Karen, Nairobi in 2018. [Elvis Ogina. Standard]

In Kenya, there is a curious pattern that resurfaces each time the nation confronts a crisis-be it a scandal, a systemic failure, or a public outcry. It is the formation of task forces, commissions of inquiry, ad hoc panels, and other similar bureaucratic detours.

This political reflex, now deeply entrenched in the nation's administrative psyche. It has morphed into a theatre of avoidance where reports gather dust, public funds evaporate, and genuine accountability is diluted into recommendations that rarely, if ever, see the light of implementation.