Keep politics out of TJRC selection

Absent a Special Tribunal to investigate and prosecute those responsible for post-election violence, efforts to deal with a difficult history, the social conflicts it has raised and entrenched impunity must begin elsewhere — with the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) and the Ethnic and Race Relations Commission.

The launch of a panel to select six commissioners for the TJRC ought to fill citizens with a sense of hope the twin issues of politically-related interethnic violence and the historical circumstances that inspire it will finally be addressed. But given the fate of the legislation intended to deal with the simpler matter of crimes committed in a 13-week period around the last General Election, there is scepticism whether the "long-standing roots" of the violence would be tackled.