Masterly display that got Kenya off the hook – The professor fighting without fear in order to save his country’s reputation
Posted by africanpress on June 8, 2009
Kenya’s Security minister Prof Saitoti presents the government report in Geneva. Photo/Correspondent
In Summary
- Saitoti charmed the audience by vowing to punish impunity, begin police reforms
Kenya’s performance at the 11th Session of the Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva, Switzerland was a masterful display of damage control.
A high-powered eight-person delegation led by minister for Internal Security George Saitoti had flown into the “free city” of Calvin on June 1, 2009 determined to rebut all manner of criticism and condemnation expected to ensue from the tabling of the report of Prof Philip Alston, HRC’s Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions.
Some observers
Some observers in Kenya and beyond had anticipated fireworks, or at least some high drama in Geneva. The expectations rested on two main factors.
Firstly, the Alston Report, when previewed in Kenya earlier this year, provoked passionate debate with various government leaders and the pro-government commentariat rebutting the accusation of extrajudicial killings, killings that dated back before the tragedy that has forever blighted Kenya in the court of world opinion – the traumatic post-election violence of December 2007.
Opposition party spokespersons and human rights groups, on the other hand, had concurred with many of Alston’s findings that many people, especially suspected members of the Mungiki sect, were being executed by police death squads.
Secondly, fireworks were expected in Geneva because the news had gone out that Kenya had sent two separate delegations because the government and its erstwhile coalition partner had failed to agree on a common response to the questions raised in the Alston Report.
One of the largest
The sitting arrangement in the packed conference hall also gave credence to, or an appearance of, reports of a schism. Prof Saitoti and a team of eight occupied the official Kenya seat area.
James Orengo and another four representatives sat in the “Reserved” area close by. The Kenyan delegation was one of the largest sent to such meetings, and accommodating everyone was a logistics headache.
Prof Alston’s current brief for the UN commission has him looking into chilling and deplorable goings-on in our world such as death sentences handed down to juveniles and their actual execution; the killing of witches; the use of lethal force in policing, and the reprisals against those who assist the work of the special rapporteurs.
The head of the Brazilian delegation was first off the block during the open discussion, at pains to burnish his country’s tarnished image as a result of decades of ruthless police death squads, with nothing much to show in successful prosecution of the recalcitrant officers.
The head of the United States delegation also used his allotted three minutes to defend his country’s penal system in general and the death penalty in specific.
And despite opinions to the contrary, the HRC found that Prof Alston did the job he was contracted to do in Kenya. He was hard-hitting, and he cited many of the gory things that happened, including slashings and beheadings by “phantom” killers, and the jailing, harassment and assassinations of human rights activists.
He indicted Kenya for allowing extrajudicial killings to go on and for so long.
When Kenya’s reply to Prof Alston’s report came, it was swift and conclusive.
The person who won the day for Kenya, at least in the battle for hearts and minds, was Prof Saitoti. He was compelling.
From the word go – and he had three minutes to present the “defence” although he took six – he set the audience at ease, simply by owning up.
He acknowledged serious shortcomings in Kenya’s forces of law and order. He talked about the completion of the prosecutions of 53 police officers, with 81 convictions since 2000.
“These prosecutions are a reflection of the seriousness with which the government is dealing with the issue”, he said.
Timelines for reforms
He talked about a road map and timelines for reforms in the judiciary and the criminal justice system. He talked of not only ending but also punishing impunity.
He expressed the State’s profound regret for the deaths of human rights activists and talked of “enhancing safeguards” for human rights.
His delivery style was also quite winning. The former university don turned consummate politician employed an arsenal of interpersonal and public communication tools: clipped diction, voice modulation, contrite demeanor in some places and forceful in others.
And if a consensus had been hard to come by in Nairobi, it was achieved in Geneva as Kenya’s delegations united to congratulate Prof Saitoti on his performance.
Kenya seems to be off the hook, for the time being at least. The country was not castigated in the numerous interventions that followed Prof Alston’s report.
But after all is said and done, much about the work of the HRC is not to bring perpetrators to account, but to persuade governments and non-state actors to behave better.
General atmosphere
Then there is the matter of the general atmosphere at these meeting places.
Geneva’s Palais des Nations, the venue the HRC uses for its sittings, is the most beautiful of the seven seats of the United Nations, including New York, Washington, Paris, Rome, Vienna and Nairobi – Kenya being the only developing country that hosts UN specialised agencies.
The Ariana Park gardens of 150-year-old cedar trees in which peacocks roam freely, the calm of the neo-classical Palais built to house the League of Nations, the artworks donated by the world’s potentates, the Palais’ Art Deco bars, lounges and restaurants, and the smiling security guards are all intended to inspire awe and dampen the ardour of quarreling protagonists against a background of decorum and soothing music.
Mr Osei is a media consultant, author and columnist based in Geneva.
source.nation.ke
