why ambassador bethuel kiplagat should quit for kenya to attain ...

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The truth commission, in its investigation of land and ethnic clashes, shall pay
particular attention to historical claims and distortions brought about by
colonialism. These historical problems were not addressed, and have in fact been
compounded by post-colonial governments. Further, the
Task Force recommends that the government expand the mandate of the recently
appointed land commission to fully investigate and settle historical land problems
with finality.
6. Violations of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
Economic crimes are a difficult matter to investigate and establish culpability.
Quite often, white-collar criminals are adept at covering their tracks and
concealing the chain of evidence. Human rights violations or bodily integrity
violations, on the other hand, are easier to verify and establish because human
bodies are the primary evidence. That is why most truth commissions have found
it difficult to address economic crimes. Even so, economic crimes are so
intertwined with human rights violations that it is impossible to establish
watertight compartments between the two types of violations. This is more so in
the Kenyan case where economic crimes were committed as part and parcel of
human rights violations.
Land, for example, is an economic asset, and the killing or forcible eviction of the
lawful owners from their lands constitutes both economic crimes and human
rights violations. Similarly, the looting of the public purse and the stealing of
public monies in bank accounts at home or abroad has translated into a collapsed
infrastructure and economic decomposition. Deaths on Kenya’s horrible roads,
the absence of medicines and hospital equipment, the pathetic state of Kenyan
schools, and a host of other ills are directly attributable to the theft of public funds
and property by previous governments over the last forty years.
Economic crimes lead to the violations of the entire gamut of human rights, and in
particular of economic, social and cultural rights. It is a well-established fact in
human rights law that all human rights – including economic, social and cultural
rights – are indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated. Thus human rights law
does not only refer to civil and political rights. The Republic of Kenya has an
internationally binding obligation to protect all human rights, that is, civil and
political rights, and economic, social and cultural rights because it is a signatory
to both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. That is why a
truth commission should investigate the violations of civil and political rights as
well as those of economic, social and cultural rights. It is important to note that
violations of economic, social and cultural rights disproportionately affect both
women and children. These include the rights to shelter, education, water, work,
health, and a host of others. Kenya is a patriarchal society in which women and
children are the most vulnerable individuals, and on whom the violations of
economic, social and cultural rights have the greatest impact. This is a matter to
which the truth commission ought to pay special attention.
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