Nairobi Star (Nairobi)
Henry Kibira and Elizabeth Were
21 May 2011
Kenya National Commission on Human Rights has challenged the Government to enhance the country’s sovereignty by strengthening its existing institutions.
KNCHR commissioner Hassan Omar urged the government to employ measures aimed at strengthening institutions as outlined in the new Constitution, making them cost effective instead of duplicating efforts. He was addressing a media breakfast meeting in Nairobi where he stressed that for Kenya to benefit from the new Constitution, there was need to be cautious in the kind of commissions that are create. “They need to have the capacity to deliver,” Omar said.
He called on the public to rally behind the formation of one law, which will enable the overall framework of protecting human rights and equality, adding that mechanisms for making Article 59, which spells out the creation of a human rights commission, should involve one institution; Kenya National Human Rights and Equality Commission. “We recommend that Kenya should rationalize and establish clear mandates to ensure coordination and avoid fragmentation of efforts and resources.”
Omar said that fragmentation of the human rights agenda could lead to contradictory advice to individuals or agencies and the likelihood of turf wars among multiple institutions. “International discourse are moving to merging commissions so as to make them accountable, formidable and credible,” Omar said emphasizing the principle of participation, which he said must be at the core of policy-making.
Ndungu Wainaina, from the Kenya Editors Guild hailed KNCHR for having the requisite capacity to seek, investigate and prosecute. He said forming more commissions will weaken the institutions, thereby diluting service provision.”KNCHR has effective departments which have helped put government to task,” he said.
Commissioner Mute said that it is in the interest of the public to have one institution that champions human rights. He stressed on the need to create a formula, which doesn’t put an extra burden on the person seeking for rights that have been violated. “One commission will ensure legitimacy, accessibility and cost effectiveness,” Mute said. “This will improve coordination, service delivery, consistency and enhance diversity, it will also help avoid overlaps.”
He urged the government to strengthen technical competence, create strong secretariat and equip it with adequate resources so as to maintain independence and professionalism. “Don’t confuse public with many commissions, the end result will be varied approaches to similar situations.” He said that energy should be geared towards establishing county offices and harmonizing of service delivery.
Interpretation of the new Constitution continues to draw mixed reactions from the public with stakeholders reading from different scripts.
The Kenya Law Reform Commission has finalized three draft Bills under Article 59, which it hopes to have further deliberations on.
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