NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 26 – The Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs will on Tuesday hold a consultative meeting with the embattled Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission in a bid to address the crisis.
Committee Vice Chairman Njoroge Baiya confirmed to Capital News the meeting would take place and said it would seek "the possible way forward."
"We will deliberate and see how we can help the situation," he said.
The Commission which has been battling with credibility questions surrounding the chairman Bethuel Kiplagat, is also suffering a funding crisis which has threatened to halt its operations.
"The Chief Justice\’s failure to set up a Tribunal to examine the chairman\’s character is one of the reasons a solution has not been found," said a source in the parliamentary committee.
Although some committee members had proposed the disbandment of the entire Commission since it is evident it will not achieve its mandate, the idea failed to materialise due to some legal implications.
"Some members feel that there are problems with the way the law is framed and this might be a bit difficult to do," said our source.
The credibility woes worsened last week with the resignation of American commissioner Prof Ron Slye. He became the second commissioner to quit the body after Betty Murungi who resigned in April.
The American professor pointed an accusing finger at the government, saying it had failed to support the commission.
"I have lost my faith in the Commission\’s ability to fulfil even a small part of its mandate. That loss of faith comes not from the work of the staff of the Commission but from the clear lack of support from the Government of Kenya and from the still-unresolved allegations against the Chairman of the Commission," he said.
Civil society organisations who have been pushing for the resignation of Mr Kiplagat said they will not collaborate with the Commission further denting its work.
The Commission\’s mandate indicates that it should hand over its report by next year November but is running behind schedule.
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