Today, thirty years later, justice has remained nothing but a mirage to the people of Wagalla. Year in year out, the period between February 10th and 14th has been marked with tears and a feeling of heightened isolation. Survivors and families of victims meet every year during this period to reinvigorate their resolve to seek justice. The only tangible milestone the suffering families have achieved this far is the acknowledgment, through the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission Report, that these atrocities were visited upon them by their own government. The families still await the implementation of the recommendations made in this report.
The infamous Wagalla massacre is one of the greatest transitional justice issues in Kenya today committed by government in 1984 in the Wajir. Between February 10th and 14th 1984, heavily armed security officers descended on the quiet Wajir area ostensibly to mop up guns illegally held by locals. They rounded up Somali men of the Degodia clan from their homes in the wee hours of the morning of 10th February and held them up at the local airstrip for four days without water and food. On the third day, the pangs of hunger and dehydration had started taking toll on the naked men lined up heads down along the Wagalla airstrip. Those who still could muster some strength decided enough was enough. They took to their heels towards the barbed fence with the last hope of saving their souls. The security men opened fire at them. Twenty four hours later, men in their hundreds lay dead. Their bullet-ridden bodies scattered across the airstrip and in its bushy environs.
These were husbands, fathers, brothers or guardians, citizens of this sovereign republic, who despite their misgivings had a right to have their lives protected by the state. Assuming that indeed the state had a case against these people, natural justice would have dictated that they be arraigned in courts and charged according to the laws of the land. That was not the case.
In memory and honor of those who lost their lives in this massacre, Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) in conjunction with local and international partners has supported the construction of a monument in Wajir Town. The Monument, which is set to be unveiled on 14th of February 2014, has the names of 482 victims engraved on marble and pasted on a wall. These names were taken from the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission report and subjected to a thorough validation exercise for purposes of ensuring that they were indeed names of the people who lost their lives as a result of the massacre. While acknowledging that this list, or any other list, can never be said to be conclusive, KNCHR is satisfied that this is the closest anyone has ever come to doing an actual audit of lives lost during this massacre.
The Wagalla Masacre monument stands on a vast plain land in an area called Korahey in Wajir town. This land is under the National Museums of Kenya and is protected. It is expected that the imposing specter created by this monument will go a long way in galvanizing demands and agitation for full implementation of the recommendations of the TJRC report. It is KNCHR’s considered opinion that the implementation of this report is key to bringing to a closure the Wagalla matter. It is further hoped that the monument will serve as a unifying factor and a symbol of reconciliation amongst the various clans of the Somali people who have in more than one occasion taken up arms against one another.
Upon its unveiling, the Monument shall be handed over to the County Government of Wajir. The Government will henceforth be the monument’s caretaker. It is noteworthy that this monument shall be recognized as a heritage site through a partnership with the National Museums of Kenya.
On its part, KNCHR has been at the forefront of spearheading and monitoring transitional justice processes in Kenya. This has been informed mainly by the need to secure justice for victims and their families and also to avoid recurrence of acts of injustices in future. The Commission strongly believes that impunity is a major impediment to realization and enjoyment of peoples’ rights. Transitional justice initiatives must strive to hold individual perpetrators to account for their actions for purposes of checking impunity and where possible, these initiatives must also inherently include mechanisms to herd the Kenyan collective conscience into vigilance for purposes of ensuring excesses against any section or sections of our population will never be witnessed again.