The Transitional Justice Network for Kenya(K-TJN) is a national coalition of civil society organizations (CSOs) and victims’ groups (VGs) which advocate, inform, engage and share information on transitional justice (TJ) and good governance mechanisms in Kenya for the last fifteen years. During these years, most of the interventions on TJ have been undertaken through varying individual and collective actions of our partners.

The K-TJN, the precursor to the Multi-Sectoral Task Force on TJRC (MTF) was formed in March 2009 with a view to ensuring that there are meaningful and purposeful consulted efforts towards achievement of sustainable peace built within premise of sustainability of justice and accountability in Kenya especially after the post-elections violence occasioned. by the disputed presidential elections in December 2009.

The Network has Thematic Affinity Groups that address different transitional justice thematic areas within the wider Kenya Transitional Justice Network.  These groups are not limited to the Truth-seeking; Gender in transition; Land, social inequalities and corruption; criminal accountability and justice systems; reparations; human rights violations archiving and documentation, and historical memorials. 

Membership
The Kenya Transitional Justice Network Working Group (KTJN) is an open membership forum. It is hosted at International Center for Policy and Conflict website (www.icpcafrica.org/KTJN).

Contacts: E-Mail: ktjn@icpcafrica.org

Vision

National accountability, equity and unity

Mission

To collaborate towards the realization of transitional justice programmes (components) in Kenya comprising Truth-telling, Criminal Justice, Constitutional Changes, Institutional... and Administrative Changes, Public Capital, Public Land, Gender Justice, documenting historical memorials  and Victims’ rights.

In regard to Truth-telling: to addresses the historical accountings of thegross human rights violations that link the past to the present through the TJRC as well as any judicial and public inquiries and historical narratives. Specifically:-

• TJRC adequately investigates and establishes the facts so that the truth be ........known and made part of the nation’s history
• TJRC responds to the demands for justice for the victims
• TJRC provides the reparations needed for national reconciliation
• TJRC provides the lustration measures needed to bar the perpetrators and conspirators from holding public office
• Advance transitional justice jurisprudence in Kenya.

In regard to Criminal Justice: to seek retribution and punishment of individuals for gross violations of human rights by themselves or by following ‘orders from above’, and breaking the law with impunity. Specifically:-

• Uphold legalistic values and the criminal justice system, by legal accountability.
• Ensure prosecution of perpetrators and conspirators in regards to crimes related. to  human rights violations, the plunder of public capital and public land
• Advance transitional justice jurisprudence in Kenya.

In regard to Constitutional Change: build consensus on the new constitution as the foundation of an entirely new democratic order, with a people-driven focus.In regard to Administrative Change: to move the society toward a more democratic political system through popular participation in national and local governance, on the widest possible scale. Specifically:-

• Advance the new public regulatory measures, and the core constitutional norms. which all public officials must now uphold as a condition of office
• Advance regulatory measures towards accountable governance of public institutions and affairs

Institute vetting and lustration to:

1. Purify the public service by removal from employment of officials for gross abuse of  power and complicity in the violations of human rights, plunder of public capital and    public land Name and shame, and bar the perpetrators and conspirators from holding any public office, and ensure the vetting of all new public office appointees
2. Invoke disciplinary action against errant professionals.

Fully implement the Commission of Inquiry into Post Election (CIPEV) Report: IDP Policy, Special Tribunal for Kenya, Justice and Security Sectors reforms, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, National Security Police and Civilian Oversight Mechanisms.In regard to the plunder of Public Capital: to redress the gross, abusive violation of the public good, resulting in the deterioration of public services, infrastructure, and human and economic development of the people and the nation. Specifically:-

• Advance reparatory justice to restore the public capital lost by the Government of Kenya amounting to billions of shillings, through fraud, corruption and outright theft from the consolidated fund
• Recover billions of shillings of suspect funds that a few individuals have hidden abroad in secret accounts.

In regard to the plunder of Public Land: to have grabbed public land returned and restored, and press for a process of land reform in the interest of all the peoples of Kenya, and not merely a small inheriting elite. Specifically:-

• Advance historical accounting, knowledge, official acknowledgement and resolution concerning the dispossession of the individual or communal and public lands of the peoples of Kenya during the colonial and post-colonial periodsImplement fully the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Illegal/Irregular Allocation of Public Land in KenyaAdopt and implement the National Land Policy
• Deal with land components in the constitutional review process.

In regard to Gender Justice: to ensure comprehensive redress to gender-based injustices cross cutting all the components of transitional justice.  In regard to Historical Injustice: pertaining to land and the underprivileged - to capture the inequities in the distribution and enjoyment of the national resources in time and across regions, ethnicity, class, race, gender and generations.i)  In regard to Victims’  rights: to ensure that victims of historical injustices are fully supported and strengthened to organize and engage around their issues within the above mentioned components and processes of transitional justice in Kenya.

The KTJN Organizational Structure

Partners include the relevant government institutions departments; Kenya National Commission on Human Rights and Kenya National Archives. Others are the Parliament, the Media, Development Partners, and International NGOs among others.

The national conveners are the International Center for Policy and Conflict (ICPC), Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), Kenyan Chapter of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ-Kenya), International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA-Kenya) and Coalition on Violation against Women (COVAW)