Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation

The IHJR seeks to dispel public myths about historic legacies
in societies divided by ethnic conflict

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IHJR Projects for Kenya

Introduction

In light of the violence and animosity that characterized the last election in Kenya in December 2007, the IHJR has begun developing a project on Kenyan historical reconciliation. The project seeks to involve young scholars and historians at Kenya’s universities with the goal of better informing the public and countering hatred. The IHJR will play a facilitating role and supports and empowers local expertise and capacity.

Aim and Objectives

The aim is to contribute to dialogue processes and reconciliation in advance of public discussions related to the Waki Commission and the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission.
The objectives, or ‘key goals’ of this project are to:

• Provide the public with a balanced discussion of history and in doing so help dispel harmful myths
• Facilitate the work of historians in developing a shared set of narratives that is intended to bring mutual understanding and learning across current divides and help social cohesion
• Provoke careful rethinking of school history lessons
• Engage respected historians in an advisory role to the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission as needed
• Create a network of scholars, educators and public opinion leaders who support each other in countering damaging rhetoric based on manipulation and distortion of history

Projects descriptions

The project is based along the following framework:

1. Strategic meeting in January 2009:Goals for the meeting which took place in Nairobi on 8 and 9 January 2009 included an analysis of the current situation and the identification of significant historical themes that have been manipulated in the political process and which need public clarification and discussion. A steering committee was established to broaden the network to various segments of the civil society and to set up a new local structure ‘’Forum for Society and History’’.
2. Adoption of a shared Action plan
3. Production and publication of shared narratives: These meetings will result in shared narratives, to be published as papers and book(s) on Kenya’s shared history that can become part of the university curriculum.
4. Engaging educators in the rethinking of school history lessons: This project will also involve a core workshop to review the content of Kenya’s primary and secondary school curriculum. This would produce a preliminary report to be followed by a stakeholder meeting of history teachers and civil society in collaboration with the Ministry of Education. Experience in other countries suggest that moving to a full revision and a new history curriculum and textbooks for children to improve their understanding of Kenya as a multi-cultural nation is both difficult but feasible. We aim to explore this in the third year of the project.
5. Engagement of respected historians in an advisory role to the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission as needed: This organized body of historians could play an advisory role to the TJRC. They would be able to jointly provide input on historical evidence and debates around key claims arising from the Commission. This will also enable to historically contextualize various aspects of the finding of the commission.
6. Creation of a network of scholars, educators and public opinion leaders: Through the activities outlined above, it is expected that a network will emerge to be able to counter hate speech and historical manipulations as they emerge in the public realm. . Finally, if there is enough interest, a local center on historical justice and reconciliation can be founded in order to institutionalize and provide a home to the network.

Meetings

July 2008: meeting with Kenya historians

January 2009: meeting with historians and prospective donors