Empowering Victims: A Possible Path to Ensure a Comprehensive Transitional Justice Process in Kenya

Abstract

Since colonial times, Kenyans have suffered a series of severe human right violations. The last big episode occurred in the aftermath of the disputed 2007 elections. The official response has been fragmented and incomplete, this paper continues to develop the thesis of a victim-driven approach arguing that victims' leadership in the transitional justice process might help enhance Kenya's search of comprehensive truth, justice, reparations, and guarantees of non-recurrence. Under this framework, the article introduces the victim-driven approach – in lieu of the victims' participation approach – and the positive experience of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo in Argentina. The study develops the challenges of the Kenyan victims in contrast with the Argentinean ones, and later suggests how the victim-driven approach and its Argentinean expression might still help Kenyan victims to overcome those challenges. Even if the research focuses on Kenya, it may also enrich other countries where victims’ groups are also struggling to lead the transitional justice process.