Transitional Justice in Kenya

This policy paper highlights a key dilemma for societies seeking to redress the past through transitional justice measures in determining how to define that past: how far back into history is enough and not too far to truly ‘do justice’ in Kenya? The historical timeframe of a transitional justice process is important as different epochs present different, contradictory, pictures of identities of victims and perpetrators. Land, for example, is a central factor in Kenya’s politics, conflicts and ethnic relations. It remains an unavoidable theme in the country’s transitional justice discourse. Understanding the history of the land problem is therefore crucial to a discussion of transitional justice in Kenya.