Commission outlines Coast marginalisation issues

By Patrick Beja     

The Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) has outlined issues that it says have led to deep feelings of marginalisation of indigenous Coast residents.

Land issues, war on terror, poor education levels and lack of infrastructure have fuelled feelings that successive governments ignored the region. “One of the critical issues, described by some as a ‘ticking bomb’ is the seemingly intractable land question. More recently, other factors including perceived mistreatment of residents at the hands of police in the context of Kenya’s efforts in the American-led ‘war on terror’, poor education levels and lack of infrastructure have all served to fuel feelings that successive governments do not care about the region,” says the report.

In the report presented to President Uhuru Kenyatta, the Bethuel Kiplagat-led team observed that that the idea that successive governments have marginalised Coast economically was a central feature of the historical narrative in the context of politics, development and gross human rights violations. “The single most conflictive issue in the Coast region is land or rather the loss or lack of access to it faced by many communities and individuals,” says the report.

TJRC notes that the problem of marginalisation in the education sector at the Coast has historical roots in the colonial and pre-colonial era as it was segregated along racial lines with separate systems for European, Asian and African pupils.

“From a national perspective, the Coast region is among the most under developed areas of Kenya in the provision of education,” it says.