Caleb Kemboi is a Chief reporter working with Eldoret based Bibilia Husema Broadcasting (BHB). His stories are based on issues affecting the community: governance, farming, and the environment.
Being a regular of the Internews Media Resource Center in Eldoret, Kemboi was awarded a mentored travel grant to report on the Truth Justice and Reconciliation commission (TJRC) hearings in Kisumu.
The TJRC hearings are designed to address the causes and effects of historical injustices and gross violations of human rights from 1963 to 2007. It is hoped this process will contribute towards national unity, reconciliation and healing. The TJRC is part of the accountability component of Agenda Four of the National Accord signed in 2008.
One of the main issues that arose during the Kisumu hearings was the political assassinations of various prominent people from the Nyanza region. This includes Tom Mboya, who was the Minister for Economic Planning and Development in the 1960s and Robert Ouko, who was the Minister of Foreign Affairs under Moi. Mboya was gunned down in 1969, while Ouko was murdered in February 1990.
In this feature, Kemboi investigates the frustration of Nyanza people who saw their leaders losing their lives for their convictions. He conducted powerful interviews with the TJRC commissioner Getrude Chawatama (a judge with the High Court of Zambia), Kisumu East Town MP Shakir Shabil, Professor Peter Odede Ouma and a friend of the late Tom Mboya, among others.
Kemboi says that writing on the TJRC hearings in Kisumu has helped him understand why the commission exists. He hopes that through his features his listeners will understand more about the work of the TJRC to heal the nation.
