The Daily IIJ

Kenya’s political crisis has taken a swift turn and now major suspects in the 2007 post-election violence that rocked the country would be headed to the Hague.

Kenya’s post-election crisis mediator Kofi Annan on Thursday handed a sealed envelope with the names of top suspects behind the violence to the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor, Moreno-Ocampo.

The ICC has vowed to try perpetrators of the worst bloodletting in Kenya’s post-independence history — in which at least 1,300 people died and 300,000 were uprooted in early 2008 — if Kenya fails to establish its own local court.

Homegrown solution

Annan had given Kenya chance to come up with a home-grown solution in form of a Local Tribunal but the government has been dilly dallying over this option. 

Kenya’s coalition Government has been sub-divided over the two options (Local Tribunal or the Hague) and a bill that intended to establish a local Tribunal was defeated in Parliament.

Opposing legislators argued that past local attempts to catch those behind violence or corruption had always been fruitless.

Pro-Hague critics say key suspects will never escape justice as they will have no chance to manipulate the Hague system. The local tribunal would have also been a better option since it was to include both local and foreign prosecutors to ensure fairness and objectivity.

Flurry of activities

Annan’s announcement has caused a flurry of activities in Government with several crisis meetings being convened. 

Key ministers in the Government are suspected to have been included in the envelope that Anan handed over to Ocampo and Kenyans are waiting with mouths wde open when Ocampo spills the content in the dreaded envelope. 

It is a matter of time before we see a complete overturn of political processes with possible political realignment. 

There was mixed reactions over Annan’s step and generally Kenyans at home and at the diaspora are closely watching. 

Outgoing German ambassador to Kenya, Walter Linder supported Annan’s move just as other diplomats in the country. 

With a population of 35 million people justice for the crisis is seen as a crucial step to ensuring stability in Kenya which  faces its next poll in 2012.

A government-ordered inquiry led by Justice Philip Waki had mandated Annan to hand over the envelope, with names of at least 10 alleged masterminds, if no local court was established.

It is no doubt, the list includes prominent politicians and businessmen, including cabinet ministers, local politicians.

Kenyan officials told the ICC last week that they would submit a plan for a local court by September, so Annan’s move will ramp up the pressure for that to happen.

Statement from Annan

A statement from Annan in Geneva said he had informed both President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga that the envelope had been given to ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo.

The former U.N. boss “welcomed the government of Kenya’s renewed efforts to implement the recommendations of the Waki Commission and to establish a Special Tribunal”, it said.

“Any judicial mechanism adopted to bring the perpetrators of the post-election violence to justice must meet international legal standards and be broadly debated with all sectors of the Kenyan society in order to bring credibility to the process.”

The ICC’s Moreno-Ocampo told Reuters this week it may take Kenya about a year to establish a tribunal if it agrees to do so in principle. “If If Kenya cannot do it, I will do it. There will be no impunity,” he said.

 International bodies and donors have been pilling pressure on Kenya to quickly initiate reforms to tame the wave of impunity, or risk being dragged to The Hague.

 They unanimously agree that the perpetrators of the 2007 post elections should be tried in Kenyan soil. But to avoid the ICC, kenya has to initiate reforms which will include the formation of a local tribunal to try perpetrators of election violence. 

US intervenes

US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affaires Johnnie Carson is among those who have pointed a finger at the Government over run-away corruption, impunity and snails pace in initiating reforms agreed on by Kofi Annan led team, and the Waki report.

 On his first trip to Kenya, Carson delivered a chilling warning to the Government in Nairobi that the US would “ exercise some degree of muscle” should the coalition fail to implement reforms.

 “ We are concerned about the slow pace of implementation of the Kofi Annan accords which brought an end to the violence that followed a very flawed December 2007 process in Kenya,” Carson said.

 Ocampo is already collecting information and preparing case to establish whether crimes against humanity were committed in Kenya. 

“In the next one month, in September, the Kenyan delegation promised to be back with a detailed plan.  For now, let us wait and see. However, it is better a country establishes national proceedings. Colombia has done it and they are doing quite well.

 The Kenyan delegation told me they are doing something and I will respect that and I am using that time to collect information and build my case,” he told a Kenyan Daily Newspaper, The Standard

and KenyaCurrent