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Kenya: Recent Developments Related to the ICC Investigation

20 July 2010

Dear all,

Please find below information about recent developments related to the International Criminal Court's investigation in Kenya.

This message includes latest news articles (I), as well as related opinions and videos (II).

Please also take note of the Coalition's policy on situations before the ICC (below), which explicitly states that the CICC will not take a position on potential and current situations before the Court or situations under analysis. The Coalition, however, will continue to provide the most up-to-date information about the ICC.

Best regards,

CICC Secretariat
www.coalitionfortheicc.org

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I. LATEST NEWS ARTICLES

i. "Uhuru files appeal in Kenya chaos case", By Sam Kiplagat (Daily Nation), 24 June 2010, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Uhuru files appeal in Kenya chaos case/-/1056/945732/-/4o6db1z/-/index.html

"Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta has moved to the highest court in the land as he seeks to expunge his name from a report linking him to the 2007-post-election violence.

In a notice filed in the Appellate Court Thursday, Mr Kenyatta says he was dissatisfied with the decision of Lady Justices Roselyn Wendo and Abida Ali-Aroni...

...Other than seeking the cost of the suit, Mr Kenyatta also wanted the court to quash claims that he took part in the planning and organising of gangs to cause violence in Central province.

The allegations were contained in a report titled 'On the brink of the precipice: A human rights account of Kenya's post-2007 election violence', which was prepared by the KNCHR.

It was handed by its chairperson, Ms Florence Simbiri-Jaoko, to among others, President Kibaki, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, the Attorney-General, the Police Commissioner, the Commission of Inquiry into the Post-Election Violence, and the International Criminal Court.

Mr Kenyatta says he was adversely mentioned in the report yet he was not given a chance to present his side of the story."

ii. "Former AP Boss Faces Sack After Vanishing", Nairobi Star, 5 July 2010,
http://allafrica.com/stories/201007051204.htm

"Government is about to dismiss a key potential witness for the International Criminal Court.

It has written to Oku Kaunya to show cause why he should not be fired as Nyanza Deputy Provincial Commissioner.

In December 2007 he was the Deputy Commandant of the Administration Police and Commandant of the AP Training College in Embakasi. He had originally been scheduled to take over from AP Commandant Kinuthia Mbugua in 2008.

It has been alleged that the Administration Police was partly responsible for the mayhem that followed the December 2007 elections.

Kaunya left Kenya in April this year and has not returned. It has been rumoured that he will be a key witness for ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo.

Government has taken Kaunya's absence from work as desertion from duty which, according to the Civil Service regulations, is punishable by summary dismissal...

...He may turn out to be a key witness should the International Criminal Court try the perpetrators of the post-election violence."

iii. "ICC Targets Four MPs Over Poll Violence", by Mathews Ndanyi (Nairobi Star), 13 July 2010, http://allafrica.com/stories/201007130727.html

"The International Criminal Court investigators have zeroed in on two Cabinet ministers, one former and one sitting MP as their main targets for prosecution, the Star has established.

The investigators have recorded statements from witnesses whose testimony is considered crucial to indict the four people.

The detectives also have credible evidence about a senior police officer who reportedly issued shoot-to-kill orders to his juniors during the post-election violence...."

iv. "ICC investigators identify six hotspots in Kenya chaos", by Peter Leftie, (Daily Nation), 16 July 2010, http://www.nation.co.ke/News/ICC investigators identify six hotspots in Kenya chaos/-/1056/959036/-/m7q1tmz/-/

"Detectives from the International Criminal Court (ICC) have narrowed down their investigations into Kenya's post election violence to six hotspots.

Sources close to the investigations said the investigators who jetted in the country three weeks ago were concentrating on the six parts of the country, which were hardest hit by the violence that followed the disputed presidential elections in 2007.

The six hotspots are: Uasin Gishu, the greater Kericho, Kisumu, Naivasha, Mathare and Kibera slums.

Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo confirmed that the ICC investigators were already in the country collecting evidence in the six areas that were most affected by the deadly violence that almost tore the country apart...."

II. RELATED OPINIONS AND VIDEOS

i. "Women Push for Gender Justice", Evelyn Kiapi (IWPR), 8 July 2010, http://www.iwpr.net/report-news/women-push-gender-justice

"...It is this apparent failure to adequately address the needs of these victims of sexual violence that prompted Women's Initiative for Gender Justice, an NGO, to issue a list of demands at the International Criminal Court, ICC's review conference, which was held in Kampala between May 31 and June 11...

...One rape victim in western Kenya, who did not wish her name to be used, told IWPR that she was placing all her hope for justice on the investigation that Luis Moreno-Ocampo, ICC chief prosecutor, had recently begun in the country.

The woman claims that she was assaulted by a group of men on January 27, 2008, as she tried to flee the violence that tore through her home town of Navasha. She says that the rape was so violent, her womb was irreparably damaged and had to be removed.

More than two years after the rape, the woman still lives in a state of fear. Distrustful of the authorities and worried that her attackers, who left her for dead, could return, she moves from house to house, never remaining longer than a few days under one roof.

She says that she has no faith in justice ever being done by the Kenyan legal system, because she claims that those in power are from the same tribe as the men that raped her.

'I hope that the ICC will intervene in our situation,' she said. 'The government here doesn't reach all people equally. Moreno-Ocampo should quicken his investigation so that we can have certainty for the future.'

But she says her hope is tempered by the fear that the investigation could be thwarted by the Kenyan government.

'Moreno-Ocampo should not listen to the words of high-profile people in the government because they will only cheat him,' she said. 'He should come and talk to us, in Navasha. If Moreno-Ocampo came here, I would meet him and give evidence.'

Moreno-Ocampo visited Kenya in May, but did not travel outside of the nation's capital. He met victims who were brought to Nairobi by human rights organisations in the city. ..."

ii. "Planned ICC trials about deterrence", by Zawadi Birya (Daily Nation), 11 July 2010, http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Planned ICC trials about deterrence /-/440808/955762/-/jfd16d/-/

"It is time Kenyans considered the possibility that the planned post-election violence trials by the International Criminal Court, which are set to begin in 2012, may not solely be a quest for justice, but rather part of a wider strategy to promote peace and democracy in Africa through deterrence.

During his most recent visit to Kenya, ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo reiterated that the ICC would only tackle a few chief suspects in the post-election violence, leaving lesser offenders at the mercy of a local tribunal.

Conspicuously present in all of Ocampo's statements has been the assertion that the ICC wants to use Kenya as a lesson for other countries.

This is a rather vague statement to mean that what happens in Kenya will be an example to would-be perpetrators in other African countries, where elections are synonymous with negative ethnicity and violence.

Like other international trials that have taken place in the past 100 years, Kenyans should not be surprised that the ICC has chosen to try only a few symbolic figures. They shouldn't even be surprised if the International Criminal Court chooses to exonerate most of them.

This is because such trials are seldom about the quest for justice than about ensuring that history does not repeat itself. ..."

iii. "Leaflets, warnings and intimidation mar law campaigns", by Samwel Kumba and Jacob Ng'etich (Daily Nation), 9 July 2010, http://www.nation.co.ke/Referendum/Leaflets warnings and intimidation mar law campaigns  /-/926046/955182/-/v623gw/-/index.html

"As campaigns for the referendum shift into full gear with just 25 days to go to the vote, tension is said to have gripped areas that were identified as hotspots in the post-election violence.

Indeed, a new report by South Consulting, a firm that monitors activities in the Grand Coalition Government, indicates that intimidation in parts of Rift Valley, Nyanza and Western provinces has triggered the pre-emptive displacement of people from those areas...

...The only hope for Kenyans now lies with the International Criminal Court.

'There is slack commitment to efforts to promote accountability. Many cases related to the post-election violence have not been successfully concluded. To date, some of those accused have been acquitted for lack of sufficient evidence,' states the report. ..."

iv. "VIDEO - Skylight Pictures video blogging from the ICC Review Conference", ICTJ, 14 June 2010, http://www.ictj.org/en/news/features/3816.html

"Njonjo Mue, head of the Nairobi, Kenya, office of the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) gives us an overview of why the International Criminal Court (ICC) has intervened in Kenya as a result of the 2007 post-election violence, and what is at stake in the next elections in 2012...."