The deadline for the Kenyan government to set up a local tribunal to try people accused of inciting last year’s post-election violence expired a few days ago. The peace deal brokered last year by Kofi Annan required Kenya to set up a special tribunal, and in the event that that failed to happen the suspects were to be handed over to the International Criminal Court for prosecution. Kofi Annan and International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo have now visited Kenya to discuss what happens next.
According to Kenya’s Sunday Nation newspaper, Ocampo has been compiling evidence against a number of key suspects including ministers in the current government. The ICC has also been quietly taking key witnesses out of the country. The key suspects are said to include three senior members of the Cabinet and one state security official, who are said to have provided funding and logistical support for organised ethnic violence.
Kenyan Human Rights Commission vice-chair Hassan Omar is reported as saying: “Impunity can only be addressed by ensuring equality under the law. Every Kenyan must be punished for acting in ways that subvert the rule of law, and holding the perpetrators of violence to account will change the decades-old culture of politicians abusing the law at will.”