Spotlight on Kenya as ICC to Investigate Violence
ICC Prosecutor Ocampo with President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is to start investigations into post-elections violence that resulted in numerous deaths in the East African country of Kenya. The ICC announced the decision on Thursday after exhaustive diplomatic pressure on an unrelenting Kenyan Government who had bluntly refused to cooperate with the court on any investigation for corruption and any other crimes. After preliminary investigations, the ICC has come to the conclusion that crimes against humanity had been committed during the post-election period and that it would seek a formal investigation.
The Prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo who arrived in Kenya on Thursday, held meetings with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga. At a press conference after the talks, he told reporters “I explained to them that I consider the crimes committed in Kenya were crimes against humanity, therefore the gravity is there,” . “Therefore, I should proceed.”
No government official or politician in Kenya has ever been prosecuted or investigated over the bloodbath that ensued after the elections. Kenya has always been seen as an oasis of stability in a very turbulent East African Region. Most of the key suspects, accused by human rights groups of masterminding the violence, are high-ranking government ministers.
Governments in the west have been steadily piling up the pressure, with the United States recently threatening sanctions against any Kenyan politician who blocked reforms. On Wednesday, Kenya’s attorney general, Amos Wako, revealed that he was the first whose American visa had been revoked. The prospects of a resurgence of ethnic violence is extremely high as gangs loyal to powerful politicians within the same ethnic group could explode if their leaders were hauled off to a court in Europe.
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