International prosecutors will probe crimes against humanity allegedly committed in the violent aftermath of Kenya’s December 2007 presidential election, judges ruled Wednesday.
“The chamber, by majority, hereby authorises the commencement of an investigation into the situation in the Republic of Kenya in relation to crimes against humanity,” the International Criminal Court said in a written decision.
“The information available provides a reasonable basis to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed on Kenyan territory,” added a court statement.
Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked the judges last November to allow him to probe the violence that he said claimed about 1,200 lives, injured at least 3,561 and left some 350,000 internally displaced following elections on December 27, 2007.
Wednesday’s decision, he said, was “very important”, and meant that “there will be no impunity for those most responsible for crimes committed during the post-election violence.
“Justice will contribute to preventing future crimes in Kenya,” said the prosecutor.
The prosecutor’s special aide, Beatrice le Fraper, told AFP the team would now start gathering witness testimony, and no application for an arrest warrant would be forthcoming “before the end of the summer”.
Earlier this month, Moreno-Ocampo gave judges 20 names of “senior political and business leaders” he said “organised, enticed and/or financed attacks against the civilian population on account of their perceived ethnic and/or political affiliation”.
The 20 were associated with the Party of National Unity (PNU) of President Mwai Kibaki and the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) led by Raila Odinga, which was then in opposition, the prosecutor’s office said at the time.
The two sides are now in an uneasy power-sharing government.
Moreno-Ocampo said his confidential list contained the names of those “who appear to bear the gravest responsibility for these crimes”. The rest could be tried by Kenya itself.
The prosecutor has been conducting a preliminary investigation since February 2008.
Some of the evidence unearthed so far, said the court, indicated that the civilian population was the primary target of the post-election attacks, and that victims were chosen by ethnicity.
“The supporting material contains references pointing to the involvement of Kalenjin (ethnic group) leaders, businessmen and ODM politicians, including cabinet ministers,” said the judgment.
The government in Nairobi has pledged to cooperate with the ICC, but has yet to act on the recommendation of its own inquiry that a special tribunal be set up to probe the violence. The Kenyan parliament last year rejected a bill aimed at creating such a court.
The ICC, which started operating in 2002 as the world’s only permanent independent tribunal to try war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, can only take cases when countries are unwilling or unable to prosecute.
“The available information shows some inadequacies or reluctance from the national authorities to generally address the election violence,” says the ICC judgment.
Human Rights Watch welcomed Wednesday’s decision.
“A successful investigation by the prosecution could mark the end of impunity for election-related violence in Kenya,” spokeswoman Param-Preet Singh told AFP.
This is the first case to come before the court at the prosecutor’s own initiative. Investigations involving four other countries — Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and Sudan — were referred to the ICC either by countries themselves or by the UN Security Council.
