Submit your comments on this article | |||
Africa Horn | |||
Top Kenyans to face trial at ICC | |||
2012-01-24 | |||
Kenyatta, 50, is the son of KenyaÂ’s founding president, Jomo Kenyatta, and the countryÂ’s richest citizen, with a personal fortune of half a billion dollars.
More than 1,000 people were killed in postelection violence in Kenya after police ejected observers from the center where votes were being tallied and the electoral body declared President Mwai Kibaki the winner. Ruto was ordered to stand trial with radio broadcaster Joshua Arap Sang for crimes against humanity allegedly targeting Kibaki supporters. Another suspect, former Minister of Industrialization Henry Kiprono Kosgey, was cleared of charges. In a separate case, Kenyatta will stand trial alongside Cabinet Secretary Francis Muthaura for alleged crimes against humanity directed at Odinga supporters. A third suspect in the case, former police commissioner Maj. Gen. Mohammed Hussein Ali, was cleared of the charges. No date has been set for the trials. The suspects ordered to stand trial will remain free in Kenya until the case starts,
Prosecutors have said the decision to launch an ICC investigation in Kenya should help ease tensions, but there are fears a decision on prosecuting the suspects could have the opposite effect and spark renewed fighting. “It is our utmost desire that the decisions issued by this chamber today bring peace to the people of the Republic of Kenya and prevent any sort of hostilities,” Trendafilova said. It’s unclear whether the case could block Ruto and Kenyatta’s presidential ambitions, since government officials have issued conflicting statements on whether they will remain eligible to run. Trendafilova stressed that the decisions do not mean guilty verdicts against the suspects, only that there is sufficient evidence to send them to trial. Rights groups welcomed the ruling. According to two recent opinion polls, a majority of Kenyans support the ICC process. Most citizens have little faith in their own judiciary, widely perceived as corrupt and choking on a backlog of cases. The ICC prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, launched his investigation in 2010 only after Kenya’s parliament failed to agree to set up a national tribunal to prosecute perpetrators of postelection violence. Both Kenyatta and Ruto come from powerful ethnic groups. Kenyatta is Kikuyu, the ethnic group with the highest numbers and the one that has produced two of the country’s three presidents. Ruto is a Kalenjin, the ethnic group that produced Kenya’s longest-serving president, Daniel arap Moi, who recruited many of his fellow Kalenjin into the security services. | |||
Posted by:Steve White |