The International Criminal Court
ordered four Kenyans, including Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta
and fellow presidential candidate William Ruto, to face charges
of crimes against humanity over post-election violence in 2008.
Francis Muthaura, the 65-year-old head of Kenya’s civil
service, and radio presenter Joshua Arap Sang, 36, will also go
on trial as suspected perpetrators of the clashes, Presiding
Judge Ekaterina Trendafilova told the court today in The Hague
in a 2-1 decision. Kenya’s shilling weakened after the ruling,
falling as much as 0.8 percent, before paring its loss to trade
0.4 percent weaker at 86.38 per dollar at 3:59 pm in Nairobi,
while the country’s NSE All Share (NSEASI) stock index fell 2 percent.
Kenyatta, 50, who also serves as deputy prime minister and
is the son of Kenya’s first president, Jomo Kenyatta, and Ruto,
45, have both said they will run for the Kenyan presidency in
elections due by March 2013, irrespective of the ruling.
“The inability of the country to handle elections cycles
has been one of the biggest drags on the economy since 1992, at
the country’s first multiparty elections,” Aly-Khan Satchu,
chief executive officer of Nairobi-based Rich Management, said
in a phone interview. “People thought for a long time there was
no justice against elites and in some ways this puts the end of
impunity in sight.”
Kenya was wracked by two months of ethnic violence sparked
by allegations of vote-rigging by supporters of then-opposition
leader Raila Odinga, a Luo by ethnicity who heads the Orange
Democratic Movement, in the Dec. 27, 2007, presidential vote.
Power Sharing
The fighting subsided after President Mwai Kibaki, leader
of the Party for National Unity and an ethnic Kikuyu, signed a
power-sharing accord that installed Odinga as prime minister of
East Africa’s biggest economy and promised political changes.
The fighting caused economic growth in Kenya to slow to 1.7
percent in 2008, from 7.1 percent a year earlier. The East
African country is the world’s biggest exporter of black tea and
relies on tourism to generate 10 percent of its economic output.
ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo says that Odinga’s
allies, mainly from the Kalenjin ethnic group and led by Ruto,
attacked Kikuyu, Kamba and Kisii people, whom they believe
supported Kibaki’s PNU party. Sang is accused of spreading hate
messages. Kenyatta and Muthaura engaged the Mungiki criminal
gang to carry out reprisal attacks against the Luo, Luhya and
Kalenjin ethnic groups, Moreno-Ocampo said.
‘Strong Message’
The ruling “may be a deterrent for those thinking of using
violence in the next election,” said Ndungu Wainaina, executive
director of the Nairobi-based International Center for Policy
and Conflict, by phone today. “This sends a very strong message
to people who use violence as a means to acquire their political
objectives.”
The court dismissed all charges against Henry Kosgey, 64, a
lawmaker, and the country’s former police chief Mohammed Hussein
Ali, 55, who is now postmaster general, for lack of evidence.
“It is our utmost desire that the decisions issued by this
chamber today brings peace to the people of the Republic of
Kenya and prevents any sort of hostility,” Trendafilova said in
a webcast of the ruling.
Fifty four percent of Kenyans want the ICC to handle post-
election violence cases, according to a survey by Ipsos-Synovate
of 2,000 adult Kenyans between Dec. 12 and Dec. 29. It had a
margin of error of 2.2 percentage points. Those opposed said
they prefer the perpetrators be tried in domestic courts or by a
Kenyan tribunal, or feared the ICC trials could rekindle
violence, the survey showed. Moreno-Ocampo initiated
investigations into the chaos after Kenyan lawmakers tried and
failed to create a dedicated tribunal. All of the suspects have
denied Moreno-Ocampo’s accusations of crimes including murder,
forced displacement, persecution and rape.
‘Remain Free’
Fadi El Abdallah, spokesman for the ICC, said on Jan. 17
that those ordered to stand trial in the Kenyan case would
“remain free” unless the court’s judges decided otherwise.
Kenyatta and Ruto have both said they plan to contest the next
presidential elections, along with Odinga and former Justice
Minister Martha Karua.
“This decision may actually help their presidential
ambitions by shoring up sympathy votes,” Macharia Munene, a
professor of international studies at United States
International University in Nairobi, said in a phone interview
today. “They will make voters believe they are victims of the
process and convince them the entire process has been
politically-motivated.”
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki appealed for calm after the
ruling and said he had asked the country’s attorney-general to
form a panel to study the decision. He spoke in an address
broadcast by KTN, a unit of Nairobi-based Standard Group Ltd. (STNG)
Human Rights Watch, the New York-based advocacy group, said
the ruling was a step forward in the fight against impunity.
“We are pretty satisfied with the decision,” Neela Ghoshal,
East Africa researcher for Human Rights Watch, said in a phone
interview from Nairobi today. “High-ranking politicians are
finally being held to account.”
To contact the reporters on this story:
Sarah McGregor in Nairobi at smcgregor5@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Andrew J. Barden at barden@bloomberg.net.
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