What’s in store for the post-election violence victims beyond ICC cases?

PHOTO | SULEIMAN MBATIAH | FILE IDPs leave a meeting at Kuresoi, Nakuru County, on September 16, 2013 where they complained of being sidelined in the Sh400,000 resettlement funds.   NATION MEDIA GROUP

In Summary

• For me, I believe that deferral will likely mean the end of the cases
• The ICC must not and should not be the only mechanism the country has

By Maina Kiai
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I have received a number of emails over the past few weeks from victims of the election-related violence of 2007/8. Some are from forgotten and abandoned victims in Nyanza and western Kenya and others from people displaced from the Eldoret region.

They have raised important questions that are crucial for us, as a nation, to debate and discuss. For they ask, what happens after the International Criminal Court (ICC) cases?

At a time when the UN Security Council is seized with the request for deferral of the cases on the shaky ground of risk to international peace and security on account of the Westgate terror attack — not forgetting the bungled and tragic reaction of our security forces — this question is all the more poignant. (READ: Uhuru's ICC trial moved to February 5)

For me, I believe that deferral will likely mean the end of the cases. From January this year, the prosecution has been obliged to hand over its evidence and list of witnesses to the indictees — who now control State power — under the rules of disclosure. Even without any malfeasance, it is hard to imagine many witnesses agreeing to continue with a year’s deferral in these circumstances.

But deferral or not, we need to focus on the victims, wherever they are. And this is irrespective of whether the indictees are found guilty or innocent.

What will happen if they are found guilty? What is the regime doing to bring to justice the mid-level perpetrators? What mechanisms for accountability are being crafted and debated?

And if they are found innocent, is that the end of the matter? How will Kenya address the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the violence?

'MOVE ON'

It is all too easy and simplistic to argue, as some opportunists do, that the declared results in March mean that victims have agreed to “accept and move on,” because some of them voted for the indictees. That view, sadly, takes only one narrative of victims and ignores, deliberately and insultingly, the multitude of other victims who did not vote for the indictees. Their pain and loss is as important as any other victims.

And it also ignores the fact that some victims in some of the regions were faced with the “Charles Taylor” option, embodied in the slogan in Taylor’s first election in Liberia “you killed my ma, you killed my pa, but I go vote for you.” It is the option of fear and least resistance, afraid that any other way of voting could have drastic consequences.

In one of the emails, a victim in Eldoret tells me that a lot of the displaced have still not gone back to their farms because of fear. They are aware that the Jubilee alliance is skin deep and about avoiding the ICC.

The benefits have not trickled down to them nor does it look likely they will do so. This victim told how she had disowned “Uasin Gishu” as the birthplace of herself and her children because she does not want “anything that reminds me and my children that we were born in a place of death.”

And in Nyanza and Western, the cries for help are for recognition of their losses and pain. For acceptance in a political system that is a “winner take all” and where their voices and suffering is simply ignored.

Of course the ICC is an important first step towards holding perpetrators accountable. But it must not and should not be the only mechanism the country has. It is sad that what candidates publicly vowed would be “personal challenges” have been turned into State challenges and with nary a debate about this massive and significant change. How disrespectful of Kenyans!

And yes, there are going to be challenges for Kenya as the cases proceed, deferral or not, but the candidates knew this when they sought office. They have taken us into this hole, and a large number of us went in eyes wide open. The challenge now is how to get out of it without disrespecting or abusing us more.