President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto are driven along a
Nairobi street on October 9 upon the return of the former from the
Netherlands, where he attended a status conference on his case at the
ICC in The Hague. PHOTO | EVANS HABIL | NATION MEDIA GROUP
By A JOINT REPORT, The EastAfrican
In Summary
Witch-hunt?
- The ICC has nine ongoing cases, all from African countries. Four of the countries — Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Mali — referred their own cases to the Court.
- The cases of Sudan and Libya were referred by the United Nations Security Council while the Kenya and Côte d’Ivoire ones were taken up by the prosecution on its own volition
Kenya’s ruling Jubilee coalition is waging a
political war against the International Criminal Court ahead of a
decision by its bench on whether the government has co-operated with the
Court or not.
The Jubilee politicians are now arguing that the
case has become political and that the country, rather than President
Uhuru Kenyatta, is now on trial and so the people’s representatives have
to take on the court head-on.
On Tuesday, the ICC judges gave an order warning
the Kenyan government over allegedly leaking confidential information to
the media. This has been interpreted by the Jubilee government as an
indication that the judges are likely to rule against Kenya with regard
to a petition by the Prosecutor that the government has not be
co-operating with the Court.
John Waiganjo, a lawyer and Member of Parliament
for Ol Kalou, argued that orders are normally given in parliament and
that, since the ICC has leaked it to the press, the Court has opened
itself to attacks from politicians.
“The case is now about the Prosecutor versus the
country,” said Mr Waiganjo. “It is not fair to put a country on trial
simply because you cannot prove a case against one of its citizens.
“In that case, politicians have now become lawyers for the president in what they see as a political process.”
The Kenyan government has written to the Assembly
of State Parties asking members to discuss the conduct of the Court at
the grouping’s annual meeting in December. It accuses the ICC of
violating the Rome Statute on which it was founded. Also on trial in the
Netherlands are Deputy President William Ruto and radio journalist
Joshua arap Sang in a joint case that, just like President Kenyatta’s,
arises from the 2007/8 post-election violence in Kenya.
But as Kenyans await the decision by the ICC
judges on the case facing President Kenyatta sometime this week, there
is concern that the Court has performed below the expectations of the
thousands of victims of crimes against humanity in Africa.
Twelve years since the ICC first opened its doors
in The Hague, frustrated governments that have contributed more than $1
billion to its budget are asking how it has fared in its primary role of
deterring political violence in the world.
The verdict from many, especially human-rights
activists, is that the global court has failed not only victims of war
crimes and crimes against humanity but also its handful of primary
funders — such as the United Kingdom, Germany and France.
Ottillia Maunganidze, a researcher with the
Institute for Security Studies, said the ICC is struggling because it
does not have enough investigators to deal with many cases of
international crime, while the investigators do not understand the
jurisdictions in which they operate.
Only two convictions
The Court has so far only two convictions to its
name — against Congolese warlords Thomas Lubanga and Germaine Katanga —
despite spending more than $100 million a year and having 34 judges and
other staff numbering more than 700 in its payroll.
On October 9, Trial Chamber VI of the ICC
scheduled the opening of the trial in the case against another
Congolese, Jean Bosco Ntaganda, for June 2, 2015. Mr Ntaganda is accused
on 13 counts of war crimes and five of crimes against humanity,
allegedly committed in the Ituri area of the Democratic Republic of
Congo.
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