KEJUDE(CHAMA): THOSE WHO BLOCKED FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS SHOULD BE HELD CRIMINALLY ACCOUNTABLE ALONGSIDE THOSE WHO CAUSED THE POST ELECTION MAYHEM

Kenyans for Justice and Development welcome ICC Prosecutor Louis Moreno Ocampo’s intervention towards helping us find justice for the chaos of early 2008. The ICC’s intervention is a major step towards holding criminally accountable all those who masterminded and executed the 2007/2008 pre and post election mayhem. We concede that Kenya ’s weak legal framework, compromised judiciary, an unprofessional police force, lack of a credible witness protection mechanism, the total lack of political will to hold to account the culpable, and the presence of armed militia in some regions all point to the obvious lack of local capacity to deal with the problem unaided. In view of the above, we urge that Mr. Ocampo does the following: (i) He issues open warrants to enable Kenyans know who are being investigated, so that the suspects can vacate office and not interfere with the investigations and that the ICC process proceeds with the speed he has always pledged. (ii) He publicly supports the Imanyara Bill that is seeking to set up a local tribunal meeting international standards to deal with the many ordinary people who took part in the mayhem, as part of the three tier approach to dealing with the post election violence. Given their mandate is restricted to the conduct of hostilities not their causes, we are aware of the limitations faced by both the ICC and local tribunal in ensuring holistic justice. For justice to be done and be seen to be done by all we must bring in a causal effect to the Post Election Violence scenario. Those who masterminded the mayhem should be held criminally accountable simultaneously with those having a causal link to the mayhem. It is most important that those who blocked reforms and did things that in a causal nature set the country on a war footing must also be held liable for their actions. The people who blocked the constituting of an impartial ECK; rejected the 50% + 1 threshold for electing the president; used inciting language on the campaign trail; tampered with the election results after the peaceful voting; and those who hurriedly swore in Mr. Mwai Kibaki as the President to irregularly legalize the contested results must all have their feet held to the fire. This also includes sections of the media that participated in fanning the fires of conflict during the imbroglio. Consequently, we demand that President Kibaki, Premier Odinga and their Cabinet do the following: i) That they must immediately be put in place an independent and impartial mechanism, running parallel to the ICC process, to hold to account this category of people for their causal roles in the mayhem so that justice is done to all players. ii) That they stop deceiving Kenyans that they are “on top of things” in relation to sorting out the Post Election Violence issues, and let the international community whenever it deems fit , in the principle of being “our brothers keeper”, remind them of their failures. iii) That they give victims from all ethnic groups the chance to be heard since up until now only the voices of the perpetrators have been heard. iv) That they guard against the negative ethnicity that is threatening to hijack and subvert the justice process by ignoring minority victims – those moderates who were victimized by their own communities for shielding those targeted, and those whose communities were not prominent players in the mayhem. To achieve true reconciliation as a country, we must hold criminally liable both those who frustrated a fair electoral process and stole the elections, and those who masterminded and executed the mayhem. In proceeding this way, we will strike a body blow against the culture of impunity and give Kenyans a sense of equity before the law, and make Justice our shield and defender. Signed: Neto Agostinho National Convener, KEJUDE. Date: November 4, 2009............................. POSTED BY OKIYA OMTATAH OKOITI.