POSTED BY GEORGE NYONGESA:Kenya grassroots message to welcome Mr. Ocampo!..... BY:BUNGE LA MWANANCHI.

__________________________________________________________________ Kenya grassroots message to welcome Mr. Ocampo! On November 2, 2009, grassroots leaders drawn from the countrywide networks of Bunge la Mwananchi met and developed the following position on the debate of holding to account post election violence (PEV) perpetrators: Read more... Kenya grassroots message to welcome Mr. Ocampo! Tuesday, 03 November 2009 13:12 Bunge La Mwananchi Secretariat E-mail Print PDF BUNGE LA MWANANCHI www.bungelamwananchi.org __________________________________________________________________ Kenya grassroots message to welcome Mr. Ocampo! On November 2, 2009, grassroots leaders drawn from the countrywide networks of Bunge la Mwananchi met and developed the following position on the debate of holding to account post election violence (PEV) perpetrators: THAT: 1. Remembering that the innocent lives of 1,300 Kenyans were lost, unknown numbers sustained gross injuries and billions of property was destroyed as result of violence that ensued following botched elections; 2. Noting that prior to the announcement of election results, in spite of politicians’ tribal war crusades, grassroots Kenyans who bore the huge brunt of PEV had conducted themselves in a responsible and peaceful manner; 3. Emphasizing that PEV was a war of the ruling class, on the one hand led by President Mwai Kibaki and on the other by Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga, and that the grassroots Kenyan were victims who were manipulated through messages of ethnic consciousness, bribery, propaganda and populism; 4. Insisting that had President Mwai Kibaki conducted himself in a manner respecting the rule of law and respecting public institutions prior to the exercise of general elections and likewise respecting the electoral law and sanctity of human life, the disgrace on ballot democracy and the loss of lives was wholly avoidable; 5. Maintaining that had Prime Minister Raila Odinga acted as a statesman, after the disputed elections results, he would not have pursued power at all costs, would not have incited his supporters into uncoordinated mass actions and consequently no one would have been lynched, no life would have been lost and no property would have been destroyed; 6. Mindful of the lack of political willingness in the Grand Coalition Government to implement the National Accord’s Agenda of inter alia restoration of people’s liberty, compensating and resettlement of IDPs, comprehensive electoral laws, police and judiciary reforms and addressing general poverty and lack of employment among youth; 7. Appreciating and echoing the attention of the International Community (the US, the EU and the UN) in pressurizing the Coalition Government to urgently effect meaningful reforms and by extension welcoming the importance of the planned visit by the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor, we wish to state as follows: i) That the PEV was a class war between the ruling class- rich and powerful- into which the unsuspecting poor and powerless were drawn and inhumanely treated as mere collateral damage; ii) That it beats sociological imagination to exonerate President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga from the damning facts of the PEV: Raila Odinga called for mass action that turned violent amongst innocent Kenyans and Mwai Kibaki deployed the Kenya Police who shot and killed protestors; and therefore the ICC prosecutor must not disappoint the poor victims of PEV by not holding the President and the Prime Minister accountable for their actions, inactions, commissions and omissions. iii) That the coalition partners - President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga are direct beneficiaries of the PEV, now most interested in protecting their PEV war Generals and least interested in ensuring justice for the poor victims of PEV. iv) That there are thousands of internally displaced persons who were irregularly forced out of camps and are still homeless, hungry and cold with inadequate respite from the Coalition Government. v) That several victims of police shooting are still nursing gross wounds at home without medication and some still have bullets lodged in their bodies. vi) That the indictment and trial of PEV perpetrators is a reassurance and a signal by the Global Family to the majority of grassroots Kenyans that the culture of impunity and irresponsible leadership has no place in our world today. vii) That for restoration of people’s interest in democracy, elections and governance, and further to expedite the reform agenda in Kenya, it is extremely important that high profile PEV perpetrators are indicted, arrested and tried outside Kenya. viii) That we support both a Local Tribunal to try the small perpetrators of PEV such as politicians’ hirelings who raped, looted and torched property; and the Hague option for the rich, powerful and high profile perpetrators who planned and financed PEV. ix) That we are keenly watching Mr Ocampo and are interested that justice is not only done but seen to be done. Notes for Editor: BUNGE LA MWANANCHI is a nationwide movement that mobilizes and organizes grassroots Kenyans around their felt socio-economic challenges to dialogue and strategize for bottom up political change. Bunge la Mwananchi is also a member of National Civil Society Congress (NCSC). THIS STATEMENT IS DATED AND SIGNED ON THIS MONDAY 2ND NOVEMBER 2009

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.