ICC Indictments Put Kenya on Trial

ICC Indictments Put Kenya on Trial

The International Criminal Court (ICC) will rule on whether to issue summonses for six men accused of crimes against humanity for their alleged roles in violence following Kenya's disputed 2007 presidential election. But in announcing the suspects' names on Dec. 15, ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo indicted the entire East African nation, saying that "we had to launch this because nothing was happening in Kenya."

It was an overt and pointed critique of the government of national unity born from the post-election violence. Although only barely able to hold itself together, the government has managed to strengthen Kenya's already entrenched culture of impunity, allowing political elites to steal, threaten and kill without legal repercussion.

Only belatedly, in a Dec. 13 announcement suspect for its timing, did President Mwai Kibaki make mention of his intention to create a local tribunal to try those complicit in the violence that roared up the Rift Valley and through the slums of Nairobi in the aftermath of the December 2007 polls.

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