ICTJ in the News

December 13, 2008

Ruto puts Kibaki, Raila on notice

The Standard

By Vitalis Kimutai

Agriculture Minister William Ruto has said senior politicians should be the first to face the tribunal recommended by Justice Phillip Waki.

Ruto said President Kibaki, Prime Minister Raila Odinga and embattled Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) chairman Samuel Kivuitu should lead the pack to the tribunal.

"People fought for Kibaki and Raila while Kivuitu announced bungled poll results. The three were the major cause of the post-election violence," he said.

He was speaking at Chesoen Secondary School in Bomet constituency at a fundraiser. He was accompanied by area MP Beatrice Kones and Bureti MP Franklin Bett.

The Eldoret North MP said people fought after the disputed presidential poll results were announced by ECK.

Bett and Kones did not comment on the Waki Report.

Kibaki and Raila have jointly reaffirmed their commitment to implement the recommendations of the report.

However, the two leaders have not been specific over the mode of implementation of the proposals by Justice Waki who headed the Commission investigating the post-election violence.

Perpetrators

Last week, Parliament set the ground for the establishment of a special tribunal to try suspected perpetrators of the violence.

MPs unanimously passed the International Crimes Bill that domesticates the Rome Statute, meaning Kenya will investigate and prosecute international crimes committed locally or abroad by a Kenyan or committed in any place against a Kenyan.

Following the recommendations of the Waki Report, the Government has been under pressure to establish a tribunal to try suspected perpetrators of post-poll violence.

Lawyers have since faulted a draft formulated for a tribunal to try suspects..

The lawyers - local and international - say the document lacks sufficient capability to shield the tribunal from political manipulation.

The new law, they say, was also in contradiction with sections of the Constitution that allowed the President to pardon convicts and the Attorney General to terminate legal proceedings.

Chaos

Ms Cecile Aptel of International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) is on record saying from the draft, it was not possible to see how the tribunal would differentiate between crimes that were committed during the post-election violence period and were not necessarily associated to the chaos.

She also expressed concern the draft was also unclear on the removal of members of the tribunal thus begging whether it would be totally independent.

"Ruto puts Kibaki, Raila on notice" originally appeared in the Standard.