Background: A History of Failure to Address Root Causes of Violence
Kenya’s December 2007 presidential and parliamentary elections were preceded by deep political tensions that culminated in a period of intense violence and political unrest. Allegations of electoral manipulation intersected with ethnic tension and boiled over into fighting, riots, sexual violations, and bloodshed. The post-election violence resulted in an estimated 1,100 deaths and widespread destruction and displacement.
In January 2008, the two main political parties—incumbent President Mwai Kibaki’s Party of National Unity and Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement—agreed to negotiate. Through the Kenya National Dialogue Reconciliation mediation process led by the late Dr. Kofi Annan, the two parties signed a peace pact and realized an uneasy peace. The pact, commonly referred to as the National Accord, paved the way for the establishment of a coalition government. Its four agenda items provided for the creation of the following:
- the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) to investigate past violations,
- the Commission of Inquiry on Post-Election Violence (CIPEV, or Waki Commission),
- the Independent Review of the Elections Commission (IREC) to investigate the crisis, and
- a comprehensive constitutional review.
The Waki Commission and IREC completed their work in September and October 2008. Their recommendations, among other things, called for:
- The creation of a special tribunal to prosecute perpetrators who bore the “greatest responsibility” for the post-election violence
- Major police force reform including the merger of the Administration Police and the Kenya Police Service, and vetting of all officers
There has been partial implementation of these recommendations. A new constitution was adopted in August 2010, and some reforms were instituted, most notably in the judiciary and the police.
But the pace of reforms has been slow. The TJRC, established in 2008, handed its final report to the President in May 2013. The proposed special tribunal was never created: The bill was defeated in Parliament in February 2009. In response, in March 2010, the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced an investigation into Kenya’s postelection violence. On March 8, 2011, the ICC issued summons for six people—Mohammed Hussein Ali, Uhuru Kenyatta, Henry Kosgey, Francis Muthaura, William Ruto, and Joshua Sang—for crimes against humanity. The cases against four suspects were confirmed in January 2012, but all the cases have since been withdrawn or vacated. Two of these suspects, Kenyatta and Ruto, contested the March 2013 presidential elections and succeeded in getting elected to the two highest offices in Kenya. Kenyatta became the second sitting head of state, after Sudan’s Omar al Bashir, to face indictment by the ICC.
