International Criminal Court and Kenya

Background

The aim of this text is to determine the effectiveness of the ICC in general in the aftermath of the Kenya case in particular.

Kenya, an East African country, has a mixed history. It is a former colony of Britain which had a violent process to its independence in 1963 but had relative peace and stability, in comparison to its neighbours.

After one of the key founding fathers, Jomo Kenyatta, its first president in 1978, Moi, the then vice president assumed power. In the early 1990s after international and local pressure, Moi opened up political space to a multiparty system. This led to the election of Mwai Kibaki in 2002 who ruled until 2013.

But it was the disputed election of 2007 that led to widespread violence and bloodshed that led to the indictment of the key perpetrators of the violence , by the ICC, such as Uhuru et al. They were later to become president and vice president, respectively. The case against them collapsed due to a number of factors as examined below.
The effectiveness of the ICC in general and the Kenya case in particular, will be the focus of this text.

Overview of the International Criminal Court

Based in the Hague the international criminal court was founded under the Rome statute of July 2002. It has a mandate is to investigate and prosecute 'the 'most serious crimes of concern to the international community' with jurisdiction over 'genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. '

Recent political situation in Kenya

There has since been yet another bitterly disputed election, supreme court intervention, allegations of intimidation of the judiciary and the boycott of the subsequent elections by the opposition.

In February 2018, the opposition leader has sworn himself as 'a peoples' president and several opposition leaders have been arrested. Some incommunicado, according to media reports . It is that background creates a need to examine the impact of the ICC intervention in Kenya.