Kenya: Country to Face Sanctions for Being Non-compliant
By Staff Writer
ICC judges have reversed a decision by a lower court which had decided not to take disciplinary action against Kenya for not helping the international court in its investigations.
The ICC judges ordered that the case be returned to the trial chamber on August 19 so that they can decide whether Kenya should be reported to the UN Security Council or not.
President Uhuru Kenyatta had been charged as being a key perpetrator in Kenya’s post elections violence in 2007/8. However, last December, ICC prosecutors dropped charges of crimes against humanity against him, accusing the Kenyan government of blocking their investigations. Uhuru has maintained his innocence and the government said it complied with all the prosecution demands.
According to official government reports, the violence that erupted in the country left over 1,133 people dead and other 650,000 people were displaced from their various homes and they became internally displaced placed people. This left many wanting justice for those that died and those that were displaced.
The ICC prosecutor in charge of Uhuru’s case Ms Fatour Bensouda blamed the collapse of her case against the said on non-cooperation by the government to provide details of president Uhuru’s assets and failure to freeze his assets. The prosecution has also been criticized for carrying out poor investigations. The Presiding Judge Silvia Fernandez read the decision that concludes trial judges had made mistakes.
“The appeal chamber finds that the trial chamber erred in the exercise of its discretion by conflating the non-compliance proceedings with the criminal proceedings against Mr. Kenyatta, by failing to address whether judicial measures had been exhausted, and by assessing the sufficiency of evidence and the conduct of the prosecutor in an inconsistent manner,” the judge said yesterday.
The first steps to be taken against Kenya would be to report her to the grouping of nations forming the ICC of which Kenya is a member. The country could also be reported to the United Nations Security Council where sanctions can be made after a tricky voting procedure which requires all five permanent members who have veto power to agree.
As this goes on, some victims of the post elections violence are yet to be compensated with some bearing permanent physical scars while others are still internally displaced. The trial Chamber however stressed that, the Court retains jurisdiction over any interference with a witness or with the collection of evidence, and that the protective measures ordered for witnesses and or victims shall continue, subject to the review by the ICC.