Post-election Violence: Govt Doing Too Little Too Late

As a number of Kenyans continue to languish in dilapidated IDP camps nearly four years after the country erupted into violence following bungled presidential elections, it is disheartening that the government is now engaging in a window dressing exercise by questioning the six suspects who have been fingered by ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo. What the government is doing amounts to closing the door of the stable after the horse has bolted.

It is not lost on observers that the security apparatus had all the information required to institute criminal proceedings against the suspects. There was the Waki Report as well as the other by the government’s own watchdog—the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.  But the government chose to conveniently ignore the evidence presented in these two reports, only going for the rowdy youth who were demonstrating in the streets but leaving the big fish behind the whole mayhem.

The current move by the government, no doubt, is aimed at shielding the suspects by proving to the ICC that it can handle the cases locally. If the government was truly committed to bringing the perpetrators of the violence to book, it did not have to wait for them to be taken to ICC before instituting investigations. The current questioning of the suspects is therefore an exercise in futility that should be abandoned to save further wastage of taxpayers’ money. The confirmation of charges hearing is only a fortnight away and no matter what strategy the government adopts to save the suspects, the ICC is keenly watching. Let the suspects have their day in court. The victims are crying out for justice.