Prayer rallies insensitive to our plight, poll violence victims complain to ICC

Victims of the crimes for which Deputy President William Ruto is charged at the ICC have complained to the Hague-based court about prayer-rallies being held to intercede for the accused.

In the bi-monthly report on the status of victims filed last week by the Victims Participation and Reparation Section and Common Legal Representative of the case, the victims said the rallies are testimony to insensitivity of the political class to their plight.

Several rounds of prayer-rallies have been held in the country since the August 19 decision by the trial chamber to allow the use of prior-recorded testimony in the case against Ruto and his co-accused Joshua Sang.

The rallies, attended by senior government officials and politicians, have served largely as anti-ICC platforms. The first rally was held in Kuresoi on September 6. Subsequent ones were held in Ruiru and Mt Elgon.

“The victims consulted also raised concern over the political prayer rallies taking place in the country and suggested that they betrayed a lack of sensitivity on the part of government officials to the continuing plight of victims of the post-election violence,” the report filed with the judges says.

According to the report, a “vast majority” of victims consulted remain committed to the ICC process and consider calls to withdraw from the Rome Statute to be unjust.

Psychologically affected

The report says some victims continue to live in makeshift transit camps with their families. They also lacked access to food, clean water and medicine and they routinely succumb to illness as a result.

“The victims reported that they have received neither meaningful support from the government nor assistance from non-governmental organisations,” the report says.

In the report, victims living in Nyeri were disappointed with the local administration and the county government for having made no efforts to enter into dialogue with them on assistance, resettlement or relocation.

Other victims were troubled that a number of their fellow Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) sired children in camps who continue to live in the camps to this day.

“These children have never lived inside a proper home and the government has failed to meaningfully resettle or compensate these victims,” the report says.

The victims lawyer reports that the victims appear to be psychologically affected by their PEV experience and the subsequent indifference shown to them by the government.

“People tend to forget that there were real victims of the post-election violence,” Prof Simeon Sungi of United States International University- Africa said on Friday during an “intellectual dialogue” held on ICC in Nairobi. The report comes at a time when Ruto is facing an uphill task of overturning the use of prior recorded testimony through the appeals chamber. A successful appeal will increase his chances of filing a successful no-case-to-answer motion.

ICC chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has, however, thrown spanner in the works by opposing the appeal as well as Kenya governnment’s request to be enjoined in the matter as a friend of the court (amicus curiae).

In her categorical rejection of Kenya’s application, Bensouda said it is clear from the  application filed by Attorney General Githu Muigai that Kenya is pursuing selfish national interests by intervening on behalf of its two citizens.

“A State or organisation intervening on this basis, no matter how well?intentioned, is not acting as a ‘friend of the court’, and hence its observations are not desirable for the determination of the case,” she said. Experts have said the government will be using political muscle to stall the case against Deputy President Ruto.