Kenya's journey to The Hague

By KEPHER OTIENO

Standard reporter

The journey to the much-hyped International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has been long and winding.

ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has weathered storms of political intrigues and has remained focused to nailing down post-election violence suspects.

The ‘teeth’ to bite was handed to Moreno-Ocampo by the ICC itself on Wednesday March 30.

"The Pre-Trial Chamber, by majority, hereby authorises the commencement of an investigation into the situation in the Republic of Kenya in relation to crimes against humanity," ICC judges ruled.

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Further, the ruling posted on the ICC website aptly stated: "The information available provides a reasonable basis to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed on Kenyan territory."

Although there were hurdles in the dispensation of justice with the three-Bench judges at some point differing on legal technicalities they reached a consensus.

Special tribunal

Last year in November, the ICC assigned the Kenyan case to three Pre-Trial Chamber II judges: Ekaterina Trendafilova (Bulgarian), Hans-Peter Kaul (German) and Cuno Tarfusser (Italian). Justices Trendafilova and Tarfusser felt there was reasonable basis to believe crimes against humanity were committed.

But Justice Kaul differed and held that the crimes committed "did not qualify as crimes against".

Finally, the majority, allowed Moreno-Ocampo to commence an investigations covering alleged crimes against humanity committed during the 2007/2008 post-election violence.

Now Moreno-Ocampo has since invoked his powers and is set to ride on the Rome Statute and name six key suspects of post-election violence this week.

Analysts say Kenyans have no reason to worry, complain or block Moreno-Ocampo’s investigations into post-election violence.

Law Society of Kenya Vice-president James Mwamu says Kenyans were given ample time, but they simply failed to establish a special local tribunal.