Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said his government “will not shield or protect” senior officials if they are indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity committed during last year’s post-election violence.
In an interview, Odinga voiced support for the Hague-based court whose prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said last week he would pursue a unilateral investigation into last year’s bloodletting in which at least 1,133 people were killed.
The main suspects include several Cabinet ministers, including some from Odinga’s party, who are accused of organizing and financing ethnic-based attacks.
Odinga’s remarks describing himself as holding “identical” views to Ocampo on the urgent need for justice put him at odds with powerful ministers on both sides of the coalition, who are desperately seeking to derail the ICC process.
Parliament is expected to try to push through a bill this week creating a special local tribunal, in an attempt to weaken Ocampo when he seeks authorization next month from the ICC’s pre-trial chamber to proceed with investigations.
After meeting Ocampo in Nairobi last week, Odinga and Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, whose widely discredited election win kicked off the violence, released a statement saying they would cooperate with the court. But Odinga has gone further.
“We said that we will not shield or protect people found to have committed crimes against humanity,” he said. “That is what we told Ocampo.”
The ICC’s intervention is a tricky issue for both Kenyan leaders, who want to avoid alienating allies in their respective parties named by the government-funded Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights for allegedly orchestrating the violence.
In Odinga’s case, it is ministers from the Rift valley region, who offered crucial election support to his Orange Democratic Movement party, who have the most to fear. The area saw the worst of the violence, as Kalenjin gangs attacked Kikuyu civilians from Kibaki’s party.
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