Kenya’s president and deputy president on Saturday called for “reconciliation” following International Criminal Court (ICC) decisions to drop charges against them over 2007 post-election violence that rocked the country.
War crimes judges dropped cases against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta — the son of the country’s independence leader Jomo Kenyatta — at the end of 2014 and against deputy president William Ruto last week.
More than 1,300 people died and about 600,000 others were left homeless after disputed elections in 2007 in Kenya’s worst outbreak of violence since independence from Britain in 1963.
Photo: AFP
Ruto was charged with three counts of crimes against humanity — namely murder, forcible deportation and persecution during the 2007-2008 violence.
Kenyatta faced five charges including murder, rape and deportation for allegedly masterminding the post-election violence.
However, the ICC said it was forced to declare the defendants had no case to answer because of a “relentless” campaign of witness intimidation as well as Nairobi’s refusal to cooperate, a charge that Kenya denies.
Speaking at a meeting in Nakuru on Saturday, the president urged Kenyans to work together.
“We are not here to celebrate, but to remember and pray for each other. We dedicate ourselves to reconciliation and building a stronger nation,” he said.
“We must reject ethnicity that builds animosity amongst our people. We must refuse to be divided,” he added.
Kenya has led a high-profile campaign against the ICC among African nations, accusing the tribunal of bias against the continent. Of the nine investigations the court has opened so far, eight are African — Kenya, Ivory Coast, Libya, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Uganda, Mali and Georgia.
The 2007 post-election violence in Kenya broke out after Rila Odinga, a member of the Luo ethnic group, who was then the opposition leader, accused then-president Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu, of rigging his way to re-election.
What began as political riots quickly turned into ethnic killings of the Kikuyu people, who in turn launched reprisal attacks.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese