Probe targets ten politicians and businessmen

A special international tribunal will be set up to prosecute people at the heart of the post-election violence that led to the murder of 1,133 people.

Among those to face justice will be 10 prominent politicians and businessmen, who helped to fund and organise the killings that threatened to tear the nation apart.

Their names will not be made public — for now. Instead the list of shame will be handed this week to former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan in a sealed envelope, which also contains the evidence set to link those listed with the violence.

Mr Annan will hold onto the envelope for safe keeping and pass it still sealed to the tribunal when it is set up.

It is expected to be established within the next six months and will be headed by someone qualified to be a High Court judge.

That is one of the key recommendations of the Waki Commission, which investigated the violence surrounding the 2007 General Election.

Mr Justice Waki released the report as another by retired South African judge Johann Kriegler, whose commission investigated the conduct of the General Election, was tabled in Parliament.

Both President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga promised that the Waki report’s recommendations would be fully implemented.

The report attributes the chaos that led to the deaths of 1,133 Kenyans to tribalism, a culture of impunity and poor police conduct.

According to Mr Waki, the violence following the disputed General Election was the worst ever and called it “unprecedented” and “the most deadly and destructive violence ever experienced in Kenya.”

The report is highly critical of state and security agencies, claiming they were unprepared, uncoordinated and, in a number of cases, directly behind the violence.

Recommendations in the report, in addition to the international tribunal, are that there should be no general amnesty, as has been sought particularly by members of the Orange Democratic Party headed by the Prime Minister.

Limited amnesty

However, the report suggests that it might be necessary to offer a limited amnesty to some minor offenders in exchange for truthful confessions and help in the arrest and prosecution of the organisers and funders of the violence, and of those who actually carried it out.

In another major recommendation, the report calls for the merging of the regular and Administration police forces and wants them headed by a professional policeman or policewoman.

Such a move could render current police chief Maj-Gen Mohamed Ali ineligible for the job because he was seconded to the role from the Army.

The report — the contents of which were accurately predicted by the Daily Nation on Wednesday — reveals that 1,133 people were killed in the violence, with the police themselves shooting dead 405 of them.

The total could be higher because many deaths might not have been reported, the report states. Mr Justice Waki doubted police figures that only about 600 people were killed.