Witnesses at risk, warns lobby

There might be no witnesses when the International Criminal Court (ICC) settles down to try suspected perpetrators of the post election violence, a human rights lobby has said.

According to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), about 22 potential witnesses who gave evidence during the Waki Commission sittings were living in fear.

“The witnesses claim to have received verbal and text message threats from people known to them, some of whom are allied to powerful politicians,” said a statement from the commission, which was read by vice chairman Hassan Omar Hassan in Eldoret Town.

Widespread

Mr Hassan said the threats were a spill over of the violence that erupted after the December 2007 elections and were widespread. Victims, he said, were ethnically targeted, with some being harassed by people from their ethnic communities.

“The threats intensify during ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo’s visits and when there is a debate around the prosecutor’s visit or next course of action about the post-poll situation in Kenya.”

The commission cited lack of an effective witness protection programme as the main challenge bedevilling the quest for justice. He regretted that some witnesses said some security officers were not treating their complaints seriously and had even betrayed them to suspected masterminds of the orgy of violence that left about 1,133 people dead and 350,000 displaced.

“How the names were leaked to the public yet witnesses testified in camera is still a mystery. We need an independent witness protection unit to check such anomalies,” said Mr Hassan.

He said the office of the Attorney General, through the witnesses protection programme and security officers, should protect witnesses who report threats and who hold crucial evidence.

The Witness Protection Act, which came into effect in September 2008, he said, should be fully applied as witness protection was central to the fair trial of those behind the chaos that threatened to disintegrate Kenya along ethnic lines.

Relent

Mr Hassan maintained that the commission would not relent in its efforts to cooperate with the ICC. Mr Ocampo is waiting approval to prosecute key masterminds of post-election violence in Kenya.