Lobby urges Tobiko to prosecute chaos suspects

A lobby wants the Director of Public Prosecution to take legal action against people involved in the perpetration of the post election violence.

The International Centre for Policy and Conflict (ICPC) said Tuesday the move would complement the International Criminal Court (ICC) process, which is expected to confirm or refuse to confirm charges against the Ocampo Six soon.

ICPC Executive Director Ndung’u Wainaina said such prosecution would discourage future election-related violence.

He said the DPP Keriako Tobiko should bring the suspects to book as a way of showing commitment to the Rome Statute, which created the ICC.

Mr Wainaina said that the fact that no independent and expeditious prosecutions for lower cadre perpetrators had been conducted was a show of “despicable acts of impunity in the country against the victims of the PEV majority of who continue to languish in deplorable conditions".

“It also sends a wrong message as to the preparedness of criminal justice institutions to punish perpetrators as we approach the 2012 elections," he said in a statement.

The lobby now wants Mr Tobiko to use the independence granted to his office by the Constitution to initiate the prosecutions.

While ICPC acknowledged it would be impracticable to have a local tribunal for the ‘small fish’, “this must not be an excuse for not holding these PEV perpetrators to account".

The group called on the police to hand over information about suspects to the DPP to facilitate the prosecution.

Recently, the police announced that they would start collecting evidence to nail more suspects in relation to the post-election chaos.