IDPs turn against ICC, accuse court of incompetence

Victims of the 2007 post-election violence have asked the International Criminal Court to “leave them alone.”

A frustrated IDP Network Kenya on Monday said that ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda had failed to give them the justice they anticipated.

Mr Nelson Owegi, the network’s national organizing secretary and Kisumu coordinator Maureen Opondo also asked the ICC to relocate its office situated in Nairobi.

“The office of the ICC should leave us alone. We had a lot of expectations and the ICC has over time crashed them with every step they take,” Mr Owegi told journalists in his Kisumu office on Monday.

He added: “We want the ICC to leave President Uhuru Kenyatta to give us the Sh10 billion he promised us. We no longer expect justice from them and we just want them to go.”

According to Mr Owegi, who is also the Nyanza IDP Network chairman, the ICC had continually crashed their hopes of ever getting justice by what he said was am “incompetent prosecution”.

He argued that Ms Bensouda was dilly-dallying with the cases.

“Even the Nairobi office they have set up for us should just be moved out of our country. We now think we are okay alone if the government just compensates us. We have suffered a lot already,” he said.

The complaint comes a week after the victims’ lawyer Fergal Gaynor in the ICC Case complained that the prosecution failed to take appropriate measures to ensure effective investigations and prosecution of President Kenyatta, former police boss Major-General Hussein Ali and former Civil Service head Francis Muthaura.

The cases against the three and that of former Tinderet MP Henry Kosgei were all dropped and Mr Gaynor wants another probe against Mr Kenyatta started.

CONSPIRACY TO KILL CASE

Deputy President William Ruto and former radio journalist Joshua Sang’ are still battling their cases at the Hague-based court.

Mr Gaynor, in a document at the ICC and which has statements from victims swearing not to have the ICC indulge in Kenyan issues again, accuses Ms Bensouda of conspiracy to kill the Kenyatta case.

The lawyer also wants the prosecutor charged for abuse of power for what he says was taking the Kenyan victims for a ride.

On Monday, Mr Owegi said all the cases should be dropped.

“We just do not want any other business with them (ICC) anymore. We want the ICC to leave us alone so that the government can compensate us,” said Mr Owegi whose group is now doing a new registration of all the displaced persons in Nyanza ahead of the expected Sh10 billion compensation payout.

The registration is aided by the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC).

PROPERYLY RESETTLED

During his State of the Nation address in March, President Kenyatta said the amount will ensure all those who were affected by the violence are properly resettled.

According to Mrs Opondo, the IDPs were losing their lives to diseases as the cases at the court drag for too long.

The six Kenyans’ cases were opened in December 2010 when former ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo named them as those with the highest responsibility for the 2007/2008 violence.

The post-election chaos claimed the lives of 1, 333 Kenyans and displaced 650,000 people from their homes.

“We no longer want to die, neither do we want to wait until we are dead for the compensation. The case in the ICC is blocking our compensation,” said Ms Opondo.

In his request for a new investigation into the Kenyatta case, Mr Gaynor said the prosecution had failed to protect the victims when it discontinued the case.

“By ceasing the investigation and prosecution of the accused, others might form the misperception that the prosecution’s inaction has been influenced by powerful states,” said Mr Gaynor.

“It is in the interest of the prosecution and the court as a whole for the Chamber transparently to review the decision to ensure that this is not the case,” argued Gaynor.