IJCentral: International Justice Central

NAIROBI (Reuters) - More than half of Kenyans want the masterminds of violence which followed disputed elections in 2007 tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC) despite planned judicial reforms at home, an opinion poll showed.

The Synovate poll was published after Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo said trials at the Hague-based ICC were unnecessary as the cases could be heard in Kenya.

About 1,300 people were killed and more than 300,000 displaced by the violence in late 2007 and early 2008 which also badly hurt the region’s largest economy.

The prospect of ICC trials has struck fear into Kenya’s political class, as the state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights has named several senior cabinet minsters and prominent businessmen as architects of the violence.

Political commentators said Kilonzo might have been gauging public reaction with his comments published in a newspaper on Sunday. Some cabinet colleagues rejected his remarks, arguing that the coalition government was committed to the ICC process.

“Fifty-four percent still prefer The Hague for prosecution of the perpetrators of the post-election violence,” pollster Synovate said when releasing the results on Tuesday.

“This is more than twice of those who think that the perpetrators of Post Election Violence should be forgiven (22 percent) or tried locally (22 percent).”

A Kenyan businessman has sued the International Criminal Court accusing it of operating illegally in Kenya.

Joseph Gathungu is seeking orders to stop the ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo operating in Kenya because his investigations and intended prosecution are not provided for in the country’s new constitution promulgated last month.

“To allow the International Criminal Court to operate in Kenya amounts to surrender of the sovereignty of Kenya to foreigners which is totally untenable” said Gathungu in papers filed at the High Court in Kenya’s port city of Mombasa.

He also wants the court to declare ICC’s investigation and prosecutions of any Kenyans at the Hague “null and void”.

Attempts to form a Kenyan tribunal to try the suspects were defeated in parliament last year, despite public support from President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga—the two leading candidates in the 2007 elections.

A powersharing deal brokered by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan stopped the bloodshed and created Kenya’s first coalition government.

Kilonzo said Kenya’s new basic law was set to overhaul the judiciary which critics say is bureaucratic and prone to corruption.

The ICC is a court of last resort, taking on cases which cannot be tried by domestic courts or when national proceedings are not genuine. The ICC’s Ocampo expects to charge up to six suspects by the end of this year.

The poll surveyed 1,501 adults nationwide last week, Synovate said.

source: Rueters Africa