Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)

Kenya: Poll Violence Planners to Face Special Tribunal

19 December 2008


Nairobi — Persons suspected of planning and executing Kenya's worst political violence early this year - including Cabinet ministers, Members of Parliament, civil servants and businessmen - will be tried here by a special tribunal.

President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Wednesday signed an agreement to set up the tribunal which was recommended by a commission of inquiry into the chaos.

The signing of the agreement has, at least for now, saved the suspects from being tried for crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

A secret list of ten high profile suspects is in the hands of former UN secretary general Kofi Annan who mediated the end of the political crisis following Kibaki's disputed re-election.

Kibaki and Odinga will co-chair a Cabinet Committee to draft a bill for enactment by parliament by the end of January to set up the tribunal. The tribunal, composed of local and international judges, must be in place by March 1.

According to the agreement singed by the two principals, any person holding public office who is charged with a criminal offence related to the post-election violence will be suspended from duty until the matter is settled. Convicts will get jail terms fitting their crime, including life imprisonment, and will be barred from ever holding any public office.

Read comments. Write your own.

Copyright © 2008 Catholic Information Service for Africa. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.

Author: akech
Fri Dec 19 21:34:02 2008

Kibaki and Raila do not have the credibilties to decide who must or must not face the the Kenyan tribunal. Similarly, Kofi Annan shouldn't have been aloowed to mediate the Kenyan violence which took the lives of over 1,500 poor Kenyans and displaced over 300,000 of them. Anna was not there to represent Kenya's interest. Similarly, Judge Kriegler of South Africa was not an honest broker for saying he could not identify who won 2007 Kenyan Presidential Elections. The presiding Kenyan Elections commisioner knows who won that election.

The rigging of Kenya's 2007 elections served the interests of people… [Read Full Text]

Author: jallohlaw
Thu Dec 25 14:15:40 2008

Kenyans should now re-cognize that whenever they mix the tails of THE REACTION---Kofi, the Ghanain; Tutu, the priest, and others obvious---that they are in for a hustle, which is exactly what happened.

Accordingly, the first accused should be THE 'PRESIDENT', and the second accused, R....

Cheers from the City of THE DESTRUCTION AND DECONSTRUCTION OF 'ELDERS' AND THE REACTION, HARARE.



Sign up for FREE daily 'top headlines' by email »


SELECT
SELECT
SMS President Obama