Cape Town — The top mediator in Kenya's election crisis last year, former United Nations chief Kofi Annan, has sent the International Criminal Court (ICC) an envelope containing the names of those suspected of being responsible for the violence that broke out after the election.
His dispatch of the envelope to the court prosecutor's office at The Hague, in the Netherlands, is likely to step up pressure on Kenya's Parliament to agree on a law to set up a special tribunal to prosecute suspects within the country.
In terms of an agreement reached between the prosecutor and a Kenyan government delegation last week, Kenya has 12 months within which to set up the tribunal before the ICC steps in. The Rome Statute, which set up the ICC, envisages cases being brought before the court only when a state fails to investigate or prosecute crimes itself.
Annan, who chaired an African Union panel of mediators in Kenya, announced on Thursday that the panel had sent to the ICC "the sealed envelope and supporting materials" which he had been given by a commission of inquiry which investigated the violence.
The commission, headed by Kenyan judge Philip Waki, was set up in one of the agreements concluded to resolve the post-election crisis.
Waki recommended the establishment of a special tribunal, but although it has been accepted by President Mwai Kibaki and his coalition partner, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, there is strong opposition from some quarters within both their parties. Parliament has so far failed to agree on a bill to set up the tribunal.
In a statement issued from Geneva, Annan said he welcomed the coalition government's "renewed efforts to implement the recommendations of the Waki Commission and to establish a special tribunal.”
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But he warned that "any judicial mechanism adopted to bring the perpetrators of the post-election violence to justice must meet international legal standards and be broadly debated with all sectors of the Kenyan society in order to bring credibility to the process."
Last Friday, a Kenyan delegation led by Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo signed an agreement with the ICC's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocamapo, which said Kenya would refer cases arising from the post-election violence to the court if Parliament failed to agree on a mechanism for handling them. The delegation also included lands minister James Orengo and the attorney-general, Amos Wako.
An agreed minute of the talks published by the ICC said Moreno-Ocampo had confirmed to the Kenyan delegation that he was conducting a preliminary investigation of the post-election violence.
The minute said Kenya had undertaken to provide the court with details of the progress of investigations and prosecutions and of the Kenyan Parliament's plans to handle cases, including "clear benchmarks over the next 12 months."
If there was no agreement in Parliament, the minute said, "the Government of Kenya will refer the situation to the prosecutor in accordance with article 14 of the Rome statute."
