November 28, 2023.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands | In a long-awaited decision, the International Criminal Court (ICC) Deputy Chief Prosecutor, Nazhat Shameen Khan, has announced conclusion of investigations into crimes related to the 2007 post-election violence in Kenya. This marks the end of a 13-year legal saga that implicated senior Kenyan politicians.
“I have reached this decision after considering the specific facts and circumstances of this situation,” stated Khan in a press release. The ICC, based in The Hague, initiated investigations in 2010 into the violence that ensued after the 2007 elections, resulting in the deaths of approximately 1,300 people and displacing around 600,000 others.
Initially, six suspects, including former and current Kenyan Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, faced charges of crimes against humanity, such as murder and deportation. However, former Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda withdrew charges against Kenyatta in 2014, and in 2016, the case against Ruto was halted due to insufficient evidence, leading to the collapse of the case against all six suspects.
Bensouda attributed the collapse to a relentless campaign of victim and witness intimidation, prompting a new investigation into witness intimidation and bribery. Current Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, who was Ruto’s defense lawyer at the time, recused himself from the Kenya investigations upon taking over the role from Bensouda in 2021.
Kenyan lawyer Paul Gicheru, a suspect in the witness bribery case, surrendered to the ICC in late 2020. However, the case against him was dropped last year following reports of his death. Two other suspects in the intimidation and bribery case, Philip Bett and Walter Barasa, remain at large and face charges before the court.
Despite the lingering legal complexities, Chief Prosecutor Khan declared the end of further investigations into the post-election violence in Kenya. This decision brings closure to a protracted legal process, with implications reaching the highest echelons of Kenyan politics.
