The committee was mandated to adopt a broad approach and vest the proposed division with expansive jurisdiction to deal not only with international crimes, but transnational crimes as well.
The committee, in its report, recommended that the Chief Justice establish the International Crimes Division in the High Court, with jurisdiction to try both international and transnational crimes, including the 2008 post-election violence cases.
CJ Mutunga has previously expressed concerns at the high costs involved in putting up the ICD, which is required to meet international standards for it to be credible.
“There will be great challenges to be surmounted in the establishment of the Division as the cost of setting it up and operationalising it at the expected international standards is enormous,” the CJ said.
International legal justice experts like Harvard University law professor Alex Whiting sees the proposed establishment of the ICD as one of the measures Kenya will have taken in completing the work done by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
But for this to succeed, he says “there must be political goodwill.”
“We have not seen enough cases prosecuted locally for middle level perpetrators of the post-election violence,” Whiting said, referring to the violence that erupted in Kenya soon after the disputed presidential election of 2007, when more than 1000 people were killed and more than half a million others displaced.
President Uhuru Kenyatta, his Deputy William Ruto and a journalist-Joshua arap Sang are facing trial at the ICC, although Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has asked for a three months delay in the commencement of the President’s trial to enable her seek more evidence lacking to sustain the charges.
Ruto and Sang’s trial which kicked off late last year had been going on until last week when it adjourned until February 17.
A status conference to decide the fate of President Kenyatta’s trial will get underway Wednesday, with the prosecutor already having asked judges to dismiss the defence application seeking to have the charges terminated.
Kenyatta, Ruto and Sang are facing trial for their alleged roles in crimes against humanity following the disputed presidential election of 2007.
About The Author
