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2012-01-24 Africa Horn
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Top Kenyans to face trial at ICC
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| This will be quite the bone for Carla del Ponte... |
THE HAGUE: International Criminal Court judges on Monday ordered four prominent Kenyans, including two potential presidential candidates, to stand trial for allegedly orchestrating a deadly wave of violence after their countrys disputed 2007 presidential election. Among the four suspects sent for trial were Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and former Education Minister William Ruto, who both are planning to run for the presidency this year.
Kenyatta, 50, is the son of Kenyas founding president, Jomo Kenyatta, and the countrys richest citizen, with a personal fortune of half a billion dollars.
| Cheez, Bob in Zimbabwe does much better than that. |
Ruto is a former ally of Prime Minister Raila Odinga, but the two had a falling out partly over Rutos insistence on making his own presidential bid this year.
More than 1,000 people were killed in postelection violence in Kenya after police ejected observers from the center where votes were being tallied and the electoral body declared President Mwai Kibaki the winner.
Ruto was ordered to stand trial with radio broadcaster Joshua Arap Sang for crimes against humanity allegedly targeting Kibaki supporters. Another suspect, former Minister of Industrialization Henry Kiprono Kosgey, was cleared of charges.
In a separate case, Kenyatta will stand trial alongside Cabinet Secretary Francis Muthaura for alleged crimes against humanity directed at Odinga supporters. A third suspect in the case, former police commissioner Maj. Gen. Mohammed Hussein Ali, was cleared of the charges.
No date has been set for the trials.
The suspects ordered to stand trial will remain free in Kenya until the case starts,
| sometime in about 2024... |
but Trendafilova warned them they could face arrest if they attempt to whip up fresh violence.
Prosecutors have said the decision to launch an ICC investigation in Kenya should help ease tensions, but there are fears a decision on prosecuting the suspects could have the opposite effect and spark renewed fighting.
It is our utmost desire that the decisions issued by this chamber today bring peace to the people of the Republic of Kenya and prevent any sort of hostilities, Trendafilova said.
Its unclear whether the case could block Ruto and Kenyattas presidential ambitions, since government officials have issued conflicting statements on whether they will remain eligible to run.
Trendafilova stressed that the decisions do not mean guilty verdicts against the suspects, only that there is sufficient evidence to send them to trial.
Rights groups welcomed the ruling.
According to two recent opinion polls, a majority of Kenyans support the ICC process. Most citizens have little faith in their own judiciary, widely perceived as corrupt and choking on a backlog of cases.
The ICC prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, launched his investigation in 2010 only after Kenyas parliament failed to agree to set up a national tribunal to prosecute perpetrators of postelection violence.
Both Kenyatta and Ruto come from powerful ethnic groups. Kenyatta is Kikuyu, the ethnic group with the highest numbers and the one that has produced two of the countrys three presidents. Ruto is a Kalenjin, the ethnic group that produced Kenyas longest-serving president, Daniel arap Moi, who recruited many of his fellow Kalenjin into the security services. 
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Posted by Steve White 2012-01-24 00:00||
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