By Online Team

28^th May 2012:

The “Ocampo Four”, being the four prominent Kenyans accused of being involved in orchestrating post-election violence in 2007 will stand trial at the International Criminal Court after their appeal was rejected.

On Thursday last week, the ICC cleared one of the last hurdles in the path of the trial of Kenyan presidential hopefuls Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto.  The two had claimed the ICC did not have jurisdiction to try them.

Their lawyers had argued that prosecutors did not have sufficient evidence to support their allegation that the crimes were plotted by an organisation and that meant that the court had no jurisdiction.

The court’s appeals chamber however rejection the Lawyers submissions, holding that the issue did not amount to a ground for challenging the ICC’s jurisdiction.

“…The decision from the appeals chamber is quite welcome to the victims of the post-election violence,” James Gondi, the Country Director at the International Centre for Transitional Justice, said in an interview with Al Jazeera.

Gondi said the trials should continue at The Hague since “…there has been no change in circumstances in terms of local judicial mechanisms being strong enough to try those particular cases [in Kenya]”, adding that, “there is very low public confidence in our national institutions to investigate and prosecute those at the very highest level and, as such, victims and the wider public continue to support the ICC.”

Mr Uhuru Kenyatta, who is also Kenya’s Deputy Prime Minister and its former finance minister, together with Ruto, the former higher education minister, are charged with directing mob violence that killed at least 1,220 people and pushed the country to the brink of civil war.  The other men charged alongside them are the head of the civil service, Francis Muthaura, and radio presenter Joshua Arap Sang.

Analysts said the Appeal chamber’s decision will be a test to the Kenyan government on whether it will co-operate with the war crimes court.  It is also likely to impact on the upcoming polls in Kenya where, like in most of Africa, political elites have long been considered above the law.

“…Kenyans and victims really want the trials to proceed and this sends a positive signal in the struggle against impunity,” Gondi said.  Kenya has in the past expressed willingness to co-operate with the ICC, and the suspects have also individually said they will comply with the court.

The electoral hopes of both Kenyatta and Ruto could, according to analysts, be “damaged” if they were to stand trial.  It could also effectively knock them out of the presidential race if the trial date is set to coincide with election campaigns.

Kenyatta and Ruto have joined forces against Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who leads opinion polls in the 2013 presidential race, to replace the retiring Mwai Kibaki, followed by Kenyatta.  END.  Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.