NAIROBI, KENYA: More victims have joined the ICC case against President Uhuru Kenyatta even as his case appears to be collapsing following prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s admission that it lacks sufficient evidence.
Some 154 new individuals have now been admitted as victims in the ICC case against President Uhuru Kenyatta.
According to the 11th periodic report on the general situation of victims in Uhuru’s case, 21 victims from Migori, 58 from Kisumu and 21 from Siaya, 18 from Busia and 36 and Vihiga were registered for the first time.
Victims’ lawyer Fergal Gaynor told the judges that he personally met and scrutinised 230 new applicants before the admission of the 154.
“According to the information available to the Registry, the total number of victims verified as within the scope of the Case by the Common Legal Representative now stands at 725,” he said in his report.
The victims claim they were forcefully evicted from their homes during the Post-Election Violence period adding that they lost their property including land, carpentry tools, business stock, welding equipment and bakery stock. Others say they were severely beaten, gang-raped and parts of their bodies mutilated using machetes.
“One member of the group reported that he struggles to cope with the murder of his wife and his subsequent genital mutilation,” read part of the report.
In the report, another victim reported to have been beaten and gang-raped by four members of Mungiki and that, as a result, she contracted HIV. Gaynor said the victims lost their primary sources of income and are now under considerable economic strain and that many continue to live with physical and psychological trauma.
“The victims are in need of urgent financial, educational, psycho-social and medical support and assistance,” he said.
According to the report, the victims are not receiving any assistance from the government.
“They consider the Government’s treatment of victims to be biased against their ethnic communities and request that the Trust Fund for Victims come to Kenya and provide assistance. The victims emphasised that some are living with disabilities and some are seriously ill, yet none of the victims in this group have received any assistance from the government,” said Gaynor.
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