By Athman Amran

The office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) wants the International Crimes Act to be invoked on some of the 6,000 post-election violence cases it is handling.

Acting deputy DPP Dorcas Oduor said some of the cases, especially involving murder, would be regarded as mass atrocities.

She cited about 300 to 400 cases where the perpetrators have been identified but there were material weaknesses in the quality of evidence to support prosecutions.

By applying the International Crimes Act, the threshold to find evidence and conviction would be lowered, the element of crime widened, and there would also be reparations and a special fund set up by the Government to help the victims.

“In such a scenario, the standard of proof would not be high,” Ms Oduor said yesterday when she released the status of cases dealt with by the task force to review, re-evaluate and examine files related to post-election violence.

She expressed fears it would be difficult to get convictions on some cases known to have taken place because they were initially investigated under the Penal Code before the domestication of the International Crimes Act after the promulgation of the new Constitution.

Oduor said according to the files the task force has so far perused, they would prefer the establishment of a special unit of the High Court to accelerate disposal of the cases they have dealt with.

“We have however, to convince the authorities that there is need for a special unit of the High Court,” she said adding that it was definite that all murder cases would end up in court.

Convicted

So far 24 post-election violence suspects have been convicted out of the 6,081 cases presented to the task force for review by the police.

Eleven of the convictions are related to sexual and gender based violence, two involving murder and 11 general offences. The DDP’s office has so far reviewed 4,408 of the 6,081 files relating to the events of the 2007 and 2008 violence.

Of the 150 sexual offences files received, 40 suspects have been identified, three are pending arrest, 21 taken to court, five withdrawn and one acquitted.

In murder cases, 152 files have been received and two people have so far been convicted, two acquitted and another two withdrawn. Fifteen suspects have been identified and one pending arrest.

Of the murder victims, 24 have bullet wounds, 44 arrow or panga wounds, nine with 100 per cent burns while 61 others have no such marks. Of the murders 12 are attributed to the police.

On general offences, the task force received 3,446 files from the police and 11 people were convicted, 13 taken to court and two pending arrest. Oduor said 889 suspects have been identified.

“The task force has so far prepared interim reports in relation to the files that have been reviewed and is currently in the process of reviewing the remaining files with a view of preparing a conclusive report for purposes of informing, keeping data and most importantly advising the Government on PEV related matters so as to avoid future atrocities,” Oduor said.