Little has been done to stem culture of violence at every election cycle

ICC Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji

Elsewhere in this exerpt which is an opinion from Judge Osuji's seperate opinion, the discussion engages two distinct issues separately. One is the matter of the aggressive political campaign that the Government involved itself in against this trial that was about the individual responsibility of the accused. The other is the matter of reparation for victims of the 2007-2008 Kenyan post-election violence. But one relevant consideration to both issues is the troubling matter of impunity for repeated cycles of post-election violence in Kenya. There was bloody violence in each of the 1992 and the 1997 elections. And, then, there was the 2007-2008 episode that is our immediate concern. As with the last episode, there were also national commissions of inquiry empanelled to investigate the first two — the Akiwumi Commission and the Kiliku Parliamentary Committee, respectively.

It is noted that the Commission of Inquiry into the Post-Election Violence of 2007-2008 (the ‘Waki Commission’) found that, as of the time of that episode, there was in place a culture of political violence in Kenya that fell along ethnic lines. As part of that culture, politicians would employ organised violence as a means of winning political power. The point is sufficiently made in the following passages, which deserve setting out at some length for careful consideration: