Journalist Walter Barasa first to ‘stand’ in way of justice

By VINCENT BARTOO

KENYA: Walter Barasa has entered the annals of history as the first suspect charged with an offence of obstructing justice at the International Criminal Court.

Barasa, 41, is a long-serving journalist who has for almost two decades practised in the North Rift region based in Eldoret.

He first started working for the Nation Media Group’s Eldoret bureau in the late 1990s before leaving in 2002. Barasa joined The People Daily in 2003 until sometime last year when he quit to join the civil society.

Mediamax Group, the publishers of The People, Wednesday said Barasa was not longer in its employ as implied on his Linkedin profile.

While at the Nation, Barasa started forging links with civil society. He worked briefly as a researcher for the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Eldoret, then run by activist Ken Wafula. After the 2007/2008 post-election violence, Barasa formed an NGO, Media Centre for Development.

He said then that he was motivated to start the NGO following the post-polls chaos that affected his family in Eldoret.

When the skirmishes ended, Barasa sought donors to fund his NGO. Some of them sponsored a series of workshops for journalists in the North Rift on conflict-sensitive reporting. The workshops were mainly held in Eldoret town.

Through his work, Barasa landed a scholarship with one of the donors, who sponsored his training in the area of peace building.

He later returned to Eldoret and, through his NGO, spread his work to former warring communities in the North Rift.

While issuing the arrest warrant, ICC said Barasa’s case was the first before the court in which a suspect is charged with an offence against the administration of justice, in accordance with Article 70 of the Rome Statute.