Don’t forget us, chaos survivors cry out over ICC reparations

Plea for help: Poll violence victims grow jittery over delayed assistance and say State has neglected them

Internally Displaced Persons - IDPs from three camps in Gilgil protest outside the Planning and Devolution offices in Nairobi. They asked the government to consider them since they were genuine persons who were affected the 2007/8 post-election violence. The camps are Baraka camp, with 136 people and vumilia camp with 51 people. Photo by: mbugua kibera

Victims of the 2008 post-election violence do not understand why they have been missing out on a multi-million shilling victim’s assistance kitty administered from the Hague.

The Sh2.1 billion kitty run by ICC’s Trust Fund for Victims (TFV) is being enjoyed by 110,000 victims in DR Congo and Northern Uganda. Activities in Central African Republic were suspended following renewed violence in the country.

Last March, the TFV board of directors met in The Hague and endorsed a plan to expand activities to Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire in 2014 and 2015. They tasked the TFV secretariat to plan when to activate their programme.

And a few weeks ago, Elisabeth Rehn, one of the board members, told a Johannesburg victims forum organised by ICJ-Kenya that the fund “is considering to expand its activities to other ICC-situation countries, based on the availability of resources and security permitting, and is planning to conduct assessment missions from 2015 onwards.”

But according to the eleventh periodic report on the general situation of victims in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s case, victims are growing jittery over delay by the fund to pitch tent in Kenya.

The fund’s mandate is two-fold; to assist in paying reparations after conclusion of ICC cases and to offer “general assistance” using voluntary contribution from donors in places where the court is active.

It is this latter part of the mandate that the Kenyan victims are pushing for. In Uganda and DR Congo, the TFV is providing reconstructive surgery for survivors, post-care follow up and counselling, vocational training, micro-credit facilities and business start-ups.

In meetings held in Migori, Kisumu, Siaya, Busia and Vihiga in the last two months, victims were categorical that they have missed out on general assistance from the Kenyan authorities and they were looking up to ICC’s TFV for help.

“The victims request that the TFV should begin work in Kenya and provide assistance where possible,” the report given to the judges earlier in the week concludes of a meeting held in Migori with 29 victims.

Most of the survivors in Migori lost their means of livelihood and suffered life-threatening injuries, some which have condemned them to destitution. Some were partially burnt; some had their arms chopped off and others were gang-raped by alleged Mungiki sect members.

Psychological harm

All of the victims in the group witnessed gross human rights violations and suffered psychological harm. According to their lawyer Fergal Gaynor, this group is in “urgent need” of financial, educational, psycho-social and medical support assistance.

In Kisumu where Gaynor met 91 survivors of gang rape, serious beatings and psychological trauma, a similar situation prevailed.

Some were, in the lawyer’s assessment, seriously ill and had not received any form of assistance from the Government.

“Some of the victims expressed further concerns that many have died since the commencement of the case while others added that they still suffer from the grave psychological effects stemming from what they witnessed and experienced during the violence,” the report submitted to the judges this week says.

Some in the Kisumu group specifically queried the role of the TFV in their “victimhood.”

In Siaya, 37 victims who lost their means of livelihood have since been relegated to casual labourers and subsistence farmers. They claimed their inability to fend for their families since PEV has left them humiliated and dissatisfied.

“The victims were interested in the role of the TFV and asked when the TFV might come to Kenya to assist them,” the report says.

Of Busia’s 39 registered victims, one was severely beaten and his genitals hacked off. His wife was also killed in the violence. The victims reportedly live with “persistent physical and psychological trauma.”

“They consider the government’s treatment of victims to be biased against their ethnic communities and request that the TFV come to Kenya to provide assistance,” the report states. In Vihiga, the report factored the views of 46 survivors, some of whom are struggling with unaddressed medical concerns many years after the violence.

Evolving cases

One of the victims, a tailor before the violence, lost his working arm. He has since learned to sew with his left hand but told the lawyer that he had neither received any proper medical attention nor any financial support from the Government.

Like their Busia counterparts, they too want the TFV to “begin to work in Kenya as soon as possible.” Gaynor told The Standard on Sunday that it was regrettable that the fund has not set up operations in Kenya for all the period the court has been involved in the country.

“The victims would welcome the arrival of the Trust Fund as soon as possible. Very many of those I have met have no regular source of income whatsoever, and are barely surviving,” he said.

“Many say they struggle to pay primary or secondary school fees for their children. Free primary education is illusory for them, given the significant contributions that parents must make. Many cannot access health services, as these are inaccessible for those who cannot pay.”

He said a great number of those he has dealt with were raped, or saw deeply disturbing scenes during the PEV. “They have received no psychosocial support. Given that the ICC has been involved in Kenya for nearly four years, it is regrettable, from the survivors’ perspective, that the Trust Fund has not yet begun operations here.”

Three years ago, the TFV secretariat said the reason they had not come to Kenya was because there were too many uncertainties about the Kenyan cases at the time.

They said they thought it was premature as the legal proceedings were “still evolving.”

According to Gaelle Carayon, a legal officer with Redress, a human rights organisation that helps torture survivors to get justice and reparations, the delay has occasioned victims perception of “inactivity and indifference” on the part of the fund.

“The Trust Fund needs to make a bigger effort to regularly inform and update victims on the progress of its operations. Victims in Kenya have waited already an excessive amount of time for the Trust Fund to begin its operations, it is thus vital that the Fund commences a mapping and assessment of the victims’ situation to fulfill its mandate,” Carayon, who specialises in ICC matters at the group, told The Standard on Sunday.

“This is especially important because, at the national level, little has been done to date to restore the lives of victims. The vast majority of victims still need urgent rehabilitation and material support.”

Situation countries

She said the fund needs to do more to ensure that it is able to quickly engage in new “situation countries.” She said states also need to make sure the fund receives sufficient funds to meet its mandate.

Carayon said cases at the ICC and possible intervention of the trust fund should not distract Kenya from its responsibility of providing justice and reparation to victims of post-election violence. “Through the implementation of the reparations programme identified by the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission in their final report, the State of Kenya could contribute immensely to remedy the harm,” she added.

She said victims in Kenya have waited “way too long” to see justice done for the horrible crimes they suffered and to receive reparation. Like Gaynor, she said it is regretful that the fund was only active in Uganda.

Our multiple inquiries to the fund on when they are setting base in Kenya had not been responded to by the time we went to press. The fund is generated from voluntary contribution from ICC member states and other well-wishers.