The International Criminal Court and Peace Processes in Africa: Judicialising Peace by Line Engbo Gissel

Author:Line Engbo Gissel [Gissel, Line Engbo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: International Relations, International, African, Political Science, World, Law, General
ISBN: 9781351591898
Google: r5dIDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 38242656
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-01-19T00:00:00+00:00

5ICC involvement in the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation

The AU Panel for Kenya chaired by former Secretary-General Kofi Annan has made the ICC part of a comprehensive solution for Kenya.

ICC Prosecutor Louis Moreno-Ocampo, speech to Qatar Law Forum, Doha, 30 May 2009

This chapter investigates the interplay between ICC involvement in Kenya and the country’s peace process that ended the post-election violence in 2008, the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation. Structured like Chapter 3, it provides a chronological account of the case study’s three phases of peacemaking and three stages of ICC involvement in Kenya, from the first attempts to persuade the conflict parties to enter a dialogue, to the signing of a power-sharing agreement, implementation of the justice policy and efforts to navigate a high level of ICC involvement. It traces the actors, actions and ideas that converged to create, but also destabilise, the conditions of possibility for the political settlement in Kenya: conflict parties, mediators, external actors, parliament, the ICC Prosecutor and the ICC’s PTC.

The peace process responded to a crisis of spontaneous and organised violence and revenge attacks carried out by ordinary people, ethnic militias and security forces in reaction to the Electoral Commission’s official announcement that Mwai Kibaki had won the presidential elections on 27 December 2007.1 The violence began on 30 December 2007 and took the form of murder, maiming, rape, forced circumcision, arson, evictions, looting and threats of violence (Republic of Kenya 2008g). Over the next two months, more than 1,300 people were killed and up to 600,000 were internally displaced. The underlying conflict stemmed from land-related grievances and perceptions of indigeneity and foreignness going back to colonial and early post-colonial patronage politics.

The peace process aimed to ‘achieve a sustainable peace, stability and justice in Kenya through the rule of law and respect for human rights’ (Republic of Kenya 2008f). It followed roughly the linear three-phase model discussed in Chapter 2 (see Figure 2.3). Pre-Negotiation discussions began almost immediately as the conflict escalated to the violent stage, and the Negotiation phase commenced less than four weeks later. At this point, the process was named the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation. The trajectory of ICC involvement followed the Preliminary Examination, Investigation and Indictment stages. The Trial stage took place after the 2013 elections and therefore lies outside the case study. Active ICC involvement in Kenya took place during the Negotiation and Implementation phases. The Preliminary Examination stage, which marked the beginning of a low level of active involvement, began during the Negotiation phase.

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