{UAH} PROSECUTORS FACE BIG TEST AS RUTO APPEARS BEFORE ICC

Prosecutors face big test as Ruto appears before ICC

by Thomas Escritt and James Macharia, September 11 2013, 09:15

TEST CASE: Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto, right, reacts as he sits in the courtroom before his trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague on Tuesday. Picture: REUTERS

THE HAGUE, NAIROBI — Kenya’s deputy president appeared before the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday charged with co-orchestrating a post-election bloodbath five years ago, a case that will test the stability of a country seen as vital to security in East Africa.

The trials of William Ruto and that of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, which will start in November, have split public opinion, and witness testimonies of the violence in 2007-08 that killed more than a thousand people could stir tension.

The cases are also a major test for prosecutors at the decade-old Hague-based ICC, who have had a low success rate and face accusations of focusing on African countries while avoiding war crimes in other global hot spots.

Mr Kenyatta, Mr Ruto’s former rival who became a political ally, faces similar charges of crimes against humanity.

The start of the trials also threatens to delay revisions to oil and mining laws and rekindle ethnic tensions, according to the Eurasia Group.

Mr Ruto and co-defendant Joshua Arap Sang, a radio presenter, pleaded not guilty as the crimes-against-humanity case opened at the court on Tuesday.

The leaders, who ran on a joint ticket to win March elections, say they can manage East Africa’s largest economy while fighting the indictments. Kenya is on the cusp of becoming an oil producer as early as next year and is preparing to sell a debut sovereign bond to raise up to $2bn by December to fund infrastructure.

"The start of President Kenyatta’s and Deputy President Ruto’s trials could slow the legislative agenda, potentially pushing petroleum and mining code revisions into the first half of next year," Clare Allenson, an Africa associate with Eurasia Group, said. Delays to policy-making may be caused by "weeks-long" absences by the accused and while legislators who support the pair travel to the court to show their political loyalty, she said.

Allegations of ballot fixing after national elections in December 2007 sparked two months of clashes between mobs armed with machetes, spears and bows and arrows that left about 1,100 people dead and more than 350,000 homeless. Economic growth slowed to 1.5% in 2008 from 7% a year earlier, after farmers abandoned their fields and tourists fled the country.

"This trial is about obtaining justice for the many thousands of victims of the post-election violence and ensuring that there is no impunity for those responsible, regardless of power or position," ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told the court on Tuesday.

Kenyan legislators voted in favour of a motion to leave the ICC after members of the opposition walked out of the debate.

Kenya’s pullout from the ICC would have no bearing on the Kenyan cases and arrest warrants can be issued if Mr Kenyatta or Mr Ruto fail to co-operate.

"Members of parliament risk raising local tensions over the allegations as the witness testimony on human rights violations comes to light," Ms Allenson said. "Further politicisation of the cases could cause low-level unrest in areas most impacted by the violence, particularly the southern Rift Valley and the outskirts of Nairobi."

"Foreign investors will be keen to see how these events affect the country’s macroeconomic performance," financial advisory StratLink Africa said.

Non-Kenyan investors represented 52% of all trading on the Kenyan bourse last month, when it posted record turnover, according to the Nairobi Securities Exchange’s website.

Mr Kenyatta’s administration is making changes to oil and mining rules to derive more economic benefits from Kenya’s natural resources, with the start of crude output expected in 2014.

"It is clearly going to have an impact on the running of the government," Njonjo Mue, head of the International Centre for Transitional Justice-Kenya, said by phone on Tuesday.

The presidency was a full-time job and the president convened cabinet meetings every week, signed bills into law and chaired the national security committee, he said.

Reuters and Bloomberg

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