Kenya’s president could be facing another visit to the International Criminal Court after his case on crimes against humanity was withdrawn in April 2016.
This time, a London-based human rights activist, Abdulmajid Ali Al-Busayyid, commonly known as Dr Amkeni has filed a petition at The Hague-based ICC that he sees as structural shortcomings in the administration of President Ruto, characterized by human rights abuses.
In a scathing declaration, Dr Amkeni disclosed that he had petitioned the ICC to reveal the Kenyan government’s purported complicity in extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, and corruption.
Dr Amkeni asserts that President Ruto’s administration is “going the wrong way” by promoting a climate of impunity and selecting people with suspected drug trafficking connections to Cabinet positions.
To demand accountability and reforms, he made a rallying appeal for Kenyans to attend an impending demonstration. Citing the government’s inability to shield its citizens from kidnappings, murders, and widespread corruption, the activist vehemently said that it was time for President Ruto to step down.
As a result, the activist’s efforts to support justice and governance reforms in Kenya have significantly increased as a result of this petition. Since the Kenyan youth staged a popular protest against bad governance in June and July, there have been cases of kidnappings and killings of some of the movement leaders, as well as other critics who expose government ills on social media.
The Ruto Administration is yet to react to the petition because the court has yet to look at its merits to decide whether it meets the threshold to deserve a hearing.
In the past case, both Ruto and former president Uhuru Kenyatta faced charges of murder, deportation and persecution charges during violence that followed the 2007/2008 post-election violence in which about 1,200 people were killed.
But in 2016, the then ICC prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda withdrew the charges due to “troubling incidence of witness interference and disappearance, intolerable political meddling, and lack of cooperation from the Kenya government.
While the case facing Kenyatta was dropped in 2014 on alleging that witnesses had been intimidated to make them change their testimony, legal experts say that the Ruto case could be reopened anytime should the new prosecutor, Karim Khan find fresh evidence.
The court’s ruling was a setback for the victims of the violence and their families, who are seeking compensation and the truth about what transpired and who was at fault.
