By Shawn Macomber • Lawfare Tyranny
A group of Kenyan victims of 2007 post-election violence have a message for the International Criminal Court that has been holding itself up as their savior and advocate: Leave us alone!
Via the Daily Nation:
A frustrated IDP Network Kenya on Monday said that ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda had failed to give them the justice they anticipated.
Mr Nelson Owegi, the network’s national organizing secretary and Kisumu coordinator Maureen Opondo also asked the ICC to relocate its office situated in Nairobi.
“The office of the ICC should leave us alone. We had a lot of expectations and the ICC has over time crashed them with every step they take,” Mr Owegi told journalists in his Kisumu office on Monday. […] “We no longer expect justice from them and we just want them to go.”
The ICC’s failed prosecutorial adventure in Kenya has been previously dubbed both “very, very amateur” and a “sinister” conspiracy, but the stark, brutal criticism from victims themselves is sure to raise eyebrows throughout the region and world, reinforcing the growing consensus that the ICC fruitlessly chases atrocities without deterring them.
Of course, those waiting for Bensouda or the ICC to apologize for the all-for-naught chaos that has spun off in the wake of this latest high profile failure will no doubt be disappointed.
It now appears the victims will, paradoxically, turn to the Kenyatta government in hopes of compensation and resettlement for their suffering and losses.
The dithering of the ICC has not, however, been without its consequences:
According to Mrs Opondo, the IDPs were losing their lives to diseases as the cases at the court drag for too long.
“We no longer want to die, neither do we want to wait until we are dead for the compensation. The case in the ICC is blocking our compensation,” said Ms Opondo.