The International Criminal Court and the Peace Process in Uganda

Abstract

The 2007/2008 post-election violence (PEV) dented Kenya’s reputation as one of the peaceful countries in Africa. After the violence that claimed about 3000 lives, Kenya took immediate actions to restore peace to the country. Mediation efforts by African leaders produced a national government, which led to a truce, but efforts to prosecute those responsible for the violence have been stonewalled at both national and international levels. Relying on relevant literature, documents, judgments of courts and field data, this chapter examines the causes and nature of the 2007/2008 PEV, the problems of managing the after-effects of the violence, the struggle for political and legal reforms in Kenya after the violence, the peace process, the politics and intrigues of the ICC’s involvement in prosecuting those implicated, and the consequences of the ICC’s intervention on the peace process in the country. This chapter argues that the ICC’s involvement has sparked legal, judiciary and governance reforms in the country. While some of these reforms are genuinely meant to address some of the root causes of the 2007/2008 PEV, other reforms were simply responses designed to avoid accountability at the ICC by the country’s top politicians, then on trial at the Court.