The International Criminal Court (ICC), Impunity, and the Elusive Justice in Kenya

Abstract

The chapter argues that ICC’s indictment of six prominent Kenyans in 2010 for crimes against humanity committed during the 2007–2008 post-election violence was the first frontal attack against impunity deeply entrenched in the country’s body politic. The controversial victory by Uhuru Kenyatta, the most prominent member of the ‘Ocampo six’, during the 2013 elections was also a democratic reversal just like Kibaki win in 2002. It ensured continued dominance of Kenya’s political and economic spheres by an enduring plutocracy. A combination of mobilisation for support ethnically, regionally, and internationally, non-cooperation by the Kenyan government with the ICC, state interference in the cases, and shoddy investigations by the ICC led to the collapse of the cases. The chapter analyses Kenya’s indigenous capital, in effect surrogates of foreign capital, violence and elusive justice. It underscores a treacherous terrain in which realpolitik, geopolitics and international criminal justice coalesce.