Victims’ voices silenced by ICC sideshows

Victims who suffered during the 2007-2008 post-election violence have followed the International Criminal Court proceedings closely, hoping to get justice. They have seen the number of ICC accused drop from the original six to the remaining two, following the withdrawal of charges against President Uhuru Kenyatta last month. It has been such a long six-year wait on the periphery as politicians hog the limelight. Now many victims feel forgotten.

‘I thought it was the usual chaos during elections time, but when they started torching my house I hid in a septic tank with my family as they destroyed my home,’ remembers Joseph Mwaura, a victim’s representative, for whom this was the third time he was fleeing his Turbo home due to election related violence since 1992. His son was shot with an arrow while his two daughters were beaten and cut with machetes. They require medical attention to date. Mwaura was forced out of his award-winning farm and reduced to living in a cramped single-roomed, wooden rental house and with no source of income.

‘Martin Koech’ from Nandi (he requested that his real name not to be published for fear of local recriminations) said his businesses and homes in Eldoret were looted and he and members of his family seriously injured for supporting the Party for National Unity (PNU), despite belonging to the local ethnic community. He interacted with ICC officials from the beginning and keenly followed the court’s proceedings concerning his home area. ‘I still have hope that we the sufferers can get justice from the ICC process,’ Koech asserts, though he feels dispirited that for the actual victims, the local Kenyan mechanisms have not been keen on seeing justice for the victims.

‘I know my attackers by name and by face. I have reported to the police…I have medical records; there is no where I haven’t gone (to seek justice)…no one has been arrested!’

But Janet Karanja, a businesswoman, says she does not feel that whatever happens to those accused at the ICC will directly benefit her. ‘My attackers burnt my house and properties. My 20-year-old son got so depressed he eventually died. Now I live in a small rental house since I had to finally sell that land,’ she says. ‘No one was arrested even after I reported to the police. I am not interested in those accused at ICC. It will not help me. I am more concerned about those I know who burnt my house; at least justice would have been done to them. At the moment, however, nothing can bring my son back to life, so I have just left everything to God’.

For many other victims, recent legal help has made them realize the police mishandled the initial processes that would have enabled them to get compensated, further dimming their hopes.

‘We were so many complainants at the police stations, the police just told us to write down what property we had lost through theft or burning, but not the names of the people who did this to us. Eventually all that information became useless, says one of the survivors who requests anonymity. Joseph says a lot of victims were left out in the government programme for compensation which handed out Kshs. 10,000 and later Sh25,000 for victims to move out of Internally Displaced Peoples camps and re-start their lives. Though he stayed in a church compound for six months, people like Joseph and others who sought refuge in friends’ and relatives’ houses were not included in this compensation scheme. ‘The Red Cross and others concentrated on capturing data from people living in IDP camps and offering them basic amenities like food, shelter and blankets. These were the people who were given little compensation. The victim profiling was flawed.’ He further says that investigations were also affected by leaving out real victims and opting for community leaders to speak yet most had not experienced the violence first-hand. “NGOs, human rights organisations, lawyers…they came and did shoddy work and flew back to Nairobi. Just because they were so called experts.’

‘I have not got even a single cent from the government to compensate me for physical harm or even loss of property that I suffered during the violence,’ Koech says, complaining that politics came into play given that he was a known supporter of then President Mwai Kibaki. ‘I have seen people who were not victims get thousands of shillings from the government as compensation….it seems here some politicians made sure victims from their own party were compensated but those of us who were known to be from the other parties were not.’

Joseph spends his time as a coordinator trying to voice victims’ plight, hoping that the IDP Act that Kibaki signed into law will eventually be enforced on the ground. ‘Most of my people now have lost the initial enthusiasm they had for the ICC. But still, while we have forgiven, we still hope the government can address our immediate issues as victims.’

Koech says that the least the government can do is compensate the victims for lost property and medical bills. He senses there is a dangerous ‘let by gones be by gones’ euphoria fuelled by politicians but to the detriment of the victims themselves. ‘I do not want to continue living with hatred, we want to forgive those who wronged us. But when politics and favoritism comes into these issues you feel bad and that there is no justice.’ Victims need to be heard and reconciled with their attackers, he adds. ‘Being silent while things are still unfinished just creates more hatred, yet we have said let’s forgive. Politicians are covering up for each other, yet ordinary people from both political sides are still in camps, lost property not compensated, others crippled and can’t pay fees for their children…this pain is still there. Things are not ok!’

* Simiyu Barasa is making a documentary film in Eldoret, one of the worst affected areas during the 2007-8 political violence.

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