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 At the time that the violence in Kenya happened, ICJ Kenya carried out an analysis of the violence, with which the mainstream civil society is in agreement. The analysis classified the violence as follows:
a) Killings and other forms of personal injury which appeared to be spontaneous, and which erupted around 30th December 2007 upon announcement of the result of the presidential election, was targeted against members of certain ethnic communities on the ground of their perceived political affiliation. b)Killings and other forms of personal injury of which there is growing evidence of prior planning, preparation, instigation, ordering, and execution, having regard to the efficiency in which the killings were carried out, their systematic nature, the cognition of the existence of a methodical plan to kill, and the overall scale of the atrocities. This form of violence also appears to be targeted against members of certain ethnic communities. c)Killings through excessive use of force by the police and other security forces. d)Killings and other forms of personal injury against members of certain ethnic communities under the guise of retaliation. e)Widespread and unprecedented levels in the incidence of rape, sodomy and other acts of sexual violence targeting members of certain ethnic communities perpetrated in execution, or under the cover of, the conflict. The Waki Commission, the official investigation of the violence concluded that there was evidence that a category of the violence in question had been planned. This conclusion was based on a number of findings including information had spread within the communities that there would be violence, even before it actually took place; Secondly that perpetrators of the violence would alert victims of the impending attacks; thirdly, that there was evidence of people who attended meetings to plan violence and, fourthly that reports of the country’s security intelligence pointed out that violence was being planned. The Commission also found that there was strong circumstantial evidence of the planning of violence including the widespread availability of petrol among peasants, which acts of arson, a feature of the violence, were carried out. Based on these premises, the Commission produced a report, detailing the various forms of violence which were in consonance with those proscribed by international criminal law and handed it over to the chair of the Kofi Annan led Panel of Eminent African Personalities which mediated the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation process which in turn produced the National Accord. |
