In Kenya, police officers are being prosecuted for crimes against humanity, for post-election violence in 2017. During this election, outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared the winner. The results were disputed by his main opponent, Raila Odinga. Demonstrations by his supporters were then repressed by the police.
This is a first in Kenya. We do not know their identity, nor the number of people targeted, but the prosecutor announces that police officers are being prosecuted for crimes against humanity, for facts that date back to the post-election crisis of 2017.
Investigations have established that police officers may be responsible for the murder of a baby as well as other serious human rights violations such as torture, rape and other sexual violence. In January 2022, FIDH and the Kenya Federation for Human Rights established in a report that violence were used as a political weapon in the 2017 election, particularly in opposition strongholds.
The prosecutor denounces systematic attacks against civilians, planned and coordinated attacks which are not the result of chance.
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It will have taken five years to arrive at these proceedings, a delay that the Prosecutor explains by ” the complexity of the offenses “.
The new United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights speaks of a ” important step towards accountability for gross human rights abuses in Kenya, after 2017 violence “.
The Kenyan National Human Rights Commission had documented 94 deaths, 201 cases of sexual violence and more than 300 injuries, mostly attributed to law enforcement.