Following the 2007-2008 post-election violence in Kenya, Kibaki's government established the Waki Commission, formally known as the Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence, chaired by retired Justice Philip Waki. The commission was tasked with investigating the violence that had erupted following the disputed 2007 presidential election results, which had resulted in over a thousand deaths, hundreds of thousands of displaced persons, and severe communal divisions in Kenya. The Waki Commission represented Kibaki's attempt to respond to international and domestic pressure for accountability while managing the politically fraught process of investigating violence that had involved leaders from his own political coalition.
The Waki Commission conducted extensive investigations, took testimony from victims and witnesses, and compiled a significant evidentiary record of the violence. The commission concluded that the violence had been partly spontaneous communal violence motivated by long-standing land disputes and ethnic tensions, but also involved significant planning and organisation by political leaders who sought to use violence as a political tool to contest the election results. The commission specifically identified a number of political leaders from across the ethnic and political spectrum as bearing responsibility for the violence.
The Waki Commission's work was complicated by the reality that some of those implicated in the violence held senior positions in Kibaki's government. Kibaki himself, while not directly implicated in planning or organising the violence, faced questions about his tolerance for the violence and his government's inadequate response to stop it. The commission's final report, issued in 2008, was deeply controversial because it implicated powerful political figures and because it led to the establishment of an International Criminal Court process that threatened to prosecute Kenyan leaders.
Kibaki's government's response to the Waki Commission's findings was cautious and limited. Rather than immediately implementing the commission's recommendations or referring cases to prosecution, the government commissioned another body, the Kriegler Commission, to investigate the disputed election itself and to recommend reforms. This multiplication of commissions and investigations appeared to some observers as an attempt to delay accountability and to allow time for political pressure to ease. The slowness of the accountability process became a source of international pressure and domestic controversy throughout Kibaki's second term.
The establishment of the ICC prosecution of Kenyan leaders, which followed from Waki Commission investigations, represented a significant international involvement in Kenya's post-election violence accountability process. Kibaki's government's response to the ICC was mixed, sometimes cooperating and sometimes resisting the court's jurisdiction. The ICC process would extend well beyond Kibaki's presidency and would continue to complicate Kenyan politics for years to come.
See Also
2007-08 Post-Election Violence Waki Commission Kenya International Criminal Court Kenya Post-Conflict Accountability Justice and Reconciliation Kenya Kibaki and the ICC
Sources
- Waki Commission. Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence Report. Government Press, 2008.
- Branch, Daniel. Kenya: Between Hope and Despair, 1945-2010. Yale University Press, 2011.
- International Criminal Court. Prosecutor's Statement on Situation in Kenya. ICC Publications, 2009.