Annan team supports prosecution of PEV suspects

Written By:KBC Reporter,    Posted: Wed, Jul 06, 2011

According to the findings Kenyans believe that the prosecutions will cushion a recurrence of violence in the 2012 general elections The panel of African eminent Persons wants the perpetrators of the 2007-2008 post election violence prosecuted. In meeting held Wednesday, the Dialogue Team says many Kenyans feel that the prosecutions of the masterminds would deter recurrence of violence in next year's general elections. The team however says the Kenyan public is dissolution by the lack of progress in arresting and prosecuting lower and middle level perpetrators and holding senior and influential people to account. With just less than two months before the first batch of Ocampo six know their fate at The Hague, a review report by the African Union Panel of eminent personalities based on a research conducted by the South Consulting firm indicates that Kenyans want the chief perpetrators of the post election violence prosecuted.  According to the findings Kenyans believe that the prosecutions will cushion a recurrence of violence in the 2012 general elections. The public according to report are however disillusioned by the lack of progress in arresting lower and middle level perpetrators and holding senior and influential people to account. The South report concluded that the failure to prosecute political and civil crimes had eroded public confidence in the coalition government's ability and willingness to fight impunity. It further says the presence of IDPs in camps, three years after the signing of the National Accord, demonstrated that communities had not fully reconciled and that reforms had been insufficient in that regard. The report notes that   lack of bi-partisan leadership and internal conflicts in the coalition were also slowing the pace of implementing the Constitution. The report also concluded that to ensure that the requisite institutional and logistical measures were put in place in good time, the date for the next General Election should be made public as soon as possible and that the  police reforms and electoral l laws be fast tracked to ensure a clean and peaceful election.