PEV victims lawyer Fergal Gaynor has said that terminating Uhuru Kenyatta's case at the ICC would be shameful and a betrayal of the victims of the deadly 2007/2008 post-election violence.
The lawyer maintained that the ICC has raised the expectations of thousands of victims in Kenya and had to deal with deliberate obstruction of justice by the Kenyan government.
“To raise the expectations of justice in the minds of thousands of victims of horrifically brutal crimes, and then to abandon them in the face of State obstruction of access to evidence, would be shameful,” he said adding that, “We cannot permit these victims to be thrice-betrayed: first by the perpetrator, then by the Kenyan State, and then by the ICC.”
Uhuru is set to be at The Hague, for the first time since assuming office, on October 7.
However, reluctance by the Jubilee administration to cooperate with the ICC is already casting to doubt if the trial will commence as planned.
Gaynor maintained that the victims prefer a genuine trial, even if the case would have to be adjourned again, for the government to comply with its cooperation obligations.
He however, disclosed that the victims have started expressing doubts on whether they will ever see justice, with many expressing feelings of anger, betrayal and despair.
“Nine victims who filled out lengthy forms in order to participate, and whose applications were granted by the Pre-Trial Chamber, have already died. They saw no justice in their lifetimes,” the former trial attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda noted.
Uhuru's lawyer, Stephen Kay nonetheless insists the case has collapsed and accuses Bensouda of clutching at a technicality to have the President remain a suspect.
Two weeks ago, the ICC judges ruled that the required records must be provided by all means, including compulsion.
ICC prosecution is demanding extensive details of the President's properties and financial records, including telephone numbers ascribed to, used by or associated with him, complete with call data records and financial transactions made through M-Pesa around the violence period.
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