Former UN chief Kofi Annan will visit Kenya this weekend to meet political leaders who are under fire from donors for delays to badly-needed reforms after last year's post-election violence in east Africa's biggest economy. Annan chaired the weeks of negotiations that gave birth to Kenya's grand coalition government and ended ethnic turmoil that had killed at least 1,300 people, uprooted more than 300,000 others and disrupted business across the region.
A condition of the deal that forged the unity administration was that the architects of the chaos, including government ministers, would face justice, either at a specially-created local tribunal or before the International Criminal Court (ICC). Kenyan media said ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo would also visit the country next week, but a spokeswoman in Moreno-Ocampo's office said that was wrong.
Annan's office said on Thursday he would be in Kenya from October 4-7 to assess progress on the agreements that he brokered, especially the need for reforms to deal with grievances like land issues and wealth inequality. "Mr Annan looks forward to holding discussions with the two principals, President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, as well as members of the dialogue team and other political leaders," it said in a statement.
On Wednesday, the ICC said it intended to pursue charges against those most responsible for last year's bloodshed. In a statement, Moreno-Ocampo said he wanted the ICC to try the worst offenders, a special tribunal as defined by Kenya's parliament to handle the others, and a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to look at the underlying causes of the violence.
He said Kenya would be a world example of how to manage violence. His office said "decisive consultations" with top officials in Kenya would take place in the coming weeks. The Kenyan government has said it will deal with the leaders of the violence itself. But numerous attempts to kick start the process have foundered - and the administration has committed to referring the case to the ICC prosecutor if it fails.
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