International Criminal Court drops charges against Kenya’s Ruto

The International Criminal Court’s attempt to prosecute senior Kenyan politicians for deadly violence surrounding the 2007 presidential election collapsed on Tuesday after judges abandoned the case against William Ruto, the deputy president. 

The decision will come as a blow for the ICC, which many Africans have accused of being biased against the continent. 

The two-to one ruling comes 16 months after charges were dropped against Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya’s president, and means that no one has faced trial for perpetrating the violence that left 1,200 people dead and forced 600,000 to flee their homes. 

The decision that there was insufficient evidence to try Mr Ruto and fellow defendant, broadcaster Joshua Sang, highlights the challenges facing international prosecutors as they seek to hold to account those considered responsible for violent crimes. 

While the defendants have been applauded for respecting the ICC process, unlike other indicted Africans such as Sudanese president Omar Bashir, prosecutors accused them, and Mr Kenyatta, of bribing or threatening witnesses to recant their evidence. 

Chile Eboe-Osuji, one of the two judges who ruled that the charges should be dropped, said the failure of the prosecution to present sufficient evidence could be explained by a “tainting of the trial process by way of witness interference and political meddling that was reasonably likely to intimidate witnesses”. 

A second judge said the prosecution had failed to present sufficient evidence while the third said there was a case to answer and the trial should go ahead. 

Prosecutors can appeal the ruling. The judges declined the defendants’ request to acquit them outright. 

Mr Ruto was accused of murder, deportation and persecution while Mr Sang was accused of using his radio show to orchestrate violence. The case was referred to the ICC after attempts to try them in Kenya failed. 

Mr Kenyatta, who is on a state visit to France, heralded the end of “what has been a nightmare for my nation”. He said the victims had not been forgotten but that “Kenya has come a long way since the dark days of 2008”. 

“We have made peace. We have given ourselves a new constitution and a new political order,” he said. “We have resettled and compensated many victims.” 

Dr Mumo Nzau, a governance professor at the University of Nairobi, said the judges had probably taken into account what he said was the progress Kenya had made in building its judicial and electoral institutions in the past eight years. 

“It’s a legal decision that takes care of the political mood of the country,” he said. “The ICC is made for countries that seem like they cannot handle their [own] business.” 

Yolande Bouka, a researcher at the Nairobi-based Institute for Security Studies, said the ruling “perpetuates impunity in Kenya”. Witness tampering “provided a lesson for the tribunal”, she said. “There are individuals that took part in crimes and those individuals are still roaming free in Kenya. There’s been very little attempt to hold them accountable.” 

The ruling will make it easier for Mr Ruto to run for re-election next year. Local television showed his supporters celebrating in the streets of his Rift Valley heartland.