Activist Maina Kiai: "Something is going on in making witnesses die or recant, and that must be investigated."
By Stella Dawson
WASHINGTON, Oct 1 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - International human rights activist Maina Kiai is calling for a probe into possible witness tampering in the criminal trial of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta over violence that convulsed the East African country after the 2007 election and left over 1,200 people dead.
"Something is going on in making witnesses die or recant, and that must be investigated," Kiai said in an interview with the Thomson Reuters Foundation ahead of receiving the Freedom House annual award on Wednesday for outstanding contributions to political freedom.
Kenyatta and his Deputy President William Ruto stand accused by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague of instigating crimes against humanity, including murder and rape, during the 2007-2008 post-election violence.
Kenyatta and Ruto, who deny the charges, came to power in the March 2013 elections on a platform of defiance against what they call Western neo-colonialism.
Kiai is the former chairman of the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights, which gathered evidence of the 2007-2008 atrocities and named over 2,000 alleged perpetrators, including dozens of members of parliament, police and state officials.
The ICC took up the case in 2012 but prosecutors last month said it was on the verge of collapse because of the recanting, blackmailing and intimidation of witnesses and the Kenyatta administration's refusal to hand over bank and telephone records.
Kiai said ICC prosecutors erred in not collecting evidence and witness statements earlier when the violence in Kenya was raw and there was national support for an investigation. Now prosecutors are relying too heavily on documents and face huge hurdles, not least an orchestrated campaign to cast their work as a Western plot.
"Could the prosecutors have done a much better job? Absolutely. Are they innocent? Who knows? But what is notable is that there has been a campaign by the accused that has been significant, that has been dogged, that has been determined. They are suspects but it has made them look like the victims," he said.
The ICC has ordered Kenyatta to attend a hearing over how to proceed with his stalled trial on Oct 8.
Death threats
Kiai speaks out at great personal risk.
He has faced death threats for his support for justice for victims of the post-election violence. His family homestead was stormed last year by a militia group, which threatened to burn it down after bloggers reported Kiai would testify against Kenyatta at the ICC. Kenyatta's director of digital media blogged in 2013 that Kiai is part of a "civil society web of evil".
Robert Herman, Freedom House vice president, said Kiai was chosen for this year's award for his long record as a staunch defender of democracy in Kenya.
A Harvard-educated lawyer, Kiai rose to prominence in the early 1990s when he founded the Kenya Human Rights Commission, an advocacy group fiercely critical of the government of then President Daniel arap Moi. He currently is a director of InformAction, a not-for-profit which produces films and organises community discussions about justice in Kenya.
"He is courageous in face of repression and a man who speaks truth to power," Herman said.
Asked in the interview the source of his courage, Kiai chuckled, raised a glass of red wine and then resumed his rapid -fire speech.
"I am a believer. I believe very firmly in Kenya and Kenyans. There is no country bar none that has the human capacity and potential of Kenya. What is holding us back is a history of bad leadership and impunity," he said.
He finds laughable the idea that political freedom is a Western construct. "What is uniquely African then? Dictatorship and violence?"
(Reporting by Stella Dawson; Additional reporting by Katy Migiro in Kenya; Editing by Lisa Anderson)
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