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Deadline for Kenya election violence tribunal extended: PM

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Kenyan prime minister Raila Odinga said Tuesday that the country has been granted two additional months to form a special tribunal to hear cases surrounding Kenya's 2007 post-election violence. Odinga said that Koffi Annan, who facilitated the power-sharing agreement between Odinga and Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki, would give the country until May to constitute the tribunal before referring the cases to the International Criminal Court (ICC). The original deadline for the tribunal's creation was March 1, but Odinga requested the extension following the defeat of a bill to establish the tribunal in the Kenyan Parliament last week. Earlier this week, Odinga maintained that the government would be able to convene the court despite parliamentary opposition and allegations that government officials had attempted to bribe or blackmail MPs into voting for its creation. More than 1,000 people were killed and more than 500,000 were displaced by violence following allegations of fraud in the country's 2007 presidential election. The defeated legislation was proposed  by Kenya's Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence in October 2008.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on February 18, 2009 (boomark / email).