Source: The Star
Criminal Court chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda's new adviser on gender affairs has vowed to ensure the prosecution of the 2007/08 post election violence gender crimes.

Brigid Inder, who was appointed last week, has been pushing for justice for victims of all forms of gender violence - rape, stuffing of bottles in women's private parts, forced circumcision and forced nudity - after the dispute over the presidential election outcome

Before the start of the confirmation hearings last year, Inder's former organisation - Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice - criticised the prosecution's strategy on the Kenyan gender violence cases. The group questioned why the prosecution only charged Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and former Public service head Francis Muthaura with rape incidences in Nakuru and Naivasha and ignored the same in cases against Eldoret North MP William Ruto and radio journalist Joshua Sang.

"The trend within the office of the prosecutor is that 40 per cent of gender based violations are dismissed before coming to trial. It points to something ongoing within the OTP and which smacks of over-reliance on secondary information," Inder said at a press conference attended by this writer.

Inder cited the case of Jean Pierre Bemba saying 70 per cent of the original sexual related accusations against him had been dismissed by the judges. She said the history of cases at the ICC reflected the prosecution's "consistent struggle with sexual allegations". She said her organisation had analysed all gender-based violence related cases and found that there was overuse of secondary material in prosecuting the cases. "It has been used as evidence instead of using it as supplementary information," she added.

The Waki Commission which investigated the violence unearthed hundreds of cases of sexual violence, which included gang and individual rapes, female and male genital mutilation. "Women and children's labia and vaginas were cut using sharp objects and bottles were stuffed into them. Men and boys, in turn, had their penises cut off and were traumatically circumcised, in some cases using cut glass," said Waki.

The commission whose evidence form the basis of ICC investigations said the perpetrators of these forms of sexual violence included ordinary people as well as members General Service Unit as well as regular and administration police. Muthaura and Uhuru are charged as indirect co-perpetrators in the commission of five crimes against humanity.

The five are rape, murder, deportation, persecution and other inhumane acts. On the contrary, their ODM counterparts William Ruto and Joshua Sang are charged with only three counts of crimes against humanity. These are murder, deportation and persecution. Through the charges of rape and other inhumane acts, Uhuru and Muthaura will bear the burden of most of the forms of sexual violations alleged to have happened over post election period. However, the prosecution will need to prove the actual violations during trial.

• Kenya