By Evelyne Asaala
Abstract
The 2007-2008 Post Election Violence of Kenya (PEV) occasioned numerous forms of injuries on a broad spectrum of victims who have been categorized into five major groups: The Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) victims, victims of extra judicial killings, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), property related victims and amputees and those with other continuing injuries. Despite international human rights guarantees for an effective remedy, which include reparations, both national and international efforts towards reparation of Kenyan victims linger in uncertainty. With almost lost hopes at reparations the assistance program under the International Criminal Courts legal framework offer an array of hope. Under the Rome Statute of the ICC (Rome Statute), persons that suffer atrocities that amount to international crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court are entitled to some form of reparations and assistance. Thus, following the collapse of the possibility of reparations in the Kenyan cases, the ICC through its Trust Fund for the Victims (TFV) has the discretion to assist the victims of international crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court. This prompted the TFV’s announcement on 1 February 2021 of its Board’s approval of the opening of a victim’s assistance program in Kenya. The objective of this paper is to provide a platform that support the initiation of an assistance program in Kenya for the PEV victims while exposing the major challenges crippling reparation initiatives. The paper begins by making a conceptual distinction between reparations and assistance of victims within the ICC framework. It then exposes the anatomy of the national initiatives towards victim assistance and reparations as well as the collapsed ICC reparations process. The subsequent section seeks to inform on the do’s and don’ts of a potential assistance program.
