The International Criminal Court"s chief prosecutor will request that an investigation be opened into suspected crimes against humanity committed during Kenya"s post-election violence in 2008, , according to Reuters. Luis Moreno-Ocampo arrived in Kenya on Thursday to discuss with President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga how to bring the masterminds of the bloodshed that killed at least 1,300 people to justice. "I explained to them that I consider the crimes committed in Kenya were crimes against humanity, therefore the gravity is there. So therefore I should proceed," Moreno-Ocampo said. Kibaki and Odinga said in a joint statement that Kenya remained committed both to cooperating with the ICC and to establishing a local judicial mechanism to prosecute those involved in the violence. "We are ready to work with his court so that we don"t see a repeat of what we saw last year," Odinga told a news conference, speaking in Swahili. Kenya"s crisis mediator, Kofi Annan, handed over a list of the main suspects to Moreno-Ocampo in July. Political sources say it names cabinet ministers, members of parliament and businessmen. According to a letter Moreno-Ocampo sent to Kibaki and Odinga, quoted by local media, the prosecutor said the government could either refer the cases to the ICC itself -- or he would proceed unilaterally. If he decides to take action himself, Moreno-Ocampo needs to get authorisation from the pre-trial chamber at The Hague to start investigations, a step he has not taken in his other cases. "So I informed them, in December I would request to the judges of the International Criminal Court to open an investigation and that is the process established by the Rome Treaty," he told the news conference with the two leaders. The 2002 Rome Treaty established the ICC, the world"s first permanent court set up to try individuals for genocide, war crimes and other major human rights violations. The Standard newspaper said on Wednesday that Kibaki and Odinga agreed after meetings to let Moreno-Ocampo pursue the second option -- to cushion themselves from any backlash. The problem for Kenya"s leaders is that they were rivals for the presidency. The killing started after the electoral commission declared Kibaki the winner, and Odinga cried foul. If they were seen to be the ones giving up former party allies accused of mobilising deadly ethnic militias, the coalition could fall apart and tribal violence could flare up again. Kenya had promised to deal with the masterminds. But numerous attempts to kick-start the process have floundered and many Kenyans doubt that powerful individuals will be arrested and charged because of widespread impunity among politicians. "The problem is that the people who funded the turmoil are in power now. I"d rather we get an independent body to oversee this," said Bernard Gitau, 50, who is living in a camp in the Rift Valley housing 500 families uprooted by the violence.
