| Summary/Abstract |
In December 2007, claims that Kenya’s incumbent president, Mwai Kibaki of the Party of National Unity (PNU), had stolen an election won by his opponent, Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), triggered unprecedented violence that led to the death of over 1,000 people and the displacement of almost 700,000 others in two months. The violence took several forms, including countrywide demonstrations by opposition supporters; a heavy-handed state security response; attacks on ethnic communities deemed pro-government (mainly Kikuyu and Kisii), the epicenter of which was the Rift Valley; and counterattacks by Kikuyu youth against communities deemed pro-opposition (mainly Luo and Kalenjin) in the towns of Nakuru and Naivasha in the Central Rift Valley. It was the last two forms of violence that became the focus of two cases at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, after a national Commission of Inquiry into the Postelection Violence (CIPEV) insisted that those most responsible be held accountable but the Kenyan government failed to establish a special tribunal as the commission recommended.
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