JURIST - Paper Chase: Deadline for Kenya election violence tribunal extended: PM

[JURIST] Kenyan prime minister Raila Odinga [official website] 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 [JURIST report]. Odinga said that Koffi Annan [official profile], who facilitated the power-sharing agreement [JURIST report] between Odinga and Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki [official profile], would give the country until May [Standard report] to constitute the tribunal before referring the cases to the International Criminal Court (ICC) [official website]. The original deadline for the tribunal's creation was March 1, but Odinga requested the extension following the defeat [JURIST report] of a bill to establish the tribunal in the Kenyan Parliament [official website] last week.

Earlier this week, Odinga maintained [press release; JURIST report] that the government would be able to convene the court despite parliamentary opposition and allegations [JURIST report] 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 [JURIST report] in the country's 2007 presidential election. The defeated legislation was proposed [JURIST report] by Kenya's Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence [JURIST report] in October 2008.

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