The AU and ICC's Disagreements on 2007/8 Post-election Violence Peacebuilding: Perspectives of Kenyans Living in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa

This study probed the views of Kenyans living in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa on the antagonism that existed between the African Union (AU) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the prosecution of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President, William Ruto, for their alleged role in the 2007/8 Post-Election Violence (PEV) in Kenya. Using semi-structured interviews from 30 (16 men and 14 women) Kenyans in Pietermaritzburg, the study argued that by centring their discontentment on the prosecution of Kenyatta and Ruto, the AU and ICC overlooked the importance of re-building national identity, social cohesion, deconstructing tribal disharmony, politics of reward, marginalisation and seclusion, among other structural injustices that were found to have played a crucial role in the 2007/8 post-election violence. The paper concluded that as long as struggles for political power continue to revolve around tribal identity, post-conflict peacebuilding remains an illusion and that the current political alignments, accusations and counteraccusations are raising prospect that the 2022 general elections would be marred by the Kenya's spectre of ethnic violence again.