News
Kenya's Commitment to Work with ICC Queried
By Patrick Mathangani
The Standard
Kenya's commitment to assist in investigations has been questioned at the International Criminal Court review conference in Uganda, only a day after the Government was accused of attempting to frustrate the court.
Doubts were cast over whether the Government would provide crucial information to help ICC investigators amass evidence against State operatives who are on Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo's list.
A commissioner in the Waki Commission that investigated the postelection violence, Mr Pascal Kambale, told delegates his team faced serious hurdles because Government officials refused to co-operate.
He doubted that matters would be any different now that Moreno-Ocampo's team has started investigating those with the greatest responsibility in the violence in which 1,300 people died.
He predicted that given some of the suspects are in Government, Kenya would become the first country to deny the ICC assistance in investigations. His remarks are a grim warning to Ocampo, who initially failed to get a nod from President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to refer the post-election violence case to ICC.
The Sole Option
Instead, the duo gave Ocampo the sole option of taking up the case, arguing handing over the case to ICC was tantamount to submitting that Kenya's judicial systems were weak. Kambale's position resonates with doubts expressed by the ODM side of the coalition, which has accused Attorney General Amos Wako of taking deliberate measure to scuttle ICC investigations. The differences exploded on Thursday, when Wako wrote to ICC requesting for the establishment of a liaison office for Africa at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa.
However, Wako attached resolutions of an African Union assembly summit in Libya, in which members committed not to cooperate with the ICC in arresting indicted Sudan President Omar al-Bashir.
The move has also infuriated Nobel Laureate Prof Wangari Maathai, who is representing the Nobel Women Initiative at the forum. Speaking in Kampala, Maathai warned the AU against turning into a club for protecting presidents wanted for serious crimes. "The indication that Africa would not support ICC would be very bad for the continent," she said, reacting to the stand taken by the AU on al-Bashir. She said the AU needs to portray itself as a body that upholds justice and wants to protect its people from years of suffering.
AU's Stand
As a member of the AU that was also represented at the summit on July 3 last year, Kenya is bound by those resolutions. Warnings have been sounded the AU could take a similar stand when time comes to arrest Kenyan suspects, several believed to be top officials in Government. ODM side of the Kenya delegation is led by Prime Minister Raila Odinga's adviser on coalition matters, Mr Miguna Miguna.
On Wednesday, Wako confirmed Kenya is yet to make a pledge on privileges and immunities of ICC staff working in Kenya. The privileges assure the staff, who include investigators, that they would not be liable to harassment, arrest or prosecutions for their actions while on duty. However, Wako said the matter was being addressed.
Friday, Kambale said ICC would have to be extremely innovative to get any information that would help pin down the culprits. Help, he said, would only come from ordinary Kenyans and willing whistleblowers, but not from the Government.
Kambale revealed the hustle the Waki team went through, saying they had to go out, know the people, interact with them and win their trust before they got information.
However, this commitment was being questioned since the same states are also members of the AU.
