The Hague has been denied access to minutes of a meeting said to have been held at State House at the height of the post-election violence, according to Daily Nation sources. PHOTO / FILE
By bernard namunane bnamunane@ke.nationmedia.com and dave opiyo dopiyo@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Monday, September 27 2010 at 22:00
In Summary
Waki said revenge planned at State House, government dismisses the claim
The Hague has been denied access to minutes of a meeting said to have been held at State House at the height of the post-election violence, according to Daily Nation sources.
The sources, who are familiar with the work of the International Criminal Court in Kenya but who could not be named because of the confidentiality of their work, said the government had declined to make available any information regarding the meeting the Waki Commission claimed was attended by key people in government at the time.
The sources also said that prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo is focusing his investigations on two hotspots, Naivasha and Eldoret, and the the cases he expects to file at the Hague will be based on those two areas.
On Monday, Lands minister James Orengo said the Cabinet committee which deals with ICC matters was set to meet a team from The Hague on Wednesday.
Mr Orengo said the ICC should not be denied access to any information since the government had agreed to fully cooperate with it.
“We agreed that we will fully cooperate with the ICC. The Cabinet committee will meet tomorrow to know what is happening,” he said on phone from Mombasa.
On Monday, the government maintained that no such meeting took place and therefore the question of minutes does not arise.
“There was never such a meeting as stated in the Waki Commission (report). It was manufactured and somebody really must have lied to them. We have always said there was no meeting and therefore there can’t be minutes,” government spokesman Alfred Mutua told the Nation.
The government has also declined to the ICC the minutes of high-level security meetings that held at the peak of the violence in which 1,133 people were killed and more than 650,000 evicted from their farms.
The Waki Commission report indicated that the violence in Naivasha between January 27 and 30 was pre-planned and executed by Mungiki members who received the support of political and business leaders.
“The Commission has also evidence that government and political leaders in Nairobi, including key office holders at the highest level of government may have directly participated in the preparation of the attacks,” the report said.
“Central to that planning were two meetings held in State House and Nairobi Safari Club in the run up to the election with the involvement of senior members of the Government and other prominent Kikuyu personalities,” it states.
Similar attention was being given to the killing at the Kenya Assemblies of God (KAG) in Kiambaa Eldoret which took place on the 28 of December 2007. Attackers locked villagers, mainly women and children, in the church and set it on fire. Those who attempted to escape were hacked to death by waiting killers. A total of 35 people died in the atrocity.
In the January 28, 2008 revenge attack in Naivasha, at least 19 people were killed.
The Kiambaa attack was also linked to meetings between politicians, business people and former soldiers in the Rift Valley.
On Monday, Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Mutula Kilonzo, while clarifying that the ICC was receiving full government support, said The Hague must prove that crimes committed in the country were within its jurisdiction.
It is not a foregone conclusion that The Hague will automatically take on the Kenya case, it still has to prove that international crimes were committed in 2007, he said.
“We do not know as at now whether the ICC will admit the Kenyan case... pretending otherwise is blowing hot air,” said Mr Kilonzo in Nairobi.
Added the Justice minister: “The prosecutor must first prove that the crimes committed were of an international nature. If he convinces the world that international crimes were committed, we shall allow him to go on with the prosecution. The government will fully co-operate with the investigations.”
Mr Kilonzo was speaking in Nairobi at a workshop on conflict management and mediation for human rights institutions for East Africa. Participants came from Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and Malawi.
Mr Kilonzo said he did not ask Mr Ocampo to pack up and go after the new constitution was passed but maintained that the reformed Judiciary could also handle the cases.
He said the government had no power to stop the ICC from doing its work, adding that only the perpetrators of violence whose cases fell outside the jurisdiction of the ICC will be tried locally.
The Judiciary was being revamped to ensure it adequately dealt with crimes committed during the post election violence, he added.
Key Bills on the implementation of the new constitution as well as reforms in the Judiciary will be tabled in parliament this week.
They include the a Bill for the formation of an oversight constitution implementation committee, Judicial Service Commission Bill and the Vetting of Judges and Magistrates Bill.
He said once Parliament passes these Bills, including the one on reforming the police, the country will be capable of prosecuting some of the masterminds of the poll violence.
“Kenya can prosecute the poll violence suspects... we can do it,” said the minister.
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