Kenyan police get ICC deal to testify on bosses

By OLIVER MATHENGE omathenge@ke.nationmedia.com AND PETER LEFTIE pmutibo@ke.nationmedia
Posted Thursday, October 14 2010 at 22:04

The Hague has offered protection and immunity from prosecution to police officers and Provincial Administration officials who testify against their bosses.

Mr Amady Ba, an official of the International Criminal Court, assured Internal Security minister George Saitoti in a letter that The Hague is not interested in prosecuting the officers from whom it is seeking statements.

It is going after “those that allegedly gave orders to the police to commit crimes”, according to the letter. ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo is going after the big fish, the letter makes it clear and even among civilians will not prosecute those used to carry out atrocities, but those who sent them.

“The same applies to any other group which appears to have been used for attacks on civilians. The Office can provide protection and safeguards to any police officer who will to cooperate with it,” the letter dated October 11, 2010, said.

The Hague is also taking an inventory of the property and assets of suspects with a view to seizing them if they are found guilty. Such wealth will be used to compensate the victims of election violence.

The Daily Nation has learnt that some of the work of ICC analysts involves assessing the impact of the chaos on victims.

Greatest responsibility

In its letter to Prof Saitoti, in his capacity as chairman of the Cabinet sub-committee dealing with The Hague, the ICC said:

“In accordance with the Office of the Prosecutor’s policy to focus its investigations and prosecutions on those who bear the greatest responsibility, the office is not intending to prosecute these police officers, but those that allegedly gave orders to the police to commit crimes.”

On Wednesday, the ICC team left Nairobi for Naivasha, Nakuru, Kericho, Kisumu, Kapsabet, Molo, Eldoret and Burnt Forest, according to sources familiar with its operations.

The team is expected back in Nairobi before Wednesday next week to finalise their report to Mr Moreno-Ocampo, which will determine the date he comes to Kenya.

The ICC prosecutor is expected to use the report to tie together his request to the Pre-Trial Chamber for arrest warrants against up to six individuals in December.

The operations by his team are in preparation of cases that Mr Moreno-Ocampo has identified. If the cases go through, the ICC wants to be prepared to know what property is owned by the key suspects.

“Other than the situation analysis, the team is looking at issues relating to reparations to the victims of the violence. They are also identifying property of potential suspects which can be used together with the ICC’s Trust Fund for Victims to make the compensations,” said a source who has interacted with the ICC analysts.

The source added that the officials were keeping their operations “discreet and low-profile”. They are using government vehicles and security in their work. Their job involves interviewing groups and individuals, including government officials.

They are also assessing security in the country and gathering views from the public as well as evaluating the government’s level of cooperation.

The ICC’s letter to the Cabinet sub-committee is viewed as a move to allay fears that it intends to prosecute dozens of PCs, DCs and provincial police officers stationed in post-election violence hotspots following the killing of civilians by security officers.

Officials struck deal

Lawyers representing the officers have indicated that their clients will only record statements with ICC detectives in the presence of High Court judge Kalpana Rawal once Prof Saitoti publishes the regulations to guide the exercise.

On Thursday, lawyers representing the government officials struck a deal with the Attorney-General, removing a major hurdle to the investigations.