Three ministers get ICC letters

By Cyrus Ombati, Martin Mutua and Ben Agina

Three Cabinet ministers have received written invitations for separate appearances before International Criminal Court detectives in connection with post-election violence crimes.

It is, however, not clear exactly which areas of the investigations they are supposed to shed light on.

News of the invitations, which could be a pointer to the fact that the ministers are among the 22 people believed to be on the ICC’s radar, as the Government agreed to appoint a High Court Judge to take witness statements from PCs and regional police chiefs who were in charge in the main clash points before and during the violence.

The politicians, it is believed, would be asked to shed light on their possible role in the 2007-2008 violence triggered by disputed presidential election results, The Standard has established.

It is also believed preliminary investigations by the ICC, cutting across political parties, as was revealed by Chief Prosecutor Luis-Moreno Ocampo, have put the ministers in a position where ICC inevitably has to talk to them.

Sources revealed the appearance others see as interrogatory, has to take place before Ocampo requests the Pre-Trial Chamber II for indictment letters on Kenyans his investigations would have established hold the highest responsibility for the killings, dispossessions and displacements.

Wako first met with the five ICC detectives at his Chambers yesterday, and he later held talks with Chief Justice Evan Gicheru, with whom it is believed he agreed to appoint a judge to take evidence from PCs and PPOs as per ICC’s options.

After meeting with the ICC team, Wako held another session with the Commissioner of Police Mr Mathew Iteere, and a team of police officers, before meeting the CJ.

The meeting with Iteere was attended by some of the lawyers hired PPOs and PCs to guide them in interrogations.

Wako later told The Standard he had written a formal request to the CJ asking him to appoint a judge to handle the statements of the Government officials. "We have agreed and the Judge should be named anytime to listen to the evidence as per the ICC request," revealed Wako.

He added that he had already communicated with the lead investigator of the ICC team, who flew back to the Hague last week, and that he was happy with the development.

Sources said apart from the PPOs and PCs, the ICC officials want to interview the politicians whose names have been marked as ‘High Priority’.

"I believe the individuals have received the letters and are in contact with the ICC team," said a highly placed source that saw the list, but asked not to be named.

power-sharing

Only one of the ministers was in the Cabinet in 2007. The second was appointed in the half-Cabinet President Kibaki formed as post-election violence raged around him, while the third was conscripted into the council of ministers after the power-sharing deal signed on February 28, 2008.

Their party affiliation is in tandem with Ocampo’s earlier revelation that he had on his radar top politicians in President Kibaki’s Party of National Unity — who wanted to retain power — and PM Raila Odinga’s party, who wanted to get hold of power.

New reports also revealed that the Cabinet sub-committee on ICC-related issues, chaired by Internal Security Minister Prof George Saitoti will meet this morning to deliberate over the reports and memos both Wako and NSIS Director General Michael Gichangi were last week mandated to vet, before their handover to the ICC sleuths.

Wako and Gichangi were asked to go through all security memos and reports that were used during the post election violence.

"We were clear on the matter of Government documents pertaining to the probe that the laid down procedures as stipulated in the International Crimes Act must be followed when it comes to issues of national security," explained our sources, in reference to the committees earlier refusal to accede to what it called ICCs "blanket demands", ostensibly because that would be prejudicial to Kenya’s "national security interests".

Coming hot on the heels of the stand-off between the Government and ICC on the latter’s request for the minutes of high-level security meetings held during the turbulent period, and added to ICC’s failure to interrogate PCs and PPOs last week as earlier scheduled, the letters to the ministers may intensify the panic in sections of Government over the speed and direction ICC investigations are taking.

Last week, Central Kenya politicians claimed ICC was targeting their ‘people’ even as reports spread the court was keen on getting to the bottom of the 400 police killings during the dark period.

The judge to be appointed by the CJ will interrogate security chiefs who were in office before and during the chaos.

Sources said the judge would be named late yesterday or today, so as to embark on his or her work immediately.

ICC had requested to have face-to-face meetings with PCs and PPOs, but the officers hired private lawyers, and said they would only be interviewed in the presence of a person with the status of a judge or Registrar of the High Court, as recommended by the Rome Statute.

This was because of fears they could incriminate themselves, or be sacrificed by their superiors if seen to have talked behind their backs.

Contacted lawyers

The lawyers contracted by the PCs and PPOs are Mr Evans Monari, Mr Ken Ogeto, and Mr Gershom Otachi, while Mr Ahmednasir Abdullahi represents NSIS.

In addition, Abdullahi represents all the PCs and has written to Wako informing him of a preliminary meeting held on September 27 where legal procedures with regard to evidence-taking were discussed.

Monari represented former Commissioner of Police Hussein Ali and the Police Force at the Waki Commission that investigated the violence and gathered most of the evidence ICC is now relying on. Ogeto and Otachi are partners and are attached as defence lawyers to the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha.

The ICC team is looking for more evidence to convince the judges at The Hague that crimes against humanity were committed in the post-election period, before they issue the indictment letters probably by December.

The team is in particular looking for more witnesses and evidence before they appear before the Pre-Trial Chamber II composed of Judges Ekaterina Trendafilova, Hans-Peter Kaul and Cuno Tarfusser to seek for indictment of the individuals it finds ‘good’ evidence against.

The ICC prosecutor will again appear before the three judges with his evidence to seek for indictment of the individuals he feels were responsible for the killings.

Sources revealed ICC detectives have specific questions for every Government official whom they have requested to interrogate, as they move to tie up the loose ends in their cases. In the letters signed by ICC’s Head of International Cooperation Mr Amady Ba, the court says it was to interview the PCs and PPOs — most likely on where the uncompromising and selective orders they received in the field came from.