ICC statement taking scheduled for Tuesday

Written By:Carol Gakii/Micheal Gichuki,    Posted: Mon, Jan 17, 2011

Over 1,500 people were killed and 500,000 others displaced after chaos erupted in most parts of the country.

Security chiefs and Provincial Commissioners who served in the post election violence hot spots are scheduled to start recording statements with the International Criminal Court Investigators on Tuesday.

Lady Justice Kalpana Rawal has expressed optimism that the statement taking process will take off without further hitches.

However, in a phone interview with KBC, the officers' lead lawyer Ken Ogeto said that their clients will not turn up to record statements until two pending cases in The Hague and Nairobi are heard and determined.

The exercise has been postponed thrice due to various reasons.

"There's the case at The Hague, the application file which is the reason why this process was suspended in the first place and that application has not been decided. Then of course there's this case that was filed last week by two businessmen. Came today for hearing and will come again in the nest two weeks I think. Now for those reasons this process will not take place." He said

The exercise was first scheduled for November 24 last year but was deferred to December 7th after lawyers representing the officers demanded to be issued with questions in advance.

However, their prayers were not granted prompting the officers to file a case in The Hague seeking assurance that their evidence will not be used against them.

Lady Justice Rawal then set a new date for December 20th but the ICC team failed to travel to Nairobi due to bad weather in Europe forcing the exercise to be suspended to Tuesday.

The process comes even a businessman seeks to have the exercise stopped.

The businessman Jackson Mwangi argued that the ICC laws as stipulated in the Rome statute are in contravention of the Kenyan constitution.

Mwangi had earlier told the court that Lady Justice Kalpana Rawal is scheduled to assist provincial commissioners and police chiefs record statements with ICC investigators a move he termed as not in tandem with the rules of the ICC which conflict with the right of fair trial to any citizen since the information is confidential.

But the director of public prosecutions Keriako Tobiko wants the Provincial commissioners and the police chiefs served with the submissions before they give their statements.

Ten witnesses are already listed for the statement taking exercise that should take about three days, once the process commences.

They include PCs Ernest Munyi (Coast), Abdul Mwasera (Western), Hassan Noor Hassan (Rift Valley), James Waweru (Nairobi) and Paul Olando (Nyanza).

The Provincial Police chiefs who were in the office at the time include Grace Kaindi [Nyanza], Everett Wasige (Rift Valley), King'ori Mwangi (Coast), Francis Munyambu (Western) and Njue Njagi who was in Nairobi at the time.