By OLIVER MATHENGE omathenge@ke.nationmedia.com AND WALTER MENYA wmenya@ke.nationmedia.com Posted Thursday, January 27 2011 at 22:30
A top ICC official on Thursday urged Kenya to deal directly with the Court instead of lobbying other governments if it wants the cases of the Ocampo Six postponed.
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Mr Christian Wenaweser, president of the Assembly of State Parties to the Rome Statute, visited Nairobi as a divided government prepared to send a strong delegation to the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa to rally the continent behind its bid to have the case deferred by the United Nations Security Council.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who has disowned the lobbying in African capitals spearheaded by Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, leaves for the summit on Friday, while President Kibaki flies out on Saturday. (Read: Raila disowns Kalonzo shuttle to block Hague)
The PM is expected to present a report on the crisis in Cote d’Ivoire after his visits as the AU mediator, while President Kibaki officially represents Kenya at the Heads of State Summit.
Pass a resolution
Mr Wenaweser laid down the conditions to be met before Kenya can approach the ICC for the case to be postponed.
He said there was no need for the government to rally support of African leaders or approach the UN Security Council to pass a resolution that would defer the case.
“My message is that if the intent is to establish national proceedings in Kenya that is something that we would support.
“But in order to do that we would like to see the Kenyan government engage with the court. This is something that can be discussed with the court and so there is no need to go to the security council of the United Nations,” he said.
He said Kenya stands a better chance to have the cases against the six deferred if it approaches the ICC directly, he said. (Read: ICC cautions AU over Kenya bid to defer trials)
“If the government intends to pursue the avenue of setting up a national tribunal, it should be taken directly with the ICC. I hope this is the avenue the government will pursue,” he said
And before it enters into negotiations with the ICC, he said, Kenya must first establish a local tribunal that has the ability and capacity to try the suspects.
“Once it has established a local judicial mechanism, Kenya can then argue and plead its case within the framework of the ICC,” he told the media at the Serena Hotel.
Mr Wenaweser arrived in the country on Thursday morning for a two-day visit to meet government officials, civil society and media regarding Kenya’s bid to have its case at The Hague deferred.
But by Thursday it was not clear whether he had secured appointments with President Kibaki and Mr Odinga. “Our programme is not finalised yet so I don’t know that yet,” Mr Wenaweser responded when asked about appointments.
The Daily Nation learnt that there were efforts within government to frustrate Mr Wenaweser’s plans to meet the President and PM until he has held all his other meetings.
Despite his status, Mr Wenaweser appeared like an ‘unwelcome’ visitor, conspicuously lacking the normal government limousine and security detail accorded VIP guests. The ICC head was only escorted by his own aide and was ferried around in a hired car.
According to information made available to the Nation, a group of operatives in President Kibaki’s PNU wing of the coalition government met on Wednesday evening where they drew up a strategy to counter what Mr Wenaweser had heard from other parties.
Sources said that the group agreed that the President should meet the ICC head alone and “at the tail end” of his stay in Kenya. “The issue is to clarify the position taken by parliament to pull out of the ICC.
“That this was a spontaneous and legitimate outpouring of anger following what has been widely viewed as a politicised and selective process by the ICC prosecutor,” a source read from the strategy document made on Wednesday.
Mr Wenaweser’s visit comes a day after Mr Odinga publicly dismissed the diplomatic offensive spearheaded by Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka to lobby other African countries to support Kenya in its quest for a deferral on the ICC cases.
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Mr Odinga insisted the cabinet had never endorsed the campaign to have the ICC case deferred, but Mr Musyoka fired that his missions were undertaken on direct instructions of President Kibaki.
Differences between the ODM and PNU wings of the government intensified on Thursday as Lands minister James Orengo also disowned the shuttle diplomacy.
“I have emphasised to the president that, first I sit in the cabinet and secondly, I am a member of the cabinet sub-committee dealing with the ICC,” he said after meeting Mr Wenaweser in his office.
“There has been no decision within the policy and decision-making organs of the government for Kenya to withdraw from the Rome Statute or to ask for a deferral through the African Union, the United Nations or any other international organisation for that matter,” he said.
According to Mr Orengo, Mr Musyoka’s recent travels across the continent to seek support to delay the ICC process were not a government decision.
“Our cooperation with the ICC is not only subject to the Rome Statute but the Constitution of Kenya,” the minister said.
He asked president Kibaki to dismiss head of public service Francis Muthaura, Deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta and Postmaster General Hussein Ali until the ICC clears them.
The three are among the six people named by ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo as suspects of the post poll chaos. Others are suspended cabinet ministers William Ruto and Henry Kosgey, and Kass FM presenter Joshua arap Sang.
Of the VP’s claim that he was President Kibaki’s envoy, the Lands minister responded: “Neither the old constitution nor the new one state that executive power is exercised by the president and the vice president alone.”
The ICC head has met several civil society groups, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights and also held talks with lawyer Paul Muite, a former MP.
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