Kalonzo meets UN Security Council President

By Martin MutuaThe Government upped its game in seeking deferral of poll violence trials by the International Criminal Court after it served a notice on UN Security Council members.
Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka, who leads the shuttle diplomacy, Tuesday met the UN Security Council President Li Paodong of China.
And today, Kalonzo and his team are set to meet UN Secretary General Banki Moon, the US permanent representative to the UN Susan Rice as well as representatives of Russia, UK and France.
The Government will now sit back and wait to see whether the top UN body will slot the Kenyan case on its agenda, considering the council had drawn up its agenda for meetings to be held this month.
But British Ambassador to Kenya Robert McCaire and his US counterpart Michael Ranneberger have stated their countries would veto any move by Kenya to seek deferral of the ICC cases.
President Kibaki and his emissaries have stepped up their resolve to have the trials amid time pressure as ICC judges could be finalizing their ruling on whether the ‘Ocampo Six’ will stand trial.
Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo, Attorney General Amos Wako and Lands Minister James Orengo have given a different interpretation contrary to Kibaki’s action.
No cased filed
They say it was not possible to seek a deferral of the cases since no cases on Kenya have so far been filed at the ICC.
Mutula and Orengo criticised the shuttle diplomacy terming it a waste of taxpayer money.
The first round of the shuttle diplomacy cost the taxpayers Sh31 million and the second round is going to cost Sh35 million.
Mutula says deferral, according to the International Crimes Act, can only be requested and granted at the commencement of investigation or prosecution.
"So far, Ocampo carried out his investigation and completed and the Government never challenged it and now, the next stage is the prosecution which is yet to commence before the Pre-Trial chamber II," he added.
The option left was to utilised Article 19 of the International Crimes Act by filing a case to block the admissibility and not lobbying the Security Council to endorse deferral of the post-election chaos trials.
Yesterday, Mr Paodong told Kalonzo the Security Council had received Kenya’s request.
Other in the Kalonzo team are ministers Sally Kosgei, Njeru Githae and Hellen Sambili.
Kalonzo has maintained Kenya had no intention of pulling out of International Criminal Court process.
"We want the United Nations Security Council to consider AU resolution endorsing Kenya’s request for a 12-month deferral to allow us to complete reforms and embark on local trials," the VP is said to have told Paodong.
Dr Kosgei met with representatives of the three African members of the UN Security Council – Nigeria, Gabon and South Africa in separate meetings.
Kosgei is said to have told them reforms were already underway in Kenya.
Permanent members
Permanent members of the UN Security Council are China, US, United Kingdom, France and Russia
Decisions on substantive matters require nine votes, including the concurring votes of the five permanent members – China, France, Russia, Britain and the US.
The other 10 non-permanent members are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Portugal, Brazil, India, South Africa, Colombia, Lebanon, Gabon and Nigeria.
Colombia, Germany, India, Portugal and South Africa are serving as non-permanent members for two-year terms, starting January.