Kibaki unleashes six ministers to lobby for deferral of Kenya ICC cases

By Biketi Kikechi, Political Editor
The second phase of Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka’s diplomatic offensive to defer the International Criminal Court case against the ‘Ocampo Six’ begins this weekend.
The Vice-President leads the Kenyan delegation to New York Sunday to present Kenya’s request for deferral to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon.
Those heading for a series of lobbying meetings with UN Security Council members in the West are Agriculture Minister Sally Kosgey, Transport Minister Chirau Ali Mwakwere, Higher Education Minister Hellen Sambili and Njeru Githae (Nairobi Metropolitan), George Saitoti (Internal Security) and Foreign affairs Assistant Minister Richard Onyonka.

Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka

The ministers will thereafter join the Vice-President in New York on Tuesday, for the meeting with Ban Ki Moon.
Dr Kosgey and Prof Sambili will head to Brazil, while Mwakwere and Githae will start from Lebanon, then proceed to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and then head to Portugal.
"The Vice-President will leave tomorrow night, but there will be another delegation to China, Russia and India in the next two weeks," said a highly placed Government source.
The British and US envoys in Kenya have suggested that their countries would not support the deferral at the UN Security Council.
But the Government still expresses confidence that the two countries would still be lobbied into changing their minds. "They have not said they would veto the request. That means we would continue to push for their support because they are friendly countries with good intentions," said Kalonzo’s personal assistant.
Members of the Security Council have four options: Support, abstain, vote against or veto such a proposal once it has been tabled.
Rome Statute
Early this week, it was reported that the Kenya case is not among those listed for discussion by the Security Council, but insists the agenda referred to was an emergency session on Libya.
The delegations will embark on the second phase despite a strong opposition from the ODM wing of Government and the civil society.
Prime Minister Raila Odinga has said the deferrals should be sought through the ICC, instead of engaging in an expensive global shuttle.
But a group allied to President Kibaki has been pushing for deferral through the African Union and the UN Security Council. They have also been pushing for withdrawal from the Rome Statute that establishes the ICC.
The first phase of the Kalonzo shuttle covered African Union countries like South Africa, Uganda, Libya and Nigeria, culminating in the AU summit in Ethiopia late January.
After the summit, the African Union wrote to the UN Security Council asking for the trials to be deferred by a year. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the AU letter reached the Secretary-General’s desk in the first week of last month.
The letter was delivered through the AU representative at the UN and Kenyan Ambassador to the United Nations.
The AU backing was a first-round victory, but the Government’s diplomatic skills would be tested in lobbying the five permanent members of the 15-member council, who wield veto power. 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.
institutions
Colombia, Germany, India, Portugal and South Africa are serving as non-permanent members for two-year terms, starting January.
On Thursday, Dr Kosgei — who was speaking at Eldoret ASK Show — supported deferral.
She said Kenyans passed the new Constitution to create institutions that can be used to resolve such disputes like the one being referred to the ICC.
"The Constitution envisages a reformed justice, police and a Supreme Court, all of which are being created to handle cases like the one being referred to the ICC," said Dr Kosgei.
She also asked patriotic leaders to ensure all bad and good things are handled at home.
"We want our people to be tried at home, where victims of post-election violence can see and judge for themselves if they are guilty," she said.
Such a process, she said, would also offer the alleged aggressors a chance of seeing how the law applies, and therefore deterring them from engaging in such atrocities in future.
The Vice-President has also called on those who do not support the lobbying for deferral to give the millions of Kenyans who do a chance.
He spoke as the Government continued collecting signatures from thousands of Kenyans in support of deferral.
Assistant Minister Margaret Kamar said her earlier support for the ICC was because it was thought that it would be inclusive, only to learn that it had targeted people from the North Rift. She was referring to MPs William Ruto (Eldoret North) and Henry Kosgey (Tinderet), and radio presenter Joshua Sang and former Police Commissioner Hussein Ali.