PRIME Minister Raila Odinga’s ODM party yesterday declared its support for a local tribunal to try suspects of the 2007-08 post-election violence but denied it was changing tack.
Raila yesterday chaired a joint meeting of the ODM Parliamentary Group and National Executive Council at Orange House where over 60 MPs deliberated on the ICC summonses for the Ocampo Six.
After the meeting, ODM announced that it was ready to sponsor a bill to set up a local tribunal.“The party is prepared to sponsor a bill to fast-track this process,” ODM parliamentary group secretary Ababu Namwamba said. “ODM reaffirms the party’s often stated position that in the event of a credible local tribunal, the ICC process should be referred," he said.
While the ODM opposed Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka's efforts for the "deferral" of the case for one year, Raila said in February he supported the "referral" of the case to a local tribunal.
In February 2009, President Kibaki and Raila both aggressively campaigned for a local tribunal but failed to convince MPs to support the legislation in Parliament. "However ODM leaders are fully aware that the ICC will only transfer the Ocampo Six cases to Kenya if a local tribunal is considered 'credible' and that it will take a lot to convince the ICC," Ababu said yesterday.
At a rally in Tononoka last month, the PM supported the ICC saying Kenya does not have a credible judicial mechanism. He then repeated his comments in his Northern Kenya rally saying the Ocampo Six could cause more chaos in 2012 if they are not removed.
The ODM secretary general Anyang Nyong'o then wrote to the UN Security Council on March 11 opposing Kenya’s bid for a deferral arguing that the local process will be exposed to political manipulation by leaders pleading the ethnic card.
The ODM has come under heavy criticism, especially in the Rift Valley, from supporters who have accused its leader Raila of being behind the ICC charges.
Yesterday Raila told the MPs that he was being hurt politically although the allegations were false. The PM told the meeting that his detractors wanted to portray him as "untrustworthy" and hurt his 2012 presidential bid. The meeting therefore agreed to embrace efforts to form a "credible" local tribunal to try the six in Kenya.
Anyang Nyong'o insisted, “we are only reiterating what we have been calling for", and said the ODM was still opposed to a deferral.“The President of the Rome Statute State Parties Christian Wenaweser told us to approach the ICC straight. That is exactly what we will try to do and make an application in court to have the matter referred back to Kenya,” he said.“It has been the position of ODM to create a local credible tribunal but MPs frustrated the move,” Ababu said.
He added that those who are now shouting the loudest were the ones who frustrated efforts to have a local tribunal set up in 2009. The Budalangi MP said ODM could provide evidence of who said what in Parliament during the debate on the motion to create a local tribunal.“It is noted that it is ODM which pushed hardest on the floor of the House for the setting up of a local tribunal but the effort was thwarted by MPs who are now engaging in political sideshows to lay the blame on ODM,” he added.
Ababu read an excerpt from the Hansard quoting Acting Government Chief Whip Johnstone Muthama opposing a local tribunal. The ODM chairman Henry Kosgey and deputy party leader William Ruto are among the Ocampo Six along with radio journalist Joshua Sang, Civil Service boss Francis Muthaura, Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta and former Police Commissioner Hussein Ali.
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