It’s time of reckoning for the Ocampo Six

Tuesday, 05 April 2011 00:10 BY KIBIWOTT KOROSS

Early last month, Six Kenyans named by ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo were issued with summons to appear at The Hague on April 7 following a ruling by the Pre-Trial Chamber judges.
Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Head of the Civil Service Ambassador Francis Muthaura, suspended Higher Education minister William Ruto and Tinderet MP Henry Kosgey who stepped aside from his Cabinet position to face charges of abuse of office together with former Police Commissioner Mohammed Hussein Ali and radio presenter Joshua arap Sang of Kass FM were summoned to appear at The Hague court. The six will show cause why they should not stand trial for their alleged roles in planning the 2008 post-election violence which claimed the lives of more than 1,500 people. However, the court postponed the appearance of Muthaura, Kenyatta and Ali by a day. They will now appear on April 8.
According to the ICC website, the Chamber indicated that this change of date is due to the fact that, during the afternoon of April 7, the Court’s rooms will be occupied with the ongoing hearings related to the Trial Chambers.
The six suspects are accused of having planned or financed the post-election violence that broke out in the country soon after the disputed presidential elections held in December 2007.
Ambassador Muthaura and former Police Commissioner Major General (Rtd) Hussein Ali are accused of authorising police to use excessive force in Kisumu and Kibera.
Sang is accused of inciting people to violence mainly in the Rift Valley while Ruto and Kosgey are accused of planning violence in Eldoret where thousands of people were evicted from their homes.
Finance Minister Kenyatta is accused of sponsoring Mungiki adherents to launch retaliatory attacks in the Rift Valley which Ocampo said was the focal point of the violence.
They have all denied the allegations with Ruto and Uhuru alleging that the charges are politically motivated and meant to ruin their 2012 presidential bids.
All the six suspects facing cases before the International Criminal Court have formally received summonses ordering them to appear at The Hague court.
The summons came as a high-powered delegation led by Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka was in a second round of lobbying for the deferral of the Kenyan case through the United Nations Security Council.
This has also reignited political tension in the country between the coalition parties PNU led by President Mwai Kibaki and ODM under the leadership of Raila Odinga.
Kibaki’s wing of the coalition government wants the cases to be deferred. In a letter to the UN Security Coucil, Kibaki called for the deferral of the case while Raila’s wing together with civil societies are calling for the cases to proceed at The Hague. ODM says they can only support a referral bid.
Two weeks ago, Raila told Parliament that his party (ODM) would only support the case being handled in Kenya if a credible inquiry led by foreign investigators is established.
In his weekly address to Parliament, Odinga said ODM would support a referral of the Kenya case at the International Criminal Court if investigations are conducted by investigators from the United Kingdom or the United States and not Kenyan police, which has not been received well by politicians who are allied to the six. Some MPs argued that Kenya was mature enough to handle the case."We'd rather go for Scotland Yard or the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to come and carry out these investigations, then we recruit the prosecutor transparently and then we have a competent Judiciary that has been vetted or an independent tribunal that will try these suspects," Raila said.