Wako team humbled at Hague proceedings

Saturday, 09 April 2011 00:03 BY NZAU MUSAU

ON Thursday morning, Kenya’s Attorney General Amos Wako took his position at the public gallery of an international court, 4,153 miles away from home.
Seated before three foreign judges adorned in matching robes were three Kenyan suspects; two suspended senior Cabinet ministers William Ruto and Henry Kosgey, and a radio journalist Joshua arap Sang.
Alongside him was Director of Public Prosecution Keriako Tobiko and Solicitor General Wanjuki Muchemi. Both had carried with them brown briefcases possibly stashed with State papers.
Ideally, these three should be the ones charging suspects at home. Wako authorises investigations, police investigate and Tobiko prosecutes suspects. “It’s a shame that we have had to come this far for all this,” one MP whispered to another as they descended the corridors from the public gallery after the historic appearance.
Wako, Tobiko and Muchemi trooped down from the galleries alongside the rest of the Kenyans. And rather than join the MPs at the front of the court to welcome the suspects, the three waited at the courtroom’s entrance for their official limousines.
To join the MPs protesting outside the court and hailing the suspects would have been the hallmark of their failure to do what they should have done at home, and they clearly knew this.“He should resign. No wonder Prof Philip Alston described him as the embodiment of impunity. It’s a sad day for the country,” the Prime Minister’s Special Adviser on Coalition Affairs Miguna Miguna later told the Star. Miguna had hoped that Wako and his fellow state officers would not show up at the court to save face. Clearly he was disappointed.