Wako playing politics with ICC: minister

Photo/FILE Lands minister James Orengo during a past interview at his office.

By NATION REPORTER
Posted  Wednesday, June 1 2011 at 22:00

The Attorney General is playing politics with the ICC case, a Cabinet minister said on Wednesday.

According to Lands minister James Orengo, Kenya lacks grounds to challenge the admissibility of two cases facing the Ocampo Six at The Hague.

Mr Orengo, a member of the ODM party which supports the trials at the International Criminal Court (ICC), accused Attorney-General Amos Wako of not telling the government the truth.

“The AG knows that the grounds to challenge the admissibility of the cases are non-existent,” he said.

The minister was speaking a day after Mr Wako vowed to appeal against a ruling by the ICC’s pre-trial judges. (READ: Kenya to appeal ICC admissibility ruling)

The judges rejected Kenya’s application to challenge the admissibility of the cases and the jurisdiction of the ICC over crimes allegedly committed during the 2007 post-election violence.

On Monday, judges Ekaterina Trendafilova, Hans-Peter Kaul and Cuno Tarfusser dismissed Kenya’s application on grounds that there was no “factual information” that the Ocampo Six were being investigated with a view to prosecuting them.

“In the absence of information which substantiates the Government of Kenya’s challenge... the Chamber considers that there remains a situation of inactivity,” they ruled.

On Friday, Mr Wako will meet the government’s British lawyers in London to discuss the appeal.

Ironically, the AG said the slow pace of judicial reforms would make it difficult for the appeal to succeed.

The Ocampo Six are Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Eldoret North MP William Ruto, Tinderet MP Henry Kosgey, public service boss Francis Mureithi, Postmaster General Hussein Ali and Kass FM presenter Joshua Sang.