Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Police: UK 'dossier' probe has stalled


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CID director Muhoro Ndegwa (left) and Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere (right) before the Defence and Foreign Relations Committee April 10, 2012. They said the probe into a UK 'dossier' alleging a plot to indict President Kibaki at the International Criminal Court over post election violence had stalled. PHOEBE OKALL
CID director Muhoro Ndegwa (left) and Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere (right) before the Defence and Foreign Relations Committee April 10, 2012. They said the probe into a UK 'dossier' alleging a plot to indict President Kibaki at the International Criminal Court over post election violence had stalled. PHOEBE OKALL 
By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU ashiundu@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Tuesday, April 10  2012 at  12:41
Police are unable to establish the authenticity of a controversial document attributed to the British Government, which alleges a plot to indict President Kibaki's over his role in the post-election violence, a parliamentary inquiry has heard.
Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere and the Director of the Criminal Investigation Department Ndegwa Muhoro, told MPs that they were in a fix regarding how to proceed with the investigations following several "bottlenecks".
Speaking at a meeting with the Defence and Foreign Relations Committee, the two said they had failed to interview the alleged authors of the document – Chloe Hamborg and Edward Inglett—because they are protected under diplomatic immunity.
The police boss said their attempt to reach the British High Commission to get permission to interview the two officials flopped.
In its response sent to Mr Iteere last week, the High Commission told the Kenyan police that it had no “further comment” on the document, which it had already dismissed as “not genuine” on March 9, a day after it was tabled in Parliament, the police bosses told MPs.
The Police Commissioner said he had also contacted the Speaker of the National Assembly Kenneth Marende, seeking to interview the two MPs who tabled the set of documents –Charles Kilonzo (Yatta) and Aden Duale (Dujis)—but they are also protected under the law.
The Powers and Privileges Act gives MPs immunity from prosecution on any documents tabled or utterances made on the floor of the House.
“The two MPs knew very well what they were doing. We cannot force them to record statements until you change your rules. You cannot ask the police to play angel,” Mr Iteere told MPs at Nairobi’s Continental House.
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The chairman of the committee Adan Keynan, issued veiled threats to the two saying that the failure to come up with a conclusive answer was an indictment on their competence.
But the police said the “bottleneck” had held the investigation hostage and as a result “it cannot go far”.
“We have a foreign government on one hand whose officers are protected under diplomatic immunity; on the other hand, we have MPs who are protected under the law. We’re in a very unfamiliar territory,” said Mr Muhoro.
He revealed that because there was no access to any document or even the computer that could have generated the document from the British High Commission, then the police were handicapped.
“It leaves us in a position where we cannot take any step. We’re between a hard rock and a very very hard surface,” said Muhoro.
However, the police did note that the telephone number on the document's letter head were not registered by the Communication Commission of Kenya.
Noting the difficulty, George Nyamweya (nominated)  and Wilson Litole (Sigor) took the view that the committee’s job was futile, now that those with the tools and knowhow to investigate had returned empty-handed.
But the chairman insisted that there were other diplomatic channels that the police had to explore to get information from Britain because “it is a friendly country”.
Martin Ogindo (Rangwe) questioned why the police had not taken the verdict from the British Government that the “document was not genuine” to make a conclusion, but Mr Iteere said Mr Ogindo was reading the document “selectively”.
“For me to come to that conclusion, the investigation has to show me. Up to now, there’s nothing to show that the documents are either fake or genuine,” said Mr Iteere.
It also emerged that Mr Inglett, one of those alleged to have authored the document, was transferred to Afghanistan eight months ago.
But Mr Iteere said that though he’d gotten the information “through other channels”, he couldn’t be sure that the Inglett in Afghanistan is the same Inglett said to have written the dossier tabled in the House dated February 12, 2012.
“There’s no way I can be sure it is the same person until I interview him,” said Mr Iteere.
The police said the investigation was still open, with the hope that the two MPs will volunteer information about the document that alleges that Britain is pushing for President Kibaki to be investigated and taken to the International Criminal Court over the 2008 post-poll chaos.

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