State will avail information on suspects to ICC, AG says

By STANDARD REPORTER

Attorney-General Githu Muigai has said the Government will avail all the information requested by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Prof Githu, however, was non-committal on how long it would take to process some of the information ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda requested.

Previous reports indicated it would take a month to process some of the requests and the earliest time to deliver the same would be in December.

Also to be put into consideration by the Government ministries and departments is whether there are legal impediments or not, which will guide the decision making on the same.

“Availing information is work in progress. It will also depend on what the ICC has requested and how soon the Government ministries and departments can respond to us and after that we can give feedback to the ICC,” said Githu.

“Even this week that the ICC team led by the Prosecutor have been here, we gave out files on cases concluded locally, this is indeed work in progress,” he said.

Tie loose ends

The AG spoke yesterday on the sidelines of the Kenya Medical Women’s Association symposium in Nairobi.

Last week, Bensouda accused the Government of delays in submitting important information that the court requires in the cases against four Kenyans.

The four accused are Deputy Prime Minister William Ruto, Eldoret North MP William Ruto, former Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura and radio journalist Joshua Sang.

Bensouda said they would discuss with the Government cooperation matters including protection of victims and witnesses, which she described as worrying.

And the Judiciary has pledged to cooperate with ICC over the requests made with the Registrar and indicated they were waiting for a detailed brief.

The ICC is said to be seeking information to tie up loose ends in the cases ahead of the trial scheduled to begin in April, next year.