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Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Raila gives hope to Hague suspects

Written By:Lilian Mwendo,    Posted: Wed, Dec 29, 2010


Prime Minister Raila Odinga says there is still a possibility of withdrawing the trial of the six post election violence suspects from the International Criminal Court.
Raila assured a delegation of at least 1000 leaders from Rift Valley province who visited his Bondo home that the country could still convince ICC to hand over the cases to local courts if a local tribunal is set up.
He expressed fears that an intended move to withdraw the country from being a signatory of the Rome statute was futile since the international court would still pursue pending cases irrespective of the membership status of a country.
"Article 19 of the Rome Statute enables a country to take over cases from The Hague as long as they establish a local tribunal to undertake the trials" he said.
Odinga however faulted a section of leaders now crying foul over The Hague process for rejecting a bill meant to establish a local tribunal and now shifting blame to wrong quarters on sensing their mistake.
" We tried to push for a local tribunal for the trials in vain even after the ODM parliamentary group and the executive committee endorsed the proposal but some of our party membes turned their back on us when we reached the floor of the house" he added
His sentiments were echoed by Wildlife minister Dr. Noah Wekesa who spoke in Kitale during a funeral of his elder brother.
The Premier at the same time censored a section of leaders from Rift Valley for propagating falsehood to gain cheap political mileage and cautioned residents to be wary of such oves as the country approached the 2012 general election.
The visit at the Premier's Opoda farm saw elders from the Kalenjin and the Luo communities resolve to work closely for the mutual benefit of the two communities.
At least 12 members of parliament including three cabinet ministers graced the occasion.

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