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Saturday, September 24, 2011

Ocampo relies on spy agency to push case

FILE  |   NATION NSIS director general Michael Gichangi takes the oath to testify before the Waki Commission at KICC in 2008
FILE | NATION NSIS director general Michael Gichangi takes the oath to testify before the Waki Commission at KICC in 2008 
By Emeka-mayaka Gekara gmayaka@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Saturday, September 24  2011 at  22:00
In Summary
  • Evidence by the intelligence would be valuable --Muite

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Evidence gathered by the national intelligence agency is turning out to be a strong element in Luis Moreno-Ocampo’s effort to push the Kenyan case to trial.
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So far, the prosecutor has relied heavily on information gathered by the National Security Intelligence Agency (NSIS) to corroborate testimonies by his witnesses.
He has also significantly benefited  from the work of the Waki Commission, Human Rights Watch and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights.
In its two-day submission, the prosecution relied on NSIS situation reports to strengthen arguments that Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura held meetings and deployed the outlawed Mungiki gangs for retaliatory attacks in Naivasha and Nakuru after the 2007 General Election with the aim of protecting the Kibaki presidency. 
The two allegedly executed the plan with the support of then police commissioner Hussein Ali.
But on Saturday, Mr Muthaura’s lawyers led by Mr Karim Khan and Gambian Mr Essa Faal accused the prosecution of ignoring evidence by NSIS director-general Michael Gichangi that reports of the alleged planning meetings were “rumours”. 
“The NSIS is a critical institution, but the prosecutor turned away from the truth when it was convenient,” said Mr Faal.
Quoting several witnesses and reports, including those of the NSIS, the prosecution has claimed before the Pre-Trial Chamber that millions of shillings were raised by Mr Kenyatta and other PNU MPs to finance the killer mission that was jointly executed by Mungiki militia and pro-PNU youth.
Prosecutors have argued that NSIS reports show that as of January 3, 2008, the former MPs were mobilising the Mungiki to retaliate.
Much of the evidence by the NSIS at the prosecutor’s disposal was relayed to him by the Waki Commission which interviewed top intelligence officials, including Mr Gichangi.
Senior Counsel Paul Muite says evidence by the intelligence agency would be valuable in corroborating witness statements.
“The NSIS statements would be seen as impartial because the agency didn’t know that the evidence would be relayed to the International Criminal Court,” he told the Sunday Nation.
Intelligence reports, some of which were made available to the Waki Commission and apparently transmitted to the ICC, named possible suspects for the violence in Nakuru, Naivasha and Nairobi.
In his testimony — part of which was given in camera — Mr Gichangi was keen to demonstrate that the agency did its work and pointed fingers at the police for failing to take appropriate action.
The Waki Commission said the NSIS collected information on the planning of violence in Naivasha by Mungiki members and politicians at local and national levels.
“All NSIS evidence discussed here was produced as Exhibits 19 and 19A. Testimony produced in camera,” say footnotes in the Waki report.
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The agency demonstrated that as early as January 3, 2008, it had information that Mungiki members were meeting “in an undisclosed location in Nairobi with a view to carrying out revenge attacks on Luos and Kalenjins travelling on the Nairobi-Naivasha highway on an undisclosed date.”
The agency produced reports and security briefs at provincial and district levels leading up to the elections.

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