Ng'wanza Madaso
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- Oct 21, 2008
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Who is in ICC list?
Updated 7 hr(s) 40 min(s) ago
By Standard Team
Stashed away in International Criminal Court's vaults is a file with names of 20 prominent Kenyans Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo wants prosecuted for post-election violence.
No one except The Hague insiders know the contents of the file that could change Kenya's political landscape, and possibly redefine the road to the 2012 General Election.
From Wednesday when Ocampo stood before the three pre-trial judges who asked him to furnish them with names, Kenyans have been trying to decipher Moreno-Ocampo's list.
The big question being asked probably until ICC issues warrants for their arrest, that is if Moreno-Ocampo's prayers would be answered, will remain: "Just whose name is on the list of 20?"
So far, Kenyans have been variously made to believe 12 people, among them, six politicians (two of them deceased) could have been in the envelope presented by Justice Philip Waki to Dr Kofi Annan.
Still, a lot will, however, depend on ICC's subsequent investigations and the extent to which it takes the findings of two key institutions – the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights' report and Waki Commission.
ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told judges at The Hague on Wednesday that key suspects of post-election violence implemented their "policy with involvement of public and private institutions such as MPs, senior State officers, police force and youth and gangs". [PHOTO:file/STANDARD]
Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Agriculture Minister William Ruto stirred interest when they sued KNCHR seeking to expunge their names from a list they presented to ICC. Ruto maintained he is innocent and even claimed The Hague option was better because it would take many years to conclude investigations and commence trials.
He is also associated with the recurrent quote: "Those who caused the chaos are as guilty as those who rigged elections and when time comes all should go."
Ruto also argued those who allegedly rigged elections by paying and using the disbanded Electoral Commission should be the first to be taken to The Hague.
Uhuru, too, claims he is innocent, and his name should not have been in KNCHR's list.
"I hear that I could be on the list but if it is because of my role in a funds-drive to help our people move from affected areas, then it is something that I will do even today because I only helped our people to relocate from troubled areas," said Uhuru.
He claimed the report alleges he organised a pro-Kikuyu fund raising in Central and argued KNCHR made the report without consulting him. He also sued the commission for allegedly linking him to the violence.
The wave of speculation that has gripped Kenya stems from Moreno-Ocampo's revelation this week: "These senior leaders from both PNU and ODM parties were guided by political objectives to retain or gain power."
　
President Kibaki
On this score alone, two names immediately spring to mind: President Kibaki who is claimed to have ‘won' a controversial second term according to the disgraced Electoral Commission, and vowed he would stay on because he was ‘Kenya's duly elected President.
As the dark clouds build up around Kenya, a coterie of political supporters, business, and professional groups as well as a close circuit of peddlers of power and influence ringed him and dared the Orange Democratic Movement to make a move.
It is not clear, perhaps only to ICC, if the President would be held personally responsible for the so-called revenge killings, for example in Naivasha. Justice Phillip Waki and his team claimed the revenge killings were planned at State House.
The other reason Kenyans are keenly watching President Kibaki's State House is because even as the country swayed in post-election violence, security agents killed about 400 youth, with live bullets. This could raise the question who was in command of the security forces and who was giving orders.
If Moreno-Ocampo, again going by his statement on PNU and ODM leadership seeking to retain and get power, decided to scale the levels of responsibility in line with party hierarchy, focus would also shift to Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Raila contested Kibaki's ‘victory', called for mass action, and warned he would stop at nothing to reclaim a stolen victory. But even then the question would remain if, after the signing of the power-sharing deal, ICC would want to upset the Kenyan political applecart, by going for its leadership, and risk renewed political contest. The conflict would predictably bear tribal overtones and excite the same emotions that peppered post-election violence.
Still, if Kibaki and Raila are off the hook, the question remains if they would be willing to co-operate with ICC and hand over the ‘suspects' who may well be known to them, and must have acted in the skewed sense they were serving their interests, and those of their communities and parties.
Attention will also focus on three personalities by virtue of their offices at the time security agencies fought street battles with unarmed youth, 400 of whom Justice Waki's team found out were killed in cold blood.
Questions will be raised on who gave the orders between the Internal Security minister at the time, John Michuki, who is now the Environment minister and then Police Commissioner Hussein Ali. Ali later said he did not regret the police action and would do it again if a chance arose, in defence of national security.
The country's talking point, until the list of 20 is known, would also not spare Administration Police Commandant, Kinuthia Mbugua, whose officers took part in quelling the violence. The force got entangled in extrajudicial killings, which the Waki team decried.
APs, as Waki Commission found out, were also to serve as Party of National Unity election agents. Some of the APs got killed.
Going by the Rome Statute, the executor of superior orders bears responsibility for crimes against humanity, Kenya's attention would remain riveted on Michuki, Ali, and Mbugua, who would most likely take ‘command' responsibility for killings.
Failure to act
The Waki Report charged that police failure to act on intelligence contributed to the violence.
Higher Education Minister Sally Kosgey also threatened to take KNCHR to court, indicating she was aware her name could now be before ICC.
Last year, a tearful Jayne Kihara, former Naivasha MP, told the media her name was at The Hague, and she did not have money to fight the case. Kihara said she was being used as '‘a sacrificial lamb'' and alluded to senior people in Government.
Last week, former Uasin Gishu Kanu chairman Jackson Kibor said on national television he was among those listed. "It is better to appear before the ICC and be proven innocent than be dragged through the local tribunal where you would not get justice," said Kibor.
But one paragraph in Moreno-Ocampo's statement will intrigue Kenyans until the list of 20 is made public: "They used their personal, Government, business and tribal networks to commit the crimes. They implemented their policy with the involvement of a number of State officers and public and private institutions, such as Members of the Parliament, senior Government officials, the police force, and youth gangs".
Just who are ‘they'?
Source:Standard online
Updated 7 hr(s) 40 min(s) ago
By Standard Team
Stashed away in International Criminal Court's vaults is a file with names of 20 prominent Kenyans Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo wants prosecuted for post-election violence.
No one except The Hague insiders know the contents of the file that could change Kenya's political landscape, and possibly redefine the road to the 2012 General Election.
From Wednesday when Ocampo stood before the three pre-trial judges who asked him to furnish them with names, Kenyans have been trying to decipher Moreno-Ocampo's list.
The big question being asked probably until ICC issues warrants for their arrest, that is if Moreno-Ocampo's prayers would be answered, will remain: "Just whose name is on the list of 20?"
So far, Kenyans have been variously made to believe 12 people, among them, six politicians (two of them deceased) could have been in the envelope presented by Justice Philip Waki to Dr Kofi Annan.
Still, a lot will, however, depend on ICC's subsequent investigations and the extent to which it takes the findings of two key institutions – the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights' report and Waki Commission.
Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Agriculture Minister William Ruto stirred interest when they sued KNCHR seeking to expunge their names from a list they presented to ICC. Ruto maintained he is innocent and even claimed The Hague option was better because it would take many years to conclude investigations and commence trials.
He is also associated with the recurrent quote: "Those who caused the chaos are as guilty as those who rigged elections and when time comes all should go."
Ruto also argued those who allegedly rigged elections by paying and using the disbanded Electoral Commission should be the first to be taken to The Hague.
Uhuru, too, claims he is innocent, and his name should not have been in KNCHR's list.
"I hear that I could be on the list but if it is because of my role in a funds-drive to help our people move from affected areas, then it is something that I will do even today because I only helped our people to relocate from troubled areas," said Uhuru.
He claimed the report alleges he organised a pro-Kikuyu fund raising in Central and argued KNCHR made the report without consulting him. He also sued the commission for allegedly linking him to the violence.
The wave of speculation that has gripped Kenya stems from Moreno-Ocampo's revelation this week: "These senior leaders from both PNU and ODM parties were guided by political objectives to retain or gain power."
　
President Kibaki
On this score alone, two names immediately spring to mind: President Kibaki who is claimed to have ‘won' a controversial second term according to the disgraced Electoral Commission, and vowed he would stay on because he was ‘Kenya's duly elected President.
As the dark clouds build up around Kenya, a coterie of political supporters, business, and professional groups as well as a close circuit of peddlers of power and influence ringed him and dared the Orange Democratic Movement to make a move.
It is not clear, perhaps only to ICC, if the President would be held personally responsible for the so-called revenge killings, for example in Naivasha. Justice Phillip Waki and his team claimed the revenge killings were planned at State House.
The other reason Kenyans are keenly watching President Kibaki's State House is because even as the country swayed in post-election violence, security agents killed about 400 youth, with live bullets. This could raise the question who was in command of the security forces and who was giving orders.
If Moreno-Ocampo, again going by his statement on PNU and ODM leadership seeking to retain and get power, decided to scale the levels of responsibility in line with party hierarchy, focus would also shift to Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Raila contested Kibaki's ‘victory', called for mass action, and warned he would stop at nothing to reclaim a stolen victory. But even then the question would remain if, after the signing of the power-sharing deal, ICC would want to upset the Kenyan political applecart, by going for its leadership, and risk renewed political contest. The conflict would predictably bear tribal overtones and excite the same emotions that peppered post-election violence.
Still, if Kibaki and Raila are off the hook, the question remains if they would be willing to co-operate with ICC and hand over the ‘suspects' who may well be known to them, and must have acted in the skewed sense they were serving their interests, and those of their communities and parties.
Attention will also focus on three personalities by virtue of their offices at the time security agencies fought street battles with unarmed youth, 400 of whom Justice Waki's team found out were killed in cold blood.
Questions will be raised on who gave the orders between the Internal Security minister at the time, John Michuki, who is now the Environment minister and then Police Commissioner Hussein Ali. Ali later said he did not regret the police action and would do it again if a chance arose, in defence of national security.
The country's talking point, until the list of 20 is known, would also not spare Administration Police Commandant, Kinuthia Mbugua, whose officers took part in quelling the violence. The force got entangled in extrajudicial killings, which the Waki team decried.
APs, as Waki Commission found out, were also to serve as Party of National Unity election agents. Some of the APs got killed.
Going by the Rome Statute, the executor of superior orders bears responsibility for crimes against humanity, Kenya's attention would remain riveted on Michuki, Ali, and Mbugua, who would most likely take ‘command' responsibility for killings.
Failure to act
The Waki Report charged that police failure to act on intelligence contributed to the violence.
Higher Education Minister Sally Kosgey also threatened to take KNCHR to court, indicating she was aware her name could now be before ICC.
Last year, a tearful Jayne Kihara, former Naivasha MP, told the media her name was at The Hague, and she did not have money to fight the case. Kihara said she was being used as '‘a sacrificial lamb'' and alluded to senior people in Government.
Last week, former Uasin Gishu Kanu chairman Jackson Kibor said on national television he was among those listed. "It is better to appear before the ICC and be proven innocent than be dragged through the local tribunal where you would not get justice," said Kibor.
But one paragraph in Moreno-Ocampo's statement will intrigue Kenyans until the list of 20 is made public: "They used their personal, Government, business and tribal networks to commit the crimes. They implemented their policy with the involvement of a number of State officers and public and private institutions, such as Members of the Parliament, senior Government officials, the police force, and youth gangs".
Just who are ‘they'?
Source:Standard online
