Top Kenyan is ready to surrender at The Hague

A prominent Kenyan personality has written to the International Criminal Court volunteering to surrender to the court if he is cited as a suspect in crimes against humanity during the election violence.

But ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo declined to name the person or indicate whether it was a politician, businessman or security official.

He also could not comment on whether the person was in the original list of suspects compiled by the Waki Commission of Inquiry presented to the ICC by chief mediator Kofi Annan last year.

“The person wrote to us a couple of weeks ago indicating that he was ready to surrender to the court if cited as a suspect,” Mr Moreno-Ocampo told Kenyan editors visiting the court.

The editors are on training in the work of the court at the invitation of ICC Registrar Silvana Arbia.

The ICC prosecutor said all witnesses likely to testify before the ICC were already outside Kenya. Interviews and further investigations were ongoing both inside and outside Kenya, he said, adding, no warrants of arrest will be issued against those who surrender voluntarily.

Under the court’s procedures, such suspects also stand a good chance of being granted bail while their case is being heard.

But those who do not surrender and are arrested after an international arrest warrant is issued are confined at the court’s detention centre within a Dutch prison complex on the outskirts of The Hague.

The Kenyan suspects will face charges of crimes against humanity in connection with the violence of January and February 2008 following the 2007 presidential elections.

In the history of the court, three suspects, all indicted in connection with the violence in Darfur, Sudan, have surrendered to the court.

The pre-trial chamber, where the prosecutor has to file charges and convince the judges that an accused person has a case to answer, freed Bahar Idriss Abu Garda who heads a military unit in Darfur in May last year, but cases against Salleh Mohammed Jerbo and Abdulla Banda are proceeding. Mr Moreno-Ocampo said the letter to the ICC had come after letters were sent to some politicians, security officials and businessmen in Kenya to answer some questions related to the violence.

He insisted that he will file “two cases against two or three individuals” in Kenya before the end of the year.

But it was up to the reformed Judiciary, prosecution and investigation units in Kenya to file cases against most of suspects in the post-election violence, he said.

The prosecutor praised the ongoing reforms and Kenyans’ willingness to correct the ills of the poll outcome and ensuing chaos. There was genuine willingness among the politicians and Kenyans to ensure there was no repeat of the post-election violence, he said.

The Kenyan experience, he said, would provide a good example for other countries facing elections in Africa. He invited those with evidence on the post-election violence to volunteer it to the ICC.

Arrest warrants

The next stage of the Kenya investigation will be presentation of the names of suspects to the pre-trial chamber.

Judges will then issue summons to the suspects to appear. Suspects will have between two and three months to decide whether they want to surrender voluntarily or have international arrest warrants issued against them.