Secret list: Now Kibaki and Raila sign pact

President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Wednesday signed the agreement which starts the process of establishing a local tribunal to try post-election violence suspects.

The Cabinet committee chaired by President Kibaki and Mr Odinga will now draft a law to be taken to Parliament to establish the tribunal.

By signing the Bill with just a few hours to the deadline set by the Waki Commission into post-election violence, President Kibaki and Mr Odinga managed to avoid having the suspects in Justice Waki’s secret list tried by the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

They now have 45 days to put in place all laws to set up the tribunal. Thereafter, the Government has a further 30 days to make the tribunal operational.

In the same pact, President Kibaki and Mr Odinga committed themselves to ensuring that all other reform laws as agreed during the mediation process are enacted.

When the tribunal is set up, Cabinet ministers named in Waki’s envelope will be suspended immediately after they are charged.

The President and the PM have committed themselves to setting up a tribunal to prosecute post-election violence suspects, instead of the list going to The Hague; and carry out legislative reforms that will implement what the Kofi Annan team labelled as Agenda Four.

The agreement has the potential of ending the political careers of those who will be convicted as they will be barred from holding public office or contesting any electoral seats.

The move could spell doom for key ministers in ODM and PNU who are in the list, if they are convicted.

Chief mediator
And the Nation learnt that the Government was preparing to send a request to Mr Annan, a former UN secretary general, to hold onto the secret list handed to him by the Waki commission as it laid the ground for a local tribunal to try the suspects.

Sources said the Government had no alternative but to request Mr Annan, who was the chief mediator in talks to end the post-election violence, to hold onto the envelope because Parliament was not in session to pass the necessary laws to create the tribunal.

Mr Odinga signed the agreement on Tuesday while President Kibaki appended his signature on Wednesday morning, hours before the midnight deadline for the names to be handed over to the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

Later, President Kibaki and Mr Odinga left for Maseno University in Nyanza.

A statement released by the Presidential Press Service said the Cabinet Committee on the National Accord would prepare a Bill to be known as “The Statute for the Special Tribunal” for enactment by Parliament.

The Bill will pave the way for the establishment of a special tribunal to try those “bearing the greatest responsibility for crimes against humanity relating to the 2007 General Election.”

The Cabinet Committee, which comprises President Kibaki, Mr Odinga and the eight ministers who represented parties to the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation team, also agreed to ensure that any person holding public office or any public servant charged with a criminal offence related to the 2008 post-election violence shall be suspended from duty until the matter is fully adjudicated upon.

President Kibaki and Mr Odinga also committed themselves to ensuring that any person convicted of a post-election violence offence is barred from holding any public office or contesting any electoral position.

On the legislative agenda, they agreed to mobilise parliamentary support for the enactment of the Freedom of Information Bill 2008 and take necessary administrative measures to fully operationalise the Witness Protection Act 2008 and the International Crime Act 2008.