The Hague vows to act swiftly
Ms Du Hellen at the Geneva talks. She said the International Criminal Court will act swiftly if Kenya fails to set up a local tribunal to try post-election violence suspects. Photo/BEN WILLIAMS
The International Criminal Court has warned it will act swiftly on the Kenyan case if Parliament fails to establish a local tribunal to try suspects of the poll chaos.
ICC’s intervention, warned a special advisor to chief prosecutor Louis Moreno-Ocampo, will be relentless, firm and unstoppable.
Ms Beatrice le Fraper Du Hellen said The Hague started collecting information on the crimes against humanity after the 2007 elections in December and will not take long to issue warrants of arrest to suspected architects of the violence once it takes up the case.
“Once the International Criminal Court announces it has stepped in, there is no going back. We will act relentlessly and immediately,” she said on the sidelines of the Kenya National Dialogue meeting in Geneva.
Ms Hellen fell short of saying that The Hague already has the names of politicians and business people it suspects to be key planners of the chaos in which more than 1,333 people were killed and another 600,000 displaced.
“We have a lot of information on Kenya. I don’t want to drop names we have gathered from the evidence,” she said.
Giving a clue on the time it would take, she cited the Democratic Republic of Congo case where warrants of arrest were issued against Mr Jean Pierre Bemba in 12 months after the authorities stated they were not ready to handle the case.
“Those who think that we will take 20 years should know that we act very fast,” she said.
Ms Hellen’s warning will surely send a chilling message to key politicians who were behind the failure by Parliament to pass Bills that were meant to anchor the Special Tribunal for Kenya in the Constitution and the other that was to put in place a statute for the tribunal.
The Waki Commission, which investigated the chaos that erupted after the December 2007 elections recommended that key architects of the killings either be tried before a special tribunal or be handed over to The Hague.
Chaos that erupted
Mr Justice Philip Waki’s team gave names of personalities it suspects to have played a key role in the chaos to chief mediator Kofi Annan.
Deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta and Agriculture minister William Ruto have publicly supported The Hague option saying that the local tribunal could be used to end political careers of some leaders.
Mr Annan, who condemned the rejection of the Bills, gave the Government two months from February to push through the laws. The tribunal was supposed to have started operating from 1 March.
On Tuesday, arguments emerged showing that a group of key politicians are determined to block any efforts of trying the suspects identified by the Waki commission from facing the law on Kenyan soil.
Addressing journalists outside the forum, deputy PM Musalia Mudavadi spoke of the strong political forces opposed to the local tribunal. “Delay is the name of the game. Given the uncertainty to ICC, we face a real danger of some suspects being emboldened enough to scuttle the creation of the local tribunal,” he said.
Ms Hellen said she had spoken to Cabinet ministers Martha Karua, Moses Wetang’ula and Attorney General Amos Wako over the issue. “I have communicated to them what we can be able to do once we are convinced that the authorities are not acting. We respect authorities but when nothing is done, we act,” she said.
