Raila backs Annan on Hague deadline
Prime Minister Raila Odinga addresses wananchi at Gatuya Trading Centre in Murang’a East District after attending a funds drive in aid of the Anglican Church of Kenya, Kiboi Parish on Sunday. He said Parliament will have one last chance to establish a tribunal to try suspects of last year’s post-election violence before Kofi Annan steps in. Photo/JOSEPH KANYI
What you need to know:
- PM warns MPs they have only one more chance to pass laws to set up local tribunal
Parliament will have one last chance to pass a law establishing a local tribunal to try election violence suspects, Prime Minister Raila Odinga warned on Sunday.
If Parliament rejects the law a second time, then Kofi Annan, the mediator who brokered a deal after the chaotic 2007 election, will be requested to pass on the names of the suspects to the International Criminal Court.
Mr Annan has said Kenya has until August to pass the law. If the deadline passes, he will hand over the envelope containing the list of suspects to the ICC.
MPs were on Sunday sharply divided over the next course of action regarding the masterminds of the violence in which 1,133 people were killed.
Mr Odinga said the government was committed to a local tribunal and that the necessary Bill will be taken to Parliament for debate and enactment by MPs.
“If Parliament passes the Statute, then it is fine. If it doesn’t, we will tell (chief mediator Kofi) Annan to hand over the envelope to the ICC,” he said.
Speaking at a fund-raiser in Murang’a, the Prime Minister hinted that if MPs rejected the Special Tribunal for Kenya Bill and Constitution of Kenya Amendment Bill before the deadline, the Government will not wait until August to give Mr Annan the go-ahead to take the Kenyan case to The Hague.
“We may not wait until August. If Parliament does not pass the Bill for the formation of a local tribunal, then The Hague will be the option,” he said.
MPs threw out the first attempt by Government to push through the Bills on the tribunal, forcing President Kibaki and Mr Odinga to ask the former UN secretary-general for more time.
“We asked for more time after the Statute was thrown out the first time. If we had not, Annan would have handed in the envelope in March,” he said.
Mr Odinga said he had a long meeting with Mr Annan in South Africa before the mediator granted the BBC an interview during which he issued the August ultimatum.
“We had a long discussion with him and agreed on what he told the BBC. We agreed with him that we go back to Parliament and develop enough numbers to pass the Bill,” he said.
On Sunday, MPs Martha Karua, Gitobu Imanyara and Musa Sirma had different views on the tribunal.
Ms Karua, a former Justice minister in whose watch MPs rejected the tribunal laws, accused President Kibaki and Mr Odinga of failure to act decisively to form the tribunal.
“The two principal have failed to rein in MPs from their respective parties to back the creation of a local tribunal and they are squarely to blame for the impasse,” she said.
Ms Karua said bad politics was to blame for the refusal by Parliament to pass the tribunal laws.
She said there was no need to take the suspects to The Hague because only a local tribunal could deal effectively with the killers and the masterminds.
“The tribunal, if established, will ensure that everyone who took part in the violence is punished according to the law,” she said.
She asked Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo to convince MPs of the need to have the tribunal set up so that they could debate the Bill afresh and pass it.
“The minister should lobby for the establishment of the tribunal. He is better placed,” she said.
However, Gitobu Imanyara and Musa Sirma dared Mr Annan to hand over the envelope to the ICC.
They said Kenya had its own solutions to the election violence and that ultimatums were not necessary.
“Kenyans have already forgiven each other. What is the ICC going to do with thousands of Kenyans in The Hague if it has failed to take action against a president it recently indicted?” Mr Sirma said.
He was referring to an indictment and warrant of arrest against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for crimes against humanity. He is still at large.
Mr Imanyara said taking of the envelope to the ICC would open old wounds and reverse the healing process in the country.
“Mr Annan did a good job for us but we want him to know that as Kenyans, we know how to live in harmony now and he should stop giving us ultimatums,” Mr Imanyara said
US President Barack Obama’s has also supported the prosecution of perpetrators of Kenya’s post-election violence.
In Mombasa, former assistant minister Kalembe Ndile urged Mr Annan to swiftly hand over the names to the ICC.
“Annan should not keep on threatening that he will forward the list suspects,” said Mr Ndile.
Reports by Bernard Namunane, John Njagi, Daniel Otieno, Philip Muyanga, George Munene
