Truth commission 'unlikely to try suspects'

• Mudavadi said that the TJRC was set up with an alternative mandate and it was up to parliament to make any changes.
• Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo says to forward to ICC a report of Cabinet rejection of the two draft Bills on tribunal.
• Move by the minister may prompt action from The Hague which has indicated it readiness to take up the Kenyan situation.

Deputy Prime Minister Musalia Mudavadi has cast doubt on whether the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission will be used to try post-election violence suspects.

Speaking in his office on Monday, Mr Mudavadi said that the TJRC was set up with an alternative mandate and it was up to parliament to make any changes.

“The debate will linger because when parliament approved the TJRC it gave it a different mandate and that is why there is a proposal that may be it will have to be taken back to parliament if they want to broaden its mandate,” said Mr Mudavadi.

He added; “It is not an easy thing at all because the TJRC was never supposed to be a solely investigative agency.”

The Local Government minister gave the example of the police who were identified as some of the perpetrators and posed the question whether they would investigate themselves or effectively work with the TJRC.
The Local Government minister spoke after meeting British High Commissioner Robert Macaire who warned that the international community would not accept the TJRC to be used as a substitute for a judicial system to try the suspects.

The British envoy said that the EU was studying the Cabinet’s decision to give up on the use of a special tribunal and was already considering withdrawing financial support for the TJRC.

“As we stated in our statement on Friday as the EU, we are keen to see that a proper judicial process is put in place to try the post-election violence suspects,” Mr Macaire said.

The two made the statements as Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister Mutula Kilonzo revealed that he was in the coming days going to forwarded to International Criminal Court a report of the cabinet rejection of the two draft Bills on the tribunal.

“I will write to ICC prosecutor Louis Moreno-Ocampo, forwarding the two draft Bills and a report of the cabinet decision. This matter is now closed as far as cabinet is concerned,” Mr Kilonzo told the Nation.

The move by the minister may prompt action from The Hague which has indicated it readiness to take up the Kenyan situation.

Part of the Cabinet statement made by President Kibaki on July 30 said that the government would hand over to the ICC any Kenyan indicted for the chaos.

Last week, Mr Moreno-Ocampo told the Nation that he was closely monitoring how the Kenya deals acts adding that the government had committed itself to give an update report on the matter at the end of September.

“I will be closely monitoring the judicial mechanisms that will be utilized to conduct national investigations and prosecutions of those most responsible for the post-election violence,” Mr Moreno-Ocampo said.

On Monday, Mr Mudavadi also termed the move by Central Imenti MP Gitobu Imanyara to table a private members motion on the special tribunal as an “interesting development”. He noted that the same backbenchers who are now supporting the move were initially opposed to it.

Pressure also continued to mount on the government with the EU telling Prime Minister Raila Odinga over the weekend that it expects the government to put in place a local tribunal and was will to support it financially.

The TJRC in the way it has been established and its composition can not deal with legal matters in relation to the post-election violence, the EU is said to have told Mr Odinga in the meeting.

The calls for the formation of a local tribunal were also made by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when he met government leaders and members of parliament. Mrs Clinton is said to have told President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga that the international community was keen to see the perpetrators of the violence punished.

“If the people of Kenya and the Government cannot come up with a fair, acceptable approach to hold people accountable, then I believe you will see the referral to the ICC,” she said.

However, Tourism Minister Najib Balala also defended the government noting that it was on course in putting in place the needed reforms in the country. The minister said that the Cabinet on July 30 had committed itself to fastracking reforms in the country to ensure that “impunity is stopped at all cost”.

“We are not going to do it just because we have been told by America to punish people. Some of us are bitter because we want reforms like yesterday. We are making reforms from within,” Mr Balala told the Nation.