The Hague moving in for Kenya trials

• International court starts hiring staff for trials of election violence suspects

On Thursday, Mr Kilonzo said the efforts by Imenti Central MP Imanyara to establish the local tribunal may not meet the deadline that the government delegation agreed with Mr Moreno-Ocampo in early July to stave off the Hague option.

The delegation, which was composed of Ministers Kilonzo, James Orengo and Attorney General Amos Wako agreed that should the government fail to pass laws establishing the local tribunal by end of September, it would hand over the case to The Hague.

The efforts were defeated on July 20 when the cabinet rejected the draft Bills by Mr Kilonzo and instead chose the High Court and the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission to try the suspects.

However, the Justice minister stated categorically that the mandate of the TJRC cannot be expanded to handle post-election violence.

“I hope the Imanyara bill has addressed the issue and that Parliament will pass it. If the Bill fails it will mean neither Parliament, nor executive nor the judiciary will be available for purposes of trying international crime committed during the violence,” he said.

Mr Kilonzo said the ICC only had 18 prosecutors and that it could only handle a few suspects from Kenya.

“That is the reason why some Kenyans think the Hague is the best. The ICC can even take 30 years down the line,” said.

He warned that failure to establish a local tribunal sends the message that “you can kill but nothing will happen to you.” He gave an example of the assassinations of Dr Robert Ouko and Mr J.M Kariuki, as killings that “can just occur, the media let to report for two weeks then we wait for the anniversary.”

He also said the ICC option will be an indictment of Parliament and the Judiciary.

A group in the government feared they could be on the Waki list and did not want local trials which are faster and can attract many witnesses.