The Hague moving in for Kenya trials

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

The International Criminal Court has begun preparations for trials on Kenya’s post election violence as efforts towards a local tribunal are frustrated by political wrangles.

The ICC has engaged as consultants two foreign members of the Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election violence chaired by Justice Philip Waki; and also hired from Kenya a dozen Kiswahili translators to help potential witnesses.

Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Mutula Kilonzo also revealed on Thursday that The Hague had recruited a number of the investigators who worked with the Waki Commission.

Secret list

It was the Waki Commission that recommended the ICC step in if Kenya was unable to establish a credible special tribunal to try ringleaders of the violence.

The commission also gave former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, chief mediator in the Kenya conflict, a sealed envelope containing names of key suspects recommended for further investigation and possible trial.

The secret list was to be handed over to the ICC if the Kenya government proved unable or unwilling to set up a local special Tribunal that met international standards for the investigation of serious crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity, mass murder.

Mr Annan eventually handed over the sealed envelope to ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo after a government delegation to Geneva and The Hague failed to make a case for more time.

“ICC has hired investigators used by Waki and Swahili translators in preparation for the prosecutions in Kenya,” Mr Kilonzo said during a media workshop on the international crimes in Nairobi on Thursday.

“As far as I am concerned the Cabinet’s decision precipitated” the move by Mr Ocampo, he told the workshop organised by the Kenyan chapter of the International Commission of Jurists, the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and Peace Pen Communications.

Mr Kilonzo linked the move by Mr Ocampo on failure by the Cabinet last month to endorse two Bills that were meant to establish the special tribunal.

In March, Parliament rejected similar Bills that were tabled by then Justice minister Martha Karua.

Just this week, a similar Bill sponsored by MP Gitobu Imanyara was published. It has won support from some key ministers, including Mr Kilonzo and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, but has not secured official endorsement of the government.

Leaders

The ICC has closely following events in Kenya since the disputed 2007 elections that led to more than 1,300 killed, and 600,000 forced out of their homes.