Kibaki and Raila meet to set date for Ocampo’s arrival

President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga met on Monday to decide when International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo would come to Kenya.

The two leaders met at State House after receiving Mr Moreno-Ocampo’s request to visit Kenya. The prosecutor’s letter was delivered to the two by Justice, Constitutional Affairs and National Cohesion minister Mutula Kilonzo.

There was confusion on Monday morning at Harambee House when journalists who expected Mr Kilonzo to deliver the letter camped outside the building only to be sent away by security officers.

The President and PM later launched the Vision 2030 Delivery Board. President Kibaki also received several new envoys before leaving for State House in the afternoon.

Mr Kilonzo, who had requested for the meeting with the two leaders, was slotted to meet them at 5pm.

Sources close to State House on Monday said the date of Mr Moreno-Ocampo’s arrival would be announced soon and that the ICC prosecutor had stated in his letter that he was ready to visit Kenya as soon as possible to spell out his plan of handling the key suspects behind the post-election violence in which 1,133 people were killed and over 650,000 displaced from their homes.

The violence was sparked by a dispute over the December 2007 presidential election results.

Those who have seen Mr Moreno-Ocampo’s letter revealed that the prosecutor had proposed to deal with at least four key suspects who may include ministers and key government officials while the rest, who number in hundreds, should be tried by a local tribunal.

He is said to have made it clear the two approaches had to be used to deliver justice to the victims of the election killings.

The Hague has made it clear that suspects must be punished to avoid a recurrence of violence which had been entrenching itself since the 1990s. He also wants to use “Kenya as an example to the rest of the world.”

Mr Kilonzo received Mr Moreno-Ocampo’s letter on Friday and said he would act on it yesterday, meaning, handing it over to the President and the PM.

The principals have pledged to respect Kenya’s responsibility to the International Criminal Court.

Signals that The Hague would soon come knocking became clear two Sundays ago when chief mediator Kofi Annan visited for three days to get the government’s commitment to punish the main suspects who were identified by the Waki Commission into the post-election violence.

The President and the PM declined Mr Annan’s request to directly write to the ICC chief inviting him to Kenya, but asked him to ask Mr Moreno-Ocampo to write to them requesting talks with the two.

Arrest suspects

The meeting is expected to agree on the details of the investigations. The government is either expected to arrest the key suspects and hand them over to Mr Moreno-Ocampo or allow the International Court to arrest and try them.

Mr Odinga has already indicated that the government would co-operate with the international court.

The turn of events goes against the belief by many politicians that The Hague would take ages to start working on the Kenyan case. It is believed that as many as six Cabinet ministers, five MPs and several business people are on Mr Moreno-Ocampo’s list.

The Hague has already started preparatory investigations into the prosecutions by setting aside a budget. It has also hired Kiswahili interpreters and is working with some foreign members of the Waki Commission to help tighten the evidence.

For Mr Moreno-Ocampo to officially start investigations, he has to prove to the Pre-Trial chambers at The Hague that he has a strong case against the suspects.

Between last year and this year, political parties, human rights NGOs, individuals and the Waki Commission have submitted their evidence in what has been seen as Kenya’s resolve to deal with acts of impunity.

President Kibaki and Mr Odinga have been treading carefully about The Hague since it is suspected that some of their key allies could be on the Waki list.

It is still not clear if a local tribunal will be formed since two previous attempts have been rejected by Parliament. Mr Kilonzo has warned on international standards being demanded of the local tribunal.

End charges

He says the standars cannot be achieved without amending the Constitution to cushion the tribunal from the President’s powers to grant amnesty and the Attorney General’s powers to end charges.