Ocampo coming next month

International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo will arrive in Nairobi early next month to meet President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga over the planned trial of key post-election violence suspects.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo on Tuesday received a letter from the government, inviting him to discuss the details of the trials on November 3. His office immediately confirmed that he would personally make the trip.

“The prosecutor has received a letter inviting him to meet with the President and the Prime Minister. He is planning to come in person,” said Ms Beatrice Le Fraper Du Hellen, the international court’s director in charge of the Cooperation Division in response to inquiries by the Daily Nation.

The letter was dispatched by Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Mutula Kilonzo on Tuesday following a meeting he held with the President and the PM on Monday afternoon.

Mr Kilonzo said the two coalition leaders had chosen November 3 as the date and instructed him to invite Mr Moreno-Ocampo.

The Justice minister said he was setting the record right over the ICC prosecutor’s impending visit which had been clouded in mystery.

“There is a lot of confusion over this matter and I want to state here that I am waiting for Ocampo to confirm that he will come,” Mr Kilonzo said.

The invitation marked a great leap in the latest attempts by The Hague to take over the Kenyan case following the failure by the government to push through Parliament Bills that would have set up a local tribunal to punish key perpetrators of post-election violence by the end of last month.

MPs threw out the government Bills twice and last week chief mediator Kofi Annan visited the country to strike a deal with the President and the PM on the fate of the suspects who were identified by the Waki Commission of Inquiry.

The Commission had named 11 key suspects — including six Cabinet ministers and several MPs — as having funded or organised the violence.

Even though President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga declined to invite the ICC chief prosecutor directly, they agreed with Mr Annan that Mr Moreno-Ocampo should request for a meeting with them over the planned trials.

The ICC prosecutor sent the request letter which was received by Mr Kilonzo last Friday. The Justice minister later handed it over to the President and PM at State House on Monday.

In his Friday letter, Mr Moreno-Ocampo declared his eagerness to investigate the cases and spell the steps he intends to take against the politicians and business people who planned and financed the violence in which 1,133 people were killed and over 650,000 displaced from their homes and property worth billions of shillings destroyed.

Local tribunal

Mr Moreno-Ocampo has made it clear that he would deal with not more than four of the 11 key suspects.

The others, he said in his letter, should be tried by a local tribunal which the government has to establish in line with internationally-accepted standards, which require that the cases are cushioned from interference by the President’s and the Attorney-General’s powers to pardon suspects or terminate cases.

During his visit to Kenya last week, Mr Annan also stated that both the Hague trials and the local tribunal have to be adopted to ensure justice for the victims.

The government is now exploring the possibility of side-stepping Parliament in the formation of the local tribunal. Sources said a Special Division of the High Court could be set up to try the executors of the chaos.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo’s November trip could signal a surprise to key politicians who opposed the local tribunal Bills in the hope that The Hague would take a longer time to start investigating the Kenyan case.

The ICC prosecutor is expected to either seek the government’s help in arresting the suspects or allowing ICC investigators to arrest them at an appropriate time.