Revealed: The State’s message for Ocampo

• ICC chief to be told that his mission is premature as Kenya can sort out its own mess

As an advance team from the International Criminal Court flew into the country last evening to prepare for the arrival of prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Cabinet ministers were making last-minute plans to present a unified position against international trials for key suspects of post-election violence.

The ICC officials, drawn from various divisions of the prosecutor’s office, landed on Kenyan soil as it emerged that the Cabinet was divided on the government’s co-operation with Mr Moreno-Ocampo.

Ministers both from the Party of National Unity (PNU) and Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) held a series of meetings from Monday and Tuesday in an effort to ensure President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga present a united position to the ICC prosecutor.

They want the two leaders to tell Mr Moreno-Ocampo that his intervention was premature and that the Kenyan justice system should be given a chance to resolve crimes arising from the post-election violence.

An opinion article by Foreign Affairs permanent secretary Thuita Mwangi is thought to reflect the view of powerful forces in government.

It argues against Mr Moreno-Ocampo’s mission, taking the position that the ICC should not override Kenya’s justice system.

The article also takes issue with the commission of inquiry into post-election violence — which was headed by Mr Justice Philip Waki — for inserting the self-triggering clause inviting the ICC if Kenya failed to establish a Special Tribunal to try those behind the violence.

The article also faults chief mediator Kofi Annan for handing the Waki list of violence suspects to Mr Moreno-Ocampo, yet he was in Kenya on an African Union mandate rather than an ICC or UN mandate.

Mr Thuita’s article does not, however, explain why the government endorsed and promised to implement the Waki Report.

However, the article is believed to represent the predominant view in sections of government close to President Kibaki’s thinking, and might therefore provide a glimpse of the message Mr Moreno-Ocampo might get from State House despite earlier pledges that the government would cooperate with The Hague.

Some ministers, however, were categorical that the government should arrest and hand over any persons, including Cabinet ministers, indicted by the international court over the violence that left 1,133 people dead.

On Tuesday, the ICC’s Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division director, Ms Beatrice Le Fraper Du Hellen, confirmed that officials from Mr Moreno-Ocampo’s office had left for Kenya to lay the ground for his mission.

Even though their movements were kept secret, sources said the team drew its membership from the divisions of jurisdiction, complementarity, prosecution, investigations and security.

Collating evidence

The division of jurisdiction and complementarity has the task of weighing whether the crimes committed were within the mandate of the ICC; investigations and prosecutions have to deal with collating of the evidence and charges against the key suspects while the security team will supplement Mr Moreno-Ocampo’s security that will be provided by the government.