Ruto allies write to UN council on Hague trials

Rebel ODM MPs have written a parallel letter to the UN Security Council supporting calls for the deferral of Kenya’s post-election violence cases.

The group allied to Eldoret North MP William Ruto, who is among those wanted by the International Criminal Court, said a letter to the Council’s President Li Baodong by ODM secretary-general Anyang’ Nyong’o did not present the party’s position.

Consequently, they added, the council should dismiss Prof Nyong’o’s petition “with the contempt it deserves and grant Kenya the deferral it has requested for to secure the future of its security, that of the region and the international community.”

Local judicial process

“While Prof Nyong’o has the right to communicate to your Excellency in his capacity as Kenya’s Minister for Health, we take great exception to his ill-advised decision to fraudulently communicate to you on this grave matter,” the letter signed by ODM vice-chair Aden Bare Duale, deputy organising-secretary Benjamin Langat and deputy secretary-general Mohamed Mohamud, said.

In a letter to Mr Baodong, Mr Nyong’o said it is ODM’s and majority of Kenya’s view that the cases be handled at The Hague and accused President Kibaki’s PNU, which is pushing for deferrals, of seeking to extend impunity. (READ: Reject Kenya plea, Orange asks UN)

PNU, in its letter to Mr Baodong, said the cases should be delayed for a year, arguing that Kenya needed time to put in place judicial mechanisms to try the cases.

On Wednesday, Mr Duale’s group termed Prof Nyong’o’s assertion that the ICC process is the best and only means of security justice as “flawed in facts and substance.”

“It does not represent the ODM position or respective Cabinet decisions, which the party has supported as part of the Coalition government,” the letter said.