Githu Muigai says Fatou Bensouda demands ‘irrelevant’

What you need to know:

  • Lawyer Benjamin Gumpert, representing Ms Bensouda, accused the government of playing hard ball in making available a huge chunk of the records.
  • Prof Muigai, however, said the government was not in a position to obtain documents on individual ownership of companies because the records were yet to be digitised.

The government on Wednesday accused International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda of persistently demanding irrelevant financial and property records in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s case.

Attorney-General Githu Muigai said the prosecutor had not followed Kenyan laws and other legal procedures.

Defending the government’s stance during a status conference on the case, Prof Muigai dismissed Ms Bensouda’s requests for a number of documents, saying they were “irrelevant and not specific.”

Most of the documents that were not made available were on land, VAT and intelligence records.

“We have made available what we thought the prosecutor requested and what the law allowed us. We are unable to provided records for third parties or corporate entities that are unidentified,” he said.

HARD BALL

Lawyer Benjamin Gumpert, representing Ms Bensouda, accused the government of playing hard ball in making available a huge chunk of the records, saying, what was provided was not what the prosecutor wanted.

“We asked the Kenyan government to provide records of companies owned by Mr Kenyatta or by third parties on his behalf between June 2007 and December 2010. We have not received any,” said Mr Gumpert, adding, the deputy senior registrar of companies told the prosecution it should have provided names and registration numbers to make the search easier.

“We want formal and official information. We acknowledge that there may be difficulties in searching for individuals as opposed to company names, but we think the records are available,” the lawyer said.

Prof Muigai, however, said the government was not in a position to obtain documents on individual ownership of companies because the records were yet to be digitised.

“Company records were stored manually until 2009. It is virtually not possible to conduct a search manually,” he said.

Mr Kenyatta’s lawyer, Mr Stephen Kay, said the government was being asked to search for documents that were irrelevant to the case. “The government is being made a whipping boy in searching for records that are not relevant,” he said.

So far, the government has made available bank accounts and records of four vehicles the President owned during the specified period.

Presiding Judge Ozaki gave the prosecution until tomorrow to provide written submissions and the government up to July 16.