Teaching Ocampo a thing or two about probing cases, Kenyan style

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the Chief Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, should come to Kenya for lessons on how to investigate and prosecute a case.

Ultimately, his shoddy investigation of the Kenyan cases at the ICC — noted with concern by the International Facebook Court, his over-reliance on bush rumours, bar talk and anonymous witnesses has been exposed for what it is in the ruling by the Pre-Trial Chamber II judges earlier this week.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo’s repeated promises to make Kenya an example now ring hollow with the confirmation of charges against four of the six suspects in the two Kenyan cases.

The victims of the violence, who had placed all their hopes of revenge on him now wallow in self-recrimination.

Yet, Mr Moreno-Ocampo could have spared himself international embarrassment by investigating these cases the Kenyan way, especially since he is desperate to secure his legacy at the ICC from zero success.

His refusal to interview any of the suspects at the heart of these cases proved disastrous.

One of the suspects had regularly arranged Mr Moreno-Ocampo’s meetings with the President and the Prime Minister whenever he visited Kenya.

Yet, the ICC prosecutor never even mentioned — even in passing — that he might want to hear his side of the story.

Another flew all the way to The Hague, at great personal expense, to meet Mr Moreno-Ocampo and hand over a damaging dossier on the real perpetrators of the violence but the prosecutor fled to London, far away from truth.

The standards of the International Facebook Court are very high: an investigation that does not interview the suspect cannot be deemed to be complete.

He watched helplessly as the credibility of his witnesses was torn to shreds — some publicly confessed to being paid to manufacture and fabricate lies against presidents-in-waiting while others even attempted to extort them.

Even with these mortal flaws in his case, Mr Moreno-Ocampo might have been rescued if he had a sense of timing for the dramatic.

In the court confrontation with Kenya’s wealthiest man, Mr Moreno-Ocampo gave an uninspiring performance and lost critical points in the contest.

Whereas his opponent had steeled himself with prayers from his supporters across the country, hugs from close family and the best clothing money could buy, Mr Moreno-Ocampo looked like someone badly in need of a shave and a beginner’s lesson in English.

He had not held rallies, attended prayer meetings or had his mother lay hands on him.

In the end, it showed in the nervous twitch of his moustache, with the judges shaking their heads in bewildered amusement.

At the end of the confrontation, the post-match analysis returned a knockout decision against Mr Moreno-Ocampo.

Where the prosecutor relied on anonymous witnesses, the defence teams had video footage of the suspects creating peace amid the 2008 post-election chaos.