Secret list may take The Hague option

Experts contacted by the Nation indicated that a secret list handed to Chief Mediator Kofi Annan was headed to the International Criminal Court in The Hague following ODM’s rejection of the Waki report.

Speaking on phone, a judge said with ODM’s rejection of report, efforts to set up a tribunal in the country are almost nil.

And after locking out the local option, he said Mr Annan will have no option other than to hand over the list to the ICC prosecutors.

He said it will also be fruitless for the political elite to scuttle the process because “those in the list will be grabbed and prosecuted by the ICC.”

The judge said the political elite were forgetting that the Commission of Inquiry into the Post-election Violence was not an ODM or a PNU affair.

Named persons

While handing over the list on October 15, he recommended for the formation of a tribunal to try those in the list who are suspected to have planned, financed and executed the violence.

The other option was for the named persons to be tried by the ICC at The Hague for crimes against humanity. “The commission was part and parcel of the National Accord and Reconciliation Act of 2008,” he said.

His sentiments were supported by former Kikuyu MP Paul Muite who said the Accord was a must and was not discretion of President Kibaki or Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

Mr Muite said politicians were forgetting that the former UN secretary-general was focused on ending the culture of impunity and “he was very serious about it.

“Once the list has been handed over to the ICC, the prosecutors will not have an option but to act on Mr Annan’s request.

“This is because the US government, the United Kingdom and the world will be watching,” he said.

Mr Muite said Mr Justice Johann Kriegler and Mr Annan had forewarned on culture of impunity and said it should be brought to an end.