Bernard Namunane
23 June 2009
Nairobi — President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Tuesday launched a new offensive to have key perpetrators of post election violence tried locally.
They met for three hours with Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister Mutula Kilonzo and agreed on the urgency to establish a local tribunal to try the culprits before the August deadline set by chief mediator Kofi Annan.
And in a step that could be seen as a fresh push for reforms, the President and the PM also met the committee of experts on the Constitution and endorsed a road map that envisions concluding the review by August next year.
Sources close to the meeting at Harambee House revealed that Mr Kilonzo was instructed to act quickly and return the Bills on the local tribunal to the floor of the House.
Between now and the day of debate, it is understood, the President and the PM will seek to build consensus in their respective parties.
However, it is also understood that should MPs go head and reject the Bills, one to entrench the local tribunal into the Constitution and the one on the Statute, President Kibaki and Mr Odinga agreed that they would not push for extension of the deadline on the handing over of an envelope containing names of key players to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, Netherlands.
The meeting comes against a backdrop of massive international support for Mr Annan' decision to take Kenya's case to the ICC if the local tribunal is not in place by August.
But Tuesday's meeting appeared to have gained urgency following last week's message from US President Barrack Obama, through the US assistant secretary for African Affairs Johnny Carson, that The Hague option would be apt if MPs rejected the Bills.
The first attempt to establish the local tribunal was rejected in March this year after MPs threw out the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill that sought to anchor it in law.
That automatically put off any efforts to introduce the published Special Tribunal for Kenya Bill
With the deadline gone, President Kibaki and Mr Odinga convinced Mr Annan to give the government more time to establish the tribunal.
For the past four weeks, Mr Kilonzo has been holding consultations on the Bills with MPs and other players in an effort to build consensus.
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2009 The Nation. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
Mr. William Ruto, Soon and very soon you will be held to account. It does not matter about the dance you perform and no matter who you try to intimidate and spin your warped sense of right and wrong, you will account for your sins. You are the stumbling block to justice in Kenya and your actions are the ones causing tension in Kenya. Precisely, Mr. Ruto what are you hiding and do you think you are fooling anybody.
Does this mean that Kalenjin leaders were involved in the Massacre of their fellow Kenyans? Does this mean that the alliance between Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto can go ahead since it is cemented on the blood of fellow Kenyans? Does this mean that Kikuyus have been right in joining Mungiki to protect themselves from the onslaught plotted by the Kalenjin leaders? Does this mean that justice is not blind if the person who has committed atrocities is a member of my tribe? I really would like to know all the answers to this questions if anybody knows.
See all comments (2).
Active Discussions: Justice and Kenya's Post-Election Violence