Lucas Barasa
15 September 2009
Nairobi — Two human rights campaigners have left for the Netherlands to press the International Criminal Court to speedily start investigations into the 2007 post-election violence.
Kenya National Commission on Human Rights vice-chairman Hassan Omar and International Committee of Jurists (ICJ-Kenya) chairman George Kegoro left for the Hague Tuesday morning.
Speaking to the Nation at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport before leaving, Mr Omar said: "We will press for justice in terms of post election violence perpetrators."
"We will press upon them to ensure justice is done. We want them to move with speed and act on the perpetrators," the vice-chairman said.
Mr Omar and Mr Kegoro will be attending a conference in the Hague but have been slated to meet ICC officials on Friday.
Top on the agenda, Mr Omar said, will be briefing the ICC of the progress made in the country to bring the financiers and organisers of the chaos to book.
This follows a Cabinet resolution to expand the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission to handle the violence.
Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs minister Mutula Kilonzo has, however, since stated that he will not initiate the changes saying TJRC was formed with a different mandate.
Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara is also spearheading fresh efforts for the formation of a Special Tribunal to try the suspects.
The Bill, which was set for introduction to Parliament Tuesday, is unlikely to garner two thirds of all MPs support to pass Mr Omar said.
"The TJRC is also not an option. That is why the ICC has an inevitable role to conduct investigations and trials," he said.
Mr Omar said KNCHR and ICJ-Kenya wants the ICC to send its investigators to Kenya immediately so that they could start investigations on the grounds before critical evidence is lost.
"If ICC takes long, some witnesses could disappear and critical documentary evidence lost," he said.
He said they had informed Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Mr Kilonzo of the trip as a way of continued push for justice.
The vice-chair added that Mr Kilonzo should convince ICC of action being taken within the borders to punish the violence suspects.
"It is now about two years since the violence occurred but no major steps have been taken," he regretted.
Mr Kilonzo has already said the efforts by Mr Imanyara to establish the local tribunal may not meet the deadline that the government delegation agreed with Mr Moreno-Ocampo in early July to stave off the Hague option.
The delegation, which was composed of ministers Kilonzo, James Orengo and Attorney General Amos Wako agreed that should the government fail to pass laws establishing the local tribunal by end of September, it would hand over the case to The Hague.
The efforts were defeated on July 20 when the Cabinet rejected the draft Bills by Mr Kilonzo and instead chose the High Court and the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission to try the suspects.
Last month, Mr Kilonzo said the ICC had begun preparations for trials on Kenya's post election violence.
The ICC has engaged as consultants two foreign members of the Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election violence chaired by Justice Philip Waki and also hired from Kenya a dozen Kiswahili translators to help potential witnesses, he said.
Mr Kilonzo also revealed that The Hague had recruited a number of the investigators who worked with the Waki Commission.
It was the Waki Commission that recommended the ICC step in if Kenya was unable to establish a credible special tribunal to try the violence masterminds.
The commission also gave former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, chief mediator in the Kenya conflict, a sealed envelope containing names of key suspects recommended for further investigation and possible trial.
The secret list was to be handed over to the ICC if the Kenya government proved unable or unwilling to set up a local Special Tribunal that met international standards for the investigation of serious crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity, mass murder.
Mr Annan eventually handed over the sealed envelope to ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo after a government delegation to Geneva and The Hague failed to make a case for more time.
In March, Parliament rejected similar Bills that were tabled by then Justice minister Martha Karua.
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