Walter Menya
16 November 2009
Nairobi — The United States has again accused the Kenyan Government of hiding Rwandan fugitive Felicien Kabuga, who is wanted for crimes against humanity.
Visiting US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Stephen J. Rapp on Monday accused both the Kibaki and Moi governments of refusing to hand over the fugitive, with a price on his head, to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
Mr Rapp told a press conference in Nairobi that the US came closer to arresting Mr Kabuga in 1997 but the efforts were thwarted by the government of the time.
Assist detectives
But the government quickly denied the accusations and challenged Washington to provide information that could assist local detectives arrest the fugitive required to answer charges concerning the 1994 Rwanda genocide .
Mr Rapp, who served at ICTR between 2005 and December 2006, assisting chief prosecutor Hassan Bubacar Jallow, claimed that influential persons in the Moi regime helped the fugitive get away when the net was closing in on him.
He was also the chief prosecutor at the Special Court for Sierra Leone, leading the prosecution of former Liberian president Charles Taylor from December 2006 until June this year when President Barack Obama appointed him envoy for war crimes.
Mr Rapp said there was evidence that during the Kanu regime Mr Kabuga attended functions organised by influential persons. The official is visiting Kenya to meet government and civil society activists to support political reforms and efforts to end impunity.
"Efforts were made to achieve cooperation but that failed. It has remained so even after 2002," he said. Mr Rapp accused the Kibaki Government of continuing to refuse to cooperate with ICTR in apprehending Mr Kabuga.
According to the envoy, there was sufficient evidence that the fugitive, accused of the massacre of innocent Tutsis and moderate Hutus in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, was residing in Kenya. But Kenya has insisted that Kabuga had left the country.
"The International Criminal tribunal for Rwanda holds that Kabuga is receiving refuge in Kenya. We also have to presume this man is still here in the absence of the government providing evidence," he said.
The fugitive
However, Internal Security assistant minister Orwa Ojodeh stated that Kabuga was not in the country and challenged the US to share its intelligence with Kenya. "Felicien Kabuga is not in the country. We will really appreciate it if the US, which has sophisticated mechanisms of gathering information, share with us," he said when contacted.
Mr Ojodeh said Kenya would hand over the fugitive if the US assisted in locating him. "We are very willing to hand him over to Arusha but our forces have been unable to arrest him."
In August 1999, the ICTR issued a warrant of arrest for Kabuga in connection with the massacre of more than 800,000 people during the genocide. The businessman, whose fortune is estimated to run into millions of dollars, is accused of bankrolling Hutu militias that committed the murders.
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