Category Archives: Holand

Will Kenya’s new president respect international court?

Leave a reply

From: Yona Maro
—
www.wejobs.blogspot.com Jobs in Africa
www.jobsunited.blogspot.com International Job Opportunities
www.naombakazi.blogspot.com

– – – – – – – – – – –

At his inauguration on April 9, Kenya’s new president, Uhuru Kenyatta, promised to uphold “international obligations”. This was most likely a reference to the International Criminal Court. Kenyatta and his deputy, William Ruto, are to stand trial before the ICC for crimes against humanity allegedly committed during the country’s election-related violence in 2007 and 2008.

But this pledge came with a caveat. International obligations would be upheld, he said, provided they are founded on “mutual respect and reciprocity”. As the product of a global treaty, the ICC depends on the mutual respect of its 122 member countries, including Kenya. The real question is what respect Kenyatta and his new government will show for the court. The previous government’s record was deeply ambivalent. The ICC prosecutor stepped in when Kenya’s national authorities failed to bring to account those responsible for the 2007-2008 violence, which claimed more than 1,100 lives and forced as many as 650,000 people from their homes.

Government officials and members of parliament swiftly challenged the court. Parliament pressed the government to withdraw Kenya from the ICC treaty, while a faction of the government campaigned for a United Nations Security Council deferral. Kenya petitioned to retake the cases, as was its right, but lost when ICC judges found no evidence of national investigations. As the cases have neared trial, Fatou Bensouda, the ICC prosecutor, has reported that the government has stalled or failed to assist its investigations, contrary to its ICC obligations. She cited this problem as one factor in her recent decision to drop the charges against Kenyatta’s former co-accused, Francis Muthaura. The government is now seeking, before the ICC judges, to refute this claim of limited assistance.

Kenyatta and Ruto sent contradictory messages during the campaign. The two, who stood on opposite sides of the political divide in 2007 and are accused of organising attacks against each other’s supporters, have now been united by the ICC’s charges. On the one hand they pledged their cooperation to the ICC, while on the other they at times painted the election as a referendum on the ICC and the court as a tool of western imperialism. Indeed Kenyatta’s caveat at his inauguration also came with a warning. He cautioned that no one country or group of countries should control international institutions or the interpretation of international treaties. As the keynote speaker, Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, praised Kenyan voters for resisting “blackmail” by the ICC and accused “arrogant actors” of “using [the ICC] to install leaders of their choice in Africa”.

This trades neatly on the canard that the ICC – with all eight of its investigations in Africa – is targeting the continent’s leaders. This conveniently ignores that four investigations were referred to the court by the government concerned and two by the UN Security Council. Museveni himself sought the ICC’s investigation in Uganda and hosted the court’s states parties at a conference in a resort outside Kampala in 2010. Above all, the claim that the ICC is a stalking horse for the west ignores the horrific crimes committed in Kenya and that victims and their families have yet to see any measure of justice from Kenyan courts. Far from backing off, the international community needs to stand in solidarity with these victims and press Kenya’s new government on its ICC cooperation obligations.

Kenyatta and Ruto are not fugitives, making some “business as usual” with the new government possible. But the ICC finds itself in a challenging situation in which it must depend at the highest levels on the very people it is putting on trial for the cooperation it needs to proceed. This reality means the international community will need to be vigilant in reacting to any signs that this cooperation is on the wane. Kenyatta’s reformulation of his pledge on the ICC at his swearing-in should be cause for concern. He is seeking to have the charges against him dropped following the withdrawal of the case against Muthaura, a petition the ICC judges will decide. Kenyatta and Ruto, along with Ruto’s co-accused, are entitled to a vigorous defence. That is their right and it should be scrupulously respected. But the Kenyan government should simultaneously ensure that the court can go forward with its independent, judicial process.

With witness protection a key concern – Bensouda has called the scale of witness interference “unprecedented” – the new government should signal that it will do all it can to help ensure the safety of those who would seek to assist the search for justice. Kenyatta missed the opportunity on day one to declare unequivocal commitment to the court. His administration should not miss opportunities to demonstrate this support in the days ahead.

http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/04/12/will-kenyas-new-president-respect-international-court
Elizabeth Evenson

Published in: Public Service Europe

WHY I AGREE WITH MUSEVENI ON SOME POINTS AGAINST ICC TARGET IN AFRICA

Leave a reply

From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste in images
THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2013

Despite that the case against President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto is of serious concern, I concur with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni that International Criminal Court (ICC) is blackmail to Africans, even though not necessarily as he says for the purpose of imposing their own agenda for the type of leaders they want.

Although in the Kenya case, Museveni did not refer directly to Raila Odinga, the former prime minister of Kenya, and Mr Kenyatta’s long-term political opponent as the one ICC wanted to impose to Kenyans, the fact remains that ICC is indeed hurting Africans.

That is why Africa and the ICC do not get along very well. This is a problem for the ICC considering that all their investigations are centred on African countries and all their suspects are African men.

A fact that has led the African Union (AU) to get tired of grappling against the ICC’s perceived racial and colonial biases, of ignoring ICC arrest warrants that are not politically expedient and of losing all control of the judicial process.

It explains why the argument that the court is politically motivated in singling out African leaders was taken up by defense attorney Courtenay Griffiths at the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor earlier this year.

According to Griffiths ICC is a form of neocolonialism that must be rejected by Africans. This is based on the fact that ICC has shown its bias in its trials. Currently everyone being tried or awaiting trial at the International Criminal Court are from Africa. That is why Africans must have the reason to be disturbed by this.

It also explains why, unless the heads of African states will create courts or can create courts to punish crimes within their country, even crimes that offend everyone of us as members of the global community, unless they do that, the rest of the world should simply butt out.

At the same time it is very unfortunate that thirty-one of Africa’s 53 nations are signatories to the Rome Statute establishing the court’s authority. That is nearly one-third of the countries where the ICC has jurisdiction.

Against the background that I am proudly to state that Uhuru and Ruto have no case to answer, not only because of the serious lack of evidence against them, but also because of the methods used to obtain this evidence.

The ICC did not directly source witnesses for this case, nor has it done so in any other case heard before the court. Instead it outsourced evidence-gathering to local intermediaries.

That is why all along Uhuru and Ruto have maintained that ICC never conducted independent investigations, but relied heavily on self centered NGO activists who had selfish ambitions to incriminate leaders who were perceived to be a threat to Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s ascension to power.

They have also claimed that the purported ICC witnesses who are being relied on by ICC, were coached and paid by ODM’s Mombasa point man Omar Hassan and former Kenya National Human Rights Commission (KNHRC) chairman Maina Kiai to falsely testify against them.

First, it was witness number 4 (James Maina Kabutu ) who said he was paid to falsely testify against President–elect Uhuru Kenyatta and ambassador Francis Muthaura on the “Mungiki Connection”.

Second, it was Witness Number 8 (Samuel Kimeli Kosgei) who has withdrawn in the William Ruto and Joshua Sang case. Kimeli said he was coached and bribed by Omar Hassan and Maina Kiai to falsely testify against Ruto at the ICC.

Also reports indicate that six other witnesses have written to the ICC court requesting the court to withdraw their testimonies saying they are not ready to falsely testify on three ICC suspects.

They said they were coached and bribed to be witnesses by members of the civil societies, who promised them huge chunks of money if they incriminate the three ICC suspects.

Former Kenya National Human Rights Commission (KNHRC) chairman Maina Kiai has denied ever coaching ICC witnesses in connection with the 2007-2008 post election violence.

During Tuesday’s swearing-in of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ruto Museveni praised Kenyans for ‘rejecting ICC blackmail’ by electing Kenyatta and his deputy and co-accused, William Ruto.

Museveni said he supported a local process to address the issues arising from the 2007/2008 post-election violence saying only such an “investigation would establish genuine reasons as to why villagers attacked one another.”

According to Museveni ICC is also one of the major causes of conflicts in Democratic Republic of Congo. Museveni was quoted to have told UN Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous that when some rebels were referred to the ICC, they became wild and continued fighting hard so they were not captured.

Museveni said to resolve issues in the Great Lakes, the region must handle the residual problems of the Democratic Republic of Congo including managing its own people instead of referring everything to the ICC.

He said the M23 rebels in Congo and other groups destabilising the region were partly as a result of a decision to refer people to the ICC. “Uganda has many problems from Amin and Obote but we never referred anyone to the ICC. We must manage our people ourselves because this can be a constituency for trouble” he said.

“The South African government handled this through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. If you use external groups to deal with your problem and neglect your own problems, it’s a big mistake,” he added.

He said that using foreign institutions to deal with internal conflicts instead of negotiating with opponents is a mistake. “You can’t rely on the ICC to get rid of your rival,” he said.

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Facebook-omolo beste
Twitter-@8000accomole

Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.

-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002

Kenya & World: What democracy? Annan and his ilk pre-rigging the Kenya polls and justice

Leave a reply

From: maina ndiritu

It is becoming increasingly clear that Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto do not stand a chance of a fair trial at the ICC over the crimes against humanity charges against them.

With sickening regularity in recent weeks and months, key figures involved in the prosecution and in the so-called continuing mediation efforts are making reckless pronouncements designed to hopelessly prejudice these cases.

The ground is clearly being expertly prepared for a massive miscarriage of justice and the first international show trial of the 21st Century.

Indeed, on Monday last week, Uhuru significantly observed: “Even suspects have their own rights, in their own nations. From the time we were named, we said we were determined to follow due process to clear our names, but this does not mean we should be denied our rights.”

The Chief Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and the head of the Kenyan post-election violence mediation process, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, have made remarks that are explicitly intended to stand in the way of Uhuru and Ruto’s ultimate political ambitions. And both have brazenly denied they were interfering in Kenyan electoral politics. The double-speak has been astonishing.

A couple of weeks ago, soon after a week-long visit to Kenya, Bensouda issued a statement in which she made clear for the first time the extent to which she would rely on evidence adduced by hidden witnesses against Uhuru. These people also happened to have been self-confessed former senior members of Mungiki when it was a murder cult.

Such ‘evidence’ and such ‘witnesses’ are the stuff the show trials in the totalitarian states of the 20th Century contained. Even Uhuru’s worst enemies can see that the ICC really has it in for him.

And then, this week, in remarks that somehow coincided with the announcement of Uhuru and Ruto’s joint ticket for the 2013 presidential race, Annan parachuted into the centre of Kenya’s General Election campaign.

In a weird performance on BBC, he told Kenyans that it is “not in the interest of the country” for the electorate to elect a leader “who will not be able to freely interact with the rest of the world, including travelling to some countries”.

When the BBC reporter urged Annan to come out and state whether he was, in fact, urging Kenyans not to elect Uhuru and Ruto, he denied this and snapped: “Do not put words in my mouth”.

Even the idiot in every Kenyan (or other) village could see right through such cynicism and advance-rigging.

Mr Annan’s truly frightening double-speak is the kind of hypocrisy that produced the bizarre accusations against Uhuru and Ruto in the first place.

If this is how he can behave on-air speaking to a global broadcaster like the BBC, how does he behave behind closed doors at, say, the Kenyan Judiciary, where he has met Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, not once, but twice, in recent weeks?

As for the juvenile fiction that presidential and deputy- presidential visits to foreign countries are show-stoppers of the highest significance, go tell it to the birds! The assertion about Kenya’s isolation in the event of Uhuru and Ruto being elected is nonsense.

For completely different reasons, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta did not travel abroad after 1964 for the rest of his life, yet Kenya enjoyed a profile that was higher than anything since.

A competent, high-profile head of the Foreign Office (the Foreign Secretary), the rest of the Cabinet outside the presidency, and the Brand Kenya Board launching a particularly creative nation-branding campaign, is all we would need.

Many Kenyans do not trust Mr Annan. The reverse is also true — there are millions of Kenyans who blindly support him and name themselves, their new-borns and even matatus after him.

The thing to note is that we are looking at a political fault-line here, a political divide, the fruit of adversarial politicking and negative ethnicity.

And yet Annan can stand there and assure the world that the ICC process is devoid of politics. From where I stand, he is himself a political player now and anyone who says otherwise is a psychopathological liar.

Enough of mind games: The ICC is clearly out to bring down its biggest prey yet — two top political leaders from a functioning, not a failed, State. This is an act of desperation; it is not justice.

In fact, it is the ICC itself that runs the highest risk of isolation and international opprobrium in 2013 should the perception gain ground inside Kenya, and elsewhere in Africa, that a free and fair trial is just not possible at The Hague for these two leaders.

Mr Waikenda is the TNA director of communications.
http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Annan-and-his-ilk-pre-rigging-the-Kenya-polls/-/440808/1646980/-/item/1/-/noavcj/-/index.html

—
Why should we not all live in peace and harmony ? we look up the same stars we are fellow passengers on the same planet and dwell beneath the same sky , what matters it along which road each individual endeavours to reach the ultimate truth ? the riddle of existence is too great that there should be only one road leading us to an answer
*
*
*
QUINTUS AURELIUS SYMMACHUS
*

‘OF TYING THE SHOES’: WILL THE ICC TRIAL BE KENYA’S OCCIDENTAL ACCIDENT?

Leave a reply

From: mundia mundia

Isaac Abrabanel, as one of the great thinkers stated that, “In this light, continuity can be assured through the government of a succession of leaders as long as they are aware that they must provide an account of their actions.”

Many Kenyans are beginning to digest by the political speculation of certain coalition force and the way this ‘coalition’ interprets national unity as principle of playing politics and its readiness to share the costs of financing the last-gasp campaigns from December 4th until election time, pushing other party contenders away from the merger. This merger has to some extent failed to deliver nationalism by being politically vengeful. Its lack of healing and concern for leading the nation only brings more doubt especially when the coalition’s aspirants are seen together. Are the two together to help balance our political scale?

The current micro-political partisan activities like forming ‘questionable coalitions’ and party barter-trading are not official acts of presidential aspirants and they are not meant for our national agenda. Rather, the key agencies of micro-politics are television shows, populist meetings, social clubs and Internet mobilizations; and its key targets are bodily electoral affect, stepping up social tempers, changing political moods, and provoking electoral sensibilities; and never national leadership.

This political speculation appears to be having a narrow egoistic preoccupation as such leaders find no need for a constant, inviolable national formula for the sake of the electorate. The romantic feature inherent in the inverse affair has become increasingly passive and neurotic and precipitated by the ICC ‘Diaspora divorce of nurture’. The affair’s intention appears to discredit the ICC internationally through the local vote to make the world believe that the voters desperately yearn to have its torchbearers as their only leaders. Internationally it is a fact that the newly re-elected US President Barrack Obama and ODM’s leader Raila Odinga are democrats and are seen to be ambassadors of real change. That may be a fact why the two seem to be backing The Hague process keeping in mind their attachment and interest with Kenyan and African issues while protagonists seem to be backing the Republican ideology that is not keen on African political matters. This does not mean that the ICC issue is political but a way of promoting fairness, human rights and justice to all.

Unfortunately, TNA-URP divorce would be more pronounced the time the cases start in April next year secondary to the ‘aggressor -defender’ nature of evidence at The Hague. If the current romance is not a political fact of vengeance, at least the ICC fact can become a romance away from leadership. Why should the two marry in December this year and then divorce in April next year, climbing the political summit of our elections with high hopes of rolling down fast within four months? Is TNA-URP outside time JUST LIKE Mitt Romney was prior to the election? This appears so. In fact the wider the circle of followers TNA and URP would have, the wider the circle of opponents they would attract come voting time and through the trial.

It is no wonder that a third force as coalition is being formed to neutralize ‘The Hague vs. Raila’ political contest. Firstly, Uhuru and Ruto formed their coalition with the sole intention of ‘embarrassing’ Raila, this time round using the ballot. They will be left alone to fight their own battle. Secondly, there would be two ‘neutral’ forces as a broad-based alliance where Western and Coastal coalition is likely to stand ground while the Eastern and North Eastern coalition would be made to ‘appease’ Raila, later for them to withdraw to join the Western-Coastal coalition, and other smaller independent parties. No time will Kalonzo, Mudavadi, Balala, Ngilu, et al, be close again to Raila for long, for they would not want to be seen to be supporting TNA-URP or ODM. This move of (politicians) ‘slithering’ towards Raila and withdrawing would be a tactic to make him appear a weak candidate where everyone would be running away from, leaving him ‘alone’. An example is when Jonestone Muthama, who in February this year stated that, “Kalonzo is the main threat to ODM.”…“My brothers, do you know that if things go that way (ICC), we are going to win this battle?”… “If it happens so, we will realize good tidings.” Thus the merger between ODM and WDP would be short-lived and Kalonzo would be around Raila to help boost his personal presidential bid.
Certainly there is a chance for Kibaki, who fell out with Raila before forming the coalition government (type of governance only suitable during a crisis and worse for national leadership and progress) to ‘secretly’ team up with the ‘Moi elite’ for a revenge contest to beat Raila. It should be noted that in 2002 Moi, who hoped Uhuru would succeed him as president, was beaten through the Raila’s ‘Kibaki Tosha’ strategy.

Thus the third force, all coalitions apart from TNA-URP, are likely to merge as one and be the determining factor in relation to who will win the general elections and prevent Raila from garnering 25 per cent of votes in at least 24 counties. This is if the electorate will use the old kind of voting system that is ethnic based, tribal, non-issue based and undemocratic. For the politicians, their game would be to play safe, appear clean and far ‘away’ from The Hague suspects and Raila and also have ‘regional’ numbers. Those that would, by any chance, defeat Raila would not be those allied directly to the TNA- URP coalitions but a ‘neutral’ coalition blessed by those resisting change; on the one hand and Uhuru and Ruto on the other.

For many, Raila is seen to be the person most responsible for shift in political change in Kenya just like President Obama is; others only joined the ‘Raila congregation’, with the master of political aphorisms leading the team. He is not seen just as the Prime Minister but the Prime Mover of our politics, playing politics by design even with the transference of ‘ICC exiles’ around the ballot. His success has been the stimulating interest that his politics brings, which is immeasurable, greatly feared and his debates in national political circles charging. His only curse being that many chose to open cans of bait against him on issues that touched on his persona, business-related matters and alleged corruption cases; from Ruto, Ngilu, Musalia (who took advantage of their positions to loot), to the ‘come-baby-come’ matters of individual concern. At least the Kenyan electorate has awoken and opened the eyes after observing the US politics, campaigns and elections once again. We have a chance to do likewise with our right conscience and never the ethnic partisanship as malpractice that take us years back. The time to look where the tribal kingpins place the communal vote or decide how the voter will vote is over. The voter ought to vote on issues and not for the party leader.

Consequently, the problem of tribalism in our current campaigns must be confronted in the agony of our electoral mind and not the politicians’ manipulations and interests than for the electorate to live in the horror of ‘ethnic’ silence and burden of personal irresponsibility after the elections, as voters with a catalogue of false post-election sympathy for any eventualities. It is said that the limbs are imperfect unless they are accompanied by the intention of the heart. Time will tell come April.

As a political fact, many thought Raila was a “selfish” politician. In the course of years, however, many learned to appreciate that his “selflessness” was a manifestation of a strong leader and an exalted national figure. He has been advocating for a policy of forgiveness and reconciliation even with his fellow politicians but some still doubt him. He is a leader because ‘he puts on his shoes and ties his shoelaces’ not allowing anyone else to do that for him. Real selfish politicians created Railaphobia as they played victim with the electorate, especially in Rift Valley and Central regions. They claim through propaganda, that ‘He used ‘us’ to fight ‘them’ and ‘we’ only retaliated against them and ‘his people.’ They made him be hostage to the ICC pre-occupation even as the Hansard records proved that he was not responsible for the politicians’ ethic fate.
On the other extreme hand, Ruto is currently tying Uhuru’s buckled shoes and vice versa; maybe that is why they are in their current ‘shoe-tying’ political trial. Their seemingly ultimate purpose of ‘defeating Raila’ has become an act of political self-unification and not that of bringing Kenyans together.

Personally, I take the ‘Orange philosophy’ as faith and ‘eleventh commandment on the ballot’ and not merely as a political stand but a radical vision for the year 2013 and the future; thirteen being a very unlucky number for some. I wonder how many Kenyans as voters are willing to ‘waste’ their votes in the name of spoiling for another candidate? Will thirteen million votes be ‘wasted’? Will your vote make you a better Kenyan as an individual or will you be voting for the sake of massaging the egos of certain politicians?

The poetic license…Twende Netherlands Alliance (TNA), Uhuru na Ruto Pamoja (URP), as epithet for humor, may prove comedy but it is shocking to learn that some Kenyans are ready to take their votes to The Hague.
Politicians may decide who their sprawl torchbearers would be but the voters as majority will decide who their president shall be; this, and all else in the relations amongst Kenyans, and it is a matter of the true ‘people power.’ The Kenyan national commonwealth for all, from the cradle to geriatry, should lead our hearts within the borders of our country and never Netherlands, for the sake of the nexus of our neo-political electoral history.

Consequently, may it be a strategy to make TNA-URP win elections, send them to The Hague, create a regional ‘political crisis’, call for ‘emergency’ elections and allow one of them to form the next ‘coalition’ government? Did Raila have the last chance to become the fourth president of Kenya in 2007? Or will he, this time round, win the elections transparently and be president? What future does it hold for East Africa whose region’s presidents are comfortable with the status quo and not with Raila around? Will the April election spark a regional democratic revolution that would bring in new leaders?

Personally, I better be ‘stateless’ than to have my ‘head of state’ with an international criminal charge lead me as he faces trial. One disturbing issue is whether political harmony will be within our borders if Raila wins or otherwise not. Never again should a Kenyan voter be ‘everywhere a guest, and nowhere at home’ in our motherland. What will remain in our conscience and history is that the government, through local institutions, failed to deliver justice to victims of political violence. Raila should speak to the electorate directly and he shall be sure of being the 4th president of the republic. Come, voter, come. Come, April.

Mundia Mundia Jnr

Mundia Mundia Jnr.

ICC a Threat to Kenya’s National Security

Leave a reply

From: Judy Miriga

Good People,

What I am reading and detecting here is the worst-ever illogical reasoning argument lacking fundamental substantances of facts in giving reasons why ICC Hague should not go on as scheduled and why they think ICC Hague is interfering and are lacking evidence to pin suspects.

All suspects need to do is cooperate and give facts of the matter. They should say what they know or knew, with whom they engaged to do and explain giving satisfactory reasons why they should not be suspects……..It is a fact though that some of the big fish are out there still loose, and here is where justice will dig to explore and unearth facts of the whole truth………No one can fool Kenyans anymore, Kenyans know the truth and Kenyans want Justice done……So ICC is on the track to bring justice…..Let us not beat about the bush….Facts are Facts and the Truth shall set us free indeed. It is about time, we are not going to run away from justice…….

What I see here is a non-intelligent weak conspiracy theory meant to evade justice which is lacking the collective bargain from public concern and safety; which in essense is geared to fail the stability and weaken security of Kenya but which its main purpose is to promote thuggery and terrorism meant to intimidate and manipulate favors for the special interest against public interests.

This statement therefore cannot see sunshine, it must be condemned by all the good people and be ignored like the passing of hot-air blowing towards the sea, which the acceptable justification norm is cool sea air blowing on to the land.

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

– – – – – – – – – – –

— On Mon, 10/29/12, maina ndiritu wrote:
From: maina ndiritu
Subject: ICC a Threat to Kenya’s National Security
Date: Monday, October 29, 2012, 12:34 PM

Intelligence gathered by Strategic Intelligence and a critical analysis on events related to Kenyan politics and ICC representatives actions and responses to Kenyan politics confirm ICC is becoming a threat to Kenya’s national security.

Intelligence analysts have been keenly watching ICC moves and warnings to Kenyan politicians besides critically analyzing ramifications of political efforts of primary suspects ICC wants to prosecute for crimes against humanity.

Critical analysis of these core indicators of collation between Kenya politics and ICC efforts verify a unique connection between the 2013 elections and its outcome.

Intelligence gathered from executives who worked for specific parties in 2007 and throughout 2008 verify a nexus/trail of fixations, Western diplomats hands, and Kenyan politicians involvement.

Intelligence shows ICC attempts to stymie political gains of Messrs Kenyatta and Ruto every time opinion polls show strategic gains with a bias on acquiring a role of the overall judge of the candidates future.

Intelligence analysis based on strategic intelligence analysis studies and procedure point out the element of culpability of specific manipulators calling shots hence providing directives intent on creating a public/general policy on the issue.

A recent opinion poll placing Messrs Kenyatta political gains at good stead besides the rapid surge in his party ‘TNA’ popularity only projects Kenyatta as a most likely winner of the 2013 election.

Analysts confirm drastic measures to counter this surge by ICC which is a pointer of meddling which Strategic Intelligence analysts trace back to Kenya.

Such political meddling is a panacea for fanning political disunity which plays the central role in fanning ethnic problems such as violence.

The presence of chief ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda besides a previous visit by Koffi Annan in Nairobi shortly after the manifesting of TNA and URP political gains further confirms the nexus between a Kenyan handler and a mole in ICC.

The objective of their visits are indicators of their identity as the handlers and proxies that are used to deploy and guide a weapon that creates a public policy about the ramifications of Kenyatta and Ruto leadership.

In theory, every citizen makes up his mind on public questions and matters of private conduct. In practice, if all men had to study for themselves the abstruse economic, political, and ethical data involved in every question, they would find it impossible to come to a conclusion without anything. We have voluntarily agreed to let an invisible government sift the data and high-spot the outstanding issue so that our field of choice shall be narrowed to practical proportions. From our leaders and the media they use to reach the public, we accept the evidence and the demarcation of issues bearing upon public question; from some ethical teacher, be it a minister, a favorite essayist, or merely prevailing opinion, we accept a standardized code of social conduct to which we conform most of the time. Edward Bernays

While majority of Kenyan’s have been taking up everything the ICC and the media has prepared, (as ICC and the West wanted) their current mindset will be their greatest undoing since they hardly have an idea of what the West is doing to stop Kenya’s economic-military growth and the East and Central African economic union.

This geopolitical muscle and geo-strategic significance of Kenya to the East and Central Africa since President Kibaki took power has done more harm to Western military-economic objectives and programs.

Another factor is President Kibaki’s tough stance against Western diplomatic largesse, poor economic incentives, and extremely parasitic nature of bilateral trade incentives.

Military and economic independence of Kenya besides its critical role in shaping the geopolitics of the east and central Africa factors the foreign meddling of Nairobi’s political future.

Uhuru Kenyatta has confirmed the existence of these proxy-war elements against the Kibaki system and post-era by launching a diplomatic onslaught that hopes to rally the regional players under Kibaki’s brainchild LAPSET to support his presidency.

The West handlers at ICC may have also panicked after Kenya army single handed defeated Al-Shabaab militants by routing them out of the Somali port city of Kismayu after Americans, Britons, and Ethiopians failed.

A stronger Kenya with a Kibaki student in the helm will make Nairobi very powerful and extremely military-economic independent that the West will become insignificant to East and Central Africa; these fears are what drives the ICC process and containing any Kibaki student from ascending to power is in-order.

The ICC enjoys the relatively warm and near fanatical support in Kenya which indeed is the public policy that the handlers have all along wanted.

Sociology based analysis of third world politics and societal discord confirm how intelligence organizations like CIA manipulate the social order through creating a public policy that is hard to break.

Kenya played to the ICC hands based on a weak government policy on security and an extremely ethnic national political policy weakening the societal perception on nationalism.

Kenyans bought the media creation of ethnic-politics and a weak government policy on security hence procured the bias of a Western process promising to bring a sense of rationale on social order, security, and politics; the ICC was the proxy server that delivered this desired result.

KENYA’S ELECTION 2013

Leave a reply

From: Mary Gakere

our sovereignty is shaken if our sitting president is publically humiliated —

Kenya electioneering 2013.

UN Secretary general Kofi Annan jetted into the country two weeks ago and warned against Uhuru and Ruto running for Kenya’s top post. Hot on his heels was International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda with her threats; Uhuru and Ruto will face International Criminal Court (ICC) proceedings whether they become president of Kenya or not.

Kenya First.

With dark cloud of ICC hanging over our electioneering, we need to think hard as to what is the best way forward. We can ignore both Kofi Annan and ICC Chief Prosecutor and proceed to elect either William Ruto or Uhuru Kenyatta or both as Kenya’s next president and Vice-president at our peril, however, it seems prudent to think about our country first before taking that leap.

Rome Statute has no immunity for anyone, not even a sitting president and non will be available for Ruto and Uhuru. As a relatively new court, ICC will assert all its power to flex its muscle in order not to appear weak or ambivalent in the international scene. Kenya’s is, without a doubt,the most complex case for ICC yet and an opportunity for the court to gain much needed credibility as a major player in the world justice arena.

Kenya case at ICC is not going away and will be fully and completely prosecuted. The court views this as a caution against impunity in Kenya and the region. It could take years before its all over (since its inception ten years ago, the court has just concluded the first case; – Thomas Lubanga Dyilo of Demcratic Republic of Congo, senctenced , 14 years by ICC), and would be unfair for Uhuru and Ruto to take Kenyans down that road.

Uhuru/Ruto to stand down

Our people will be demoralized and our sovereignty shaken if our sitting president is humiliated publicly in a criminal trial with the whole world watching. It will appear as if Kenya and not the individual is on trial. Such a trauma will not augur well with our national psychic and we ought to avoid it.

Uhuru and Ruto must put country before their own personal ambitions. It would be a great embarrassment if we were to have a sitting President of Kenya in a witness box in Hague or locked up in jail.

It is unfortunate that these two Kenyans with huge potential for leadership in Kenya may have to stand down this time around. But wananchi and country could benefit tremediously if the two were to refocus their energy, vision and resources to another suitable, credible and honest person with integrity and good sound policies that can positively guide our country and people for the next five years.

By Njau Njembura Njoroge.

The International Criminal Court is hurting Africa…..No It is Not if Practiced the Way it should……

Leave a reply

From: Judy Miriga

Folks,

Some people think and believe that stealing public wealth and resources through intimidation, by trickster or force, or killing and destroying innocent lives to create wealth for self greed is a normal thing and is an acceptable way of life. No, it is not………..

People must face consequences for their actions; and ICC Hague helps with such injustices and will serve as a remedy for Kenya. It came too late but that is the right thing to do…….

There must be a resolution a point of agreement from where we must solve conflicts…….There are some people who take advantage to enrich themselves using Peace selectively……It is either a declared open war, or we choose peace and follow Law and order and go by fair Legal Justice where those people who are found guilty are punished from their wrong doing. It is because if there is no Law then; there is the Jungle Rule………Internationally, we have chosen the Law and that is what we all must practice and agree upon……..

Let the likes of Uhuru speak and tell the world why they kill and for whose interest do they kill………..if they wish, let them tell the world who their partners are and why they engage in killing…….

At least there is the beginning how human beings and the living things came to being……….So Nature has a way of life to resolve and correct matters to create harmony………and in the rightful thinking, we all want peace, so we who support peace, must fight to gain peace for our Liberty……..which is why, we chose to use Legal Justice instead of the Jungle Rule Uhuru and their likes have chosen.

There must be fairness people……..Life was meant to be shared in faireness and it is here that the beauty of life can be experienced. The saying goes, “without musicians playing their music, there can be no dance”…….so, in our own ways of life, we have place to contribute to complete circle of life……..that is why we are not the same………we are all different………which is why, in a diversity, the world is beautiful under principles of regulations, law and order………….If we are able to accept and observe these as principles of Love Commandments, we are able to enjoy the fruits of the world with less pain and sufferings……….Like King Solomon of the Bible Age, after gaining all he needed in the world, he summarized life thus: “Life is like chasing wind”………it has no end and it is the most impossible thing to do………”Just Live and make merry” ………in otherwords, be happy and strive for what can bring happiness, because, wealth alone cannot give you all the happiness without other things that are of LOVE…….That is what he said after having all the wealth and power he needed in the world…..he still did not see happiness without Love……..and Love is generated from making ways and opportunities for peace to abound………

Where there is peace, there is unity and that drives people to come close together to share from each other……….Here is where there is life people……The magnet of Peace pulls people close together……!!!

So ICC Hague is the best thing we now have……..give it all your support people !!!

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

– – – – – – – – – – –

— On Tue, 10/9/12, Jonah Ogaro wrote:

From: Jonah Ogaro
Subject: The International Criminal Court is hurting Africa
Date: Tuesday, October 9, 2012, 4:37 AM

Thanks for the post. But let ICC clear UK.

Kenyans died and soem people were responsible for financing. So far UK and other accused are suspects. If found innocent they will be cleared.

ICC is just helping to help Africa and other countries from their local tormentors. Look at people like Bashir, Kony, Lubanga, Charles Taylor etc etc.

ICC is doing a fine job. Kenya invited them. So let it do its work.

Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2012 21:55:50 +0300
Subject: The International Criminal Court is hurting Africa
From: litshooz@gmail.com

Imagine the British Government appointed as minister for Africa a man close friends with a mercenary who attempted to overthrow an African President. Imagine this same minister was fully supportive of an international court that, during its nine-year history, had only prosecuted black Africans. Imagine that this court’s most high-profile case, against the deputy prime minister of Kenya, had been based solely on evidence from a single witness chosen by associates of his political opponent, the favourite of the British Government.

This is not a Frederick Forsyth novel, but the dangerous reality of Britain’s foreign policy towards Kenya. Henry Bellingham, our Minister for Africa, is a close friend of Simon Mann, the mercenary who tried and failed to orchestrate a coup in Equatorial Guinea. Mr Bellingham has publicly supported the work of the International Criminal Court that has so far only tried black Africans, when, from Libya to Syria, there are many more victims who still await justice.

But as I learnt during my time as chief defence counsel to Charles Taylor, the requirement of international justice is not the raison d’etre of the International Criminal Court at all. Instead, the court acts as a vehicle for its primarily European funders, of which the UK is one of the largest, to exert their power and influence, particularly in Africa.

Some would argue it is reasonable for countries to exercise their power in foreign countries through legal means. If this is the case, it is surely sensible to support both the institutions and legal cases that might realise this goal. However, Britain’s support for the ICC, and in particular our country’s funding of the Kenya case, is seriously undermining its credibility and influence in Africa.

The case against Uhuru Kenyatta, the deputy prime minister of Kenya, is of serious concern, not only because of the serious lack of evidence against him, but also because of the methods used to obtain this evidence. The ICC did not directly source witnesses for this case, nor has it done so in any other case heard before the court. Instead it outsourced evidence-gathering to local intermediaries. In the Kenya case, these intermediaries happened to be well known associates of Raila Odinga, the current prime minister of Kenya, and Mr Kenyatta’s long-term political opponent.

By Courtenay Griffiths, QC

World: Bush, Blair should face trial at the Hague – Tutu –

Leave a reply

From: Judy Miriga

Forwaded for discussion and have your say people about the invasion on Iraq……..Should the Iraqis be compensated for wrongful invasion……Maybe this is why this case is coming up from Bishop Tutu….???

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

– – – – – – – – – – –

Tutu: Bush, Blair should face trial at the Hague
By DAVID STRINGER | Associated Press – 36 mins ago

LONDON (AP) — Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Desmond Tutu called Sunday for Tony Blair and George Bush to face prosecution at the International Criminal Court for their role in the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq

Tutu, the retired Anglican Church’s archbishop of South Africa, wrote in an op-ed piece for The Observer newspaper that the ex-leaders of Britain and the United States should be made to “answer for their actions.”

The Iraq war “has destabilized and polarized the world to a greater extent than any other conflict in history,” wrote Tutu, who was awarded the Nobel prize in 1984.

“Those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in the Hague,” he added.

The Hague, Netherlands, based court is the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal and has been in operation for 10 years. So far it has launched prosecutions only in Africa, including in Sudan, Congo, Libya and Ivory Coast.

Tutu has long been a staunch critic of the Iraq war, while others opposed to the conflict — including playwright Harold Pinter — have previously called for Bush and Blair to face prosecution at the Hague.

“The then-leaders of the U.S. and U.K. fabricated the grounds to behave like playground bullies and drive us further apart. They have driven us to the edge of a precipice where we now stand — with the specter of Syria and Iran before us,” said Tutu, who last week withdrew from a conference in South Africa due to Blair’s presence at the event.

While the International Criminal Court can handle cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, it does not currently have the jurisdiction to prosecute crimes of aggression. Any potential prosecution over the Iraq war would likely come under the aggression category.

The U.S. is among nations which do not recognize the International Criminal Court.

In response to Tutu, Blair said he had great respect for the archbishop’s work to tackle apartheid in South Africa, but accused him of repeating inaccurate criticisms of the Iraq war.

“To repeat the old canard that we lied about the intelligence is completely wrong as every single independent analysis of the evidence has shown,” Blair said. “And to say that the fact that Saddam (deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein) massacred hundreds of thousands of his citizens is irrelevant to the morality of removing him is bizarre.”

However, Blair said that “in a healthy democracy people can agree to disagree.”

In Britain, a two-year long inquiry examining the buildup to the Iraq war and its conduct is yet to publish its final report. The panel took evidence from political leaders including Blair, military chiefs and intelligence officers. Two previous British studies into aspects of the war cleared Blair’s government of wrongdoing.

The Iraq war was bitterly divisive in the U.K. and saw large public demonstrations. However, Blair subsequently won a 2005 national election, though with a reduced majority.

—
Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com
Blogu ya Habari na Picha www.patahabari.blogspot.com

Opinion piece by Judge Sang-Hyun SONG, President of the International Criminal Court / International Criminal Court turns ten

Leave a reply

From: News Release – African Press Organization (APO)

OPINION PIECE

Opinion piece by Judge Sang-Hyun SONG, President of the International Criminal Court

International Criminal Court turns ten

On 1 July 2002, the first three staff members of the International Criminal Court (ICC) entered the ICC’s building in The Hague, the Netherlands. On that day, the ICC’s founding treaty, called the Rome Statute, entered into force.

Ten years after that modest beginning, the ICC has turned into a major international institution, securing justice for victims when it cannot be delivered at the national level. 121 States have ratified the Rome Statute, and another 32 countries have signed it, indicating their intention to join the treaty.

The ICC is working in seven situation countries, and monitoring developments in seven others on several continents, turning the principles of the Rome Statute into reality. In March this year, the ICC delivered its first judgement in a case concerning the use of child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Six cases are in the trial stage and nine others in pre-trial phase. These proceedings are testimony that impunity for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity is no longer tolerated by the international community.

The victims are a vital part of the ICC’s work. Thousands of victims have been given a voice in the arena of international justice, where their rights are upheld and their suffering recognised. The ICC’s proceedings have emphasized, on a global scale, that children cannot be used as soldiers during hostilities, that sexual violence as a weapon of war is an unacceptable international crime, and that those in positions of power must safeguard the fundamental human rights of people caught in conflict.

Support for international justice is growing around the world every year. Everywhere, people want peace, justice, rule of law and respect for human dignity. The ICC represents the voluntary gathering of nations in a community of values and aspirations for a more secure future for children, women and men around the world.

However, rather than rejoice over our accomplishments, it is far more important that we recognise the shortcomings and the obstacles that remain, and redouble our commitment to further strengthen the Rome Statute system in order to move closer to our ultimate goals. If we act wisely, pulling our strength together, we can prevent terrible suffering before it takes place.

The ICC is the centrepiece of the evolving system of international criminal justice, but the most important aspect of the fight against impunity takes place in each country, society and community around the globe. Domestic justice systems must be strong enough to be able to act as the primary deterrent worldwide, while the ICC is a “court of last resort”, a safety net that ensures accountability when the national jurisdictions are unable for whatever reason to carry out this task. In a spirit of solidarity, the States Parties to the Rome Statute have expressed their commitment to work together to ensure that this principle of complementarity is effective.

Another crucial aspect of the ICC is the cooperation of states and the enforcement of the Court’s orders. The ICC has no police force of its own. The Court relies entirely on states to execute our arrest warrants, to produce evidence, to facilitate the appearance of witnesses and so on. Unfortunately, several suspects subject to ICC arrest warrants have successfully evaded arrest for many years. Political will and international cooperation is crucial in order to bring these persons to justice.

While we work together to prevent impunity and to ensure accountability, we must remember that international criminal justice is one piece in a bigger framework for protecting human rights, suppressing conflict and working for peace and stabilisation. It is vital that other essential elements of conflict prevention and post-conflict recovery are present where needed, alongside international justice mechanisms. Only when accompanied by education, democracy and development, can justice truly help prevent the crimes of the future.

Let us cherish our spirit of solidarity as we look forward to the ICC’s next decade, celebrating our achievements and acknowledging the challenges that remain ahead. We must be united in our resolve to defeat impunity and the lawlessness, brutality and disdain for human dignity that it represents. At this crucial juncture, we must continue the fight against impunity with renewed resolve and increased vigour. We cannot rest until every victim has received justice.

On the 10th anniversary of the International Criminal Court, I call on states, organisations and people everywhere to join this shared mission of humanity.

Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of the International Criminal Court.

Photo Judge Sang-Hyun SONG, President of the International Criminal Court: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/index.php?level=picture&id=238

Logo “10 Years Fighting Impunity”: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/index.php?level=picture&id=241

SOURCE
International Criminal Court (ICC)

THE ICC DECISION THAT GEMA AND KAMATUSA WON’T OVERRIDE

Leave a reply

From: Ouko joachim omolo
Colleagues Home & Abroad Regional News

BY FR JOACHIM OMOLO OUKO, AJ
NAIROBI-KENYA
THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 2012

The decision on January 23, 2012 of an International Criminal Court (ICC) pre-trial chamber to send cases to trial against William Samoei Ruto, Joshua arap Sang, Francis Kirimi Muthaura, and Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta in two separate cases is about justice for those who lost their lives and their homes in Kenya’s 2007-2008 election violence and not against individuals or ethnic communities.

The fact that the judges found that some of Kenya’s most senior leaders should answer for deaths of over 1,100 lives and 650,000 people forced to flee their homes should not be the reason why the whole process is politicized. The aim is actually to break with decades of impunity for political violence in Kenya.

That is why concerned Kenyans have consistently pleaded with Kenya’s authorities to take all reasonable steps to ensure that the tribal associations such as Gema, Kamatusa, G7 and Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) are disbanded because they are likely to lead to violence in forthcoming general elections.

If there is no action taken immediately then it will be too late for the Kenyan government to prevent supporters of the suspects from retaliating against other ethnic and political groups come 2013 general elections.

Recent revelations that there are plots to kill some politicians are just early warning mechanisms to such associations. Yesterday Central Imenti MP Gitobu Imanyara told Parliament that he fears for his life after he was allegedly accosted by four men as he drove to his home near State House, Nairobi on Tuesday night.

He told the House that the gunmen whom he believed to be police officers forced him to pledge support to a presidential aspirant from Central Kenya during the incident that happened between 11.30pm and midnight on State House Crescent.

The men he said asked him to kneel down facing Mt Kenya and chant ‘Uhuru Tuko Pamoja’ three times, with a machete placed at the back of his head. The thugs also warned him against attending the outlawed Limuru 2B meeting on Wednesday that had been organised by former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga, to counter recent gatherings by the Gema and Kamatusa groups.

Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, who denounced Imanyara’s claim, is seeking the seat his father held between 1964 and 1978, and is banking on Gema (Gikuyu, Embu and Meru communities) to give him a head start in the race to succeed President Kibaki.

Facing Mount Kenya, first published in 1938, is an anthropological study of the people of the Kikuyu ethnicity of central Kenya. According to the book in the time of creation, God could only descend to earth in a place of absolute and divine purity.

The Kikuyu people believe that this place was the highest peak of the Mountain they called Kirinyaga – meaning a place of light and darkness. The light they saw at the top of the mountain, which they called ira. This was the resting place of their god Ngai.

From this high vantage point, he created the first man Gikuyu and his wife Mumbi, who lived below the mountain in a grove of fig trees. A sacrifice at the foot of the mountain brought forth nine young men from a fire to marry the nine daughters of Gikuyu, bringing the nine clans of the Kikuyu into being.

The shocking allegations of Raila’s assassination attempt are just but some of such mounting warnings. Prof Nick Wanjohi was questioned at his office on Tuesday over claims that he attended the meeting in Serena Hotel and Gigiri regarding the murder plot of eliminating Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

According to police sources, Kibaki’s Secretary was questioned about two meetings on March 6 at Serena hotel and on March 12 at Gigiri residence where it is alleged the plot to assassinate Raila was discussed.

Wanjohi denied attending the meetings which were also allegedly attended by a top military commander and a senior National Security Intelligence Services official. By Tuesday evening, six senior government officials among them Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Eldoret North MP William Ruto , Foreign Affairs Minister Prof Sam Ongeri, Finance Minister Njeru Githae and Uhuru’s Personal Secretary Munyori Buku had been questioned.

Although the Kenyan Daily Post has no way of verifying whether these names: “William Ruto, Uhuru Kenyatta, Munyori Buku (Uhuru’s principal communications officer), Nick Wanjohi (former Vice Chancellor of JKUAT and Kibaki confidant), Nderitu Mureithi (MP Laikipia West) and chief of Kenya’s defense forces Gen Julius Waweru Karangi” were being questioned because their names appear in Jakoyo’s dossier, the fact that there is already political tension in Kenya is worrying.

Jakoyo Midiwo allegedly revealed the names to the CID police officers when he visited their offices last week. The six individuals named above join Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Ongeri who was the first to be linked to the plot.

The Gem MP made headlines during the Easter weekend when he suggested during a funeral attended by Raila that some powerful individuals were in government were plotting to assassinate the PM so as to remove him from the equation of those running for president.

Eldoret North Mp William Ruto has confirmed recording a statement with the police as part of the ongoing investigations into the sensational claim made recently by Gem Mp Jakoyo Midiwo that a plan had been hatched to assassinate Prime Minister Raila Odinga. DAILY POST: REVEALED: Names of who planned Raila’s

This is not the first time Raila’s life has been in danger. In the run-up to 2002 elections, his personal car was sprayed with bullets at a Rainbow Alliance campaign trail in North Eastern. Raila had been dropped at Isiolo Airstrip by two aides who escaped unhurt during the incident.

Raila’s security was again beefed up in 2009 over claims he was the target of terrorists unhappy with Kenya’s continued co-operation with Washington on the war on terror.

In September last year, again, there was the grenade drama at the Office of the Prime Minister that police dismissed as an act of mischief.

Gachoka MP Mutava Musyimi also went public over fears for his life when five men, armed with an AK 47 rifle, axes and other weapons, broke into his Nairobi home at night looking for him. He said the attack was political.

Former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga also claimed that his life was in danger. Water assistant minister Ferdinand Waititu has been questioned by police over the threats.

Security officers said they summoned him after his name featured in the claims made by Njenga last month.

Njenga had claimed his life was in danger and that suspicious cars had been trailing him on the road and to his Nairobi and Kitengela residences with some of the occupants leaving messages they want to talk to him.

He added an assistant minister who he did not mention by name had been calling and threatening him with dire consequences over his decision to support former minister Njenga Karume as a spokesman of the Kikuyus.

Karume was in October installed the leader of Gema at a cultural event in Murang’a, which has elicited diverse reactions from Uhuru supporters. Maina Njenga has accused Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto of promoting ethnic hatred.

Njenga who was at a church event in Nairobi and added said they oppose these tribal organisations because we want Kenya to prosper. Njenga was referring to Kamatusa and Gema associations.

According to Njenga these alliances will cause something bigger than what happened in 2007/ 2008.Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi and Orange Democratic Movement politician Aburi Mpuri, who accompanied Njenga also opposed the revival of Gema and Kamatusa movements.

Njenga attacked church leaders who have attended and prayed at Gema and Kamatusa meetings accusing them of stoking tribal hatred. Njenga was barred from addressing the last Gema meeting in Limuru because he wanted to oppose it.

Police were forced yesterday to stop Limuru 2B meeting led by Maina Njenga. Although the police said it was because of security reason, the Limuru 2B was aimed at bringing together Kenyans from all regions to chart the way forward for a peaceful Kenya.

Central PPO John Mbijiwe said they had reports that some criminals plan to use the event to champion their ideas to the masses. Mbijiwe said the Limuru District Security and Intelligence team had learnt that the meeting would be infiltrated by criminals.

An advert that the organisers put up in local newspapers said the meeting would be addressed by among others retired cleric David Gitari and MP Gitobu Imanyara.

Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi who is among the organizers.

The police action of blocking the Limuru 2B meeting probably got the blessings from the high authorities since it was going to counter the recent Gema and Kamatusa tribal meetings in which certain divisive declarations were made.

Although Raila is being targeted because according to Uhuru and Kenyatta he is the one who wants them go to Hague to face charges at ICC, in the January 23 decisions, the majority of the judges charged Ruto, in one case, and Muthaura and Kenyatta, in the other case, as indirect co-perpetrators under article 25(3)(a) of the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, and charged Sang under article 25(3)(d) for contributing to the crimes allegedly committed.

Although the Police Commissioner, Mr Ali Mohamed was left free, his alleged shoot to kill orders resulted to police officers killing at least 405 people during the violence, injuring over 500 more, and raping dozens of innocent women and girls.

That is why even though the decision declined to confirm charges against Ali the Kenyan authorities must remain obligated to investigate unlawful police killings and abuse and bring to account those responsible.

Under the Rome Statute, crimes against humanity are any of a number of acts – like murder, torture, or rape – committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack on a civilian population, pursuant to a state or organizational policy.

This is not the first time Kenyan securities and militia groups have been accused of rape, torture and killing. In Mt. Elgon, both Kenyan security forces and a local militia group, the Saboat Land Defense Forces (SLDF) committed numerous atrocities between 2006 and 2008. Like the crimes currently under ICC investigation, many of the crimes committed in Mt. Elgon appear to have been orchestrated for political purposes.

The Kenya authorities should also stop political prayer meetings which according to National Cohesion and Integration Commission believe are used to spread hate speech. If they are not stopped then Kenyans should be ready to experience the genocide similar to that of Rwanda.

Genuine prayer is essentially the time we spend being conscious of being in the presence of God, and of desiring to know and love him more each day. To be conscious of God within and in a sense just soak in God.

The very best prayer to pray is the prayer our Lord taught his disciples: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them who trespass against us”. This is the heart of this prayer. Our Lord taught us that the heart of the Gospel is forgiveness. It is forgiving our brothers and sisters that we shall be forgiven by our heavenly Father. It is also the way to our own freedom. We cannot grow at all in our Christian life unless we forgive.

Prayer includes respect, love, pleading and faith. Through a prayer a devotee expresses his helplessness and endows the doership of the task to God. This is when God allows me to love and respect others as I would like them to love and respect me.

For William Ruto such prayer meetings would be the time to examine himself as a former treasurer for the Youth for KANU (known as YK 1992).This group was widely seen as having been responsible for ethnic violence in 1992 and 1997, which claimed hundreds of deaths and thousands displaced in the Rift Valley Province.

People for Peace in Africa (PPA)
P O Box 14877
Nairobi
00800, Westlands
Kenya

Tel +254-7350-14559/+254-722-623-578
E-mail- ppa@africaonline.co.ke
omolo.ouko@gmail.com
Website: www.peopleforpeaceafrica.org

KENYA: ICC FIRST, THEN ELECTIONS …..Why Not Concurrantly…….

Leave a reply

From: Judy Miriga

Folks,

With this kind of political temperature rising into climax and as we know Kenya politics every election season, lives are in Danger and it gona get worse, if the situation is not arrested in time, it is on the verge of spiraling and spinning out of control.

It is prudent that Warsama proposal make some sense.

At this point, all death threats must be taken extremely very seriously and must be thoroughly investigated. At the end of the day, many ordinary Kenyans will be the target and many will die mysteriously and this must not be accepted.

Political temperature in Kenya is currently fluid and dangerous. The Police have begun to take sides serving interest of political power. The police actions will ignite the current soiled temperature and fire will consume all corners of the Country just like 2007/8 when Things Fall Apart in Kenya.

Another window to throw Kenya into Tribal and Civil war clashes must be shunned and the International Community and Leadership must step in to help the ICC Hague take speedy move to indict those who had committed the crimes.

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

– – – – – – – – –

From: mohamed warsama
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2012 12:15 PM
Subject: ICC FIRST, THEN ELECTIONS

To avoid plunging Kenya into a post-election bloodbath over The Hague cases, I think the elections should be postponed at the presidential level only and the ICC be told to fast-track the Ocampo Four cases.

An interim government of eminent persons from all the 8 provinces should be formed to take over from the present Coalition Government.

It should remain in office for the duration of the ICC cases. These cases should be concluded within two years of this interim government taking over in March, 2013.

Otherwise we head into civil war which is sure to be ignited if Uhuru and Ruto are barred from contesting.

The elections for governors and ward representations can go on as planned.

Mohamed Warsama

‘Facing Mount Kenya’

By CYRUS OMBATI and PETER ORENGO

Sixty-four years ago, Kenya’s Founding father Mzee Jomo Kenyatta wrote an anthropological book on the Kikuyu community and called it Facing Mount Kenya. He borrowed the title from the snow-capped mountain where the community believed Ngai – their god – rests and faced while praying.

On Wednesday, the title was on many lips and this had nothing to do with Old Jomo’s book, but a humiliating ordeal Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara claims he went through in the name of Jomo’s son, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta.

Uhuru, who denounced Imanyara’s claim, is seeking the seat his father held between 1964 and 1978, and is banking on Gema (Gikuyu, Embu and Meru communities) to give him a head start in the race to succeed President Kibaki. To this end he appeared in one Gema meeting in Limuru, last month, when he was ‘crowned’ Gema’s undisputed leader.

Mr Imanyara said his assailants pulled him out of his car at night, next to State House, where Uhuru is fighting to return to, and forced him to kneel on the tarmac.

“The men came out of a ‘stalled’ car and asked me if I was Imanyara. Upon answering in the affirmative, they told me to come out and kneel while facing Mt Kenya and repeat the words, “Uhuru tuko pamoja” (Uhuru I am with you) three times,” said Imanyara.

Breaking police cordon

The startling claim came as Prime Minister Raila Odinga was also again mentioned in alleged assassination plots linked to the Kibaki Succession. But as if in a dress rehearsal of the heady days ahead the General Election, police sealed off the venue of second ‘Gema’ meeting called in Limuru to denounce the one that crowned Uhuru.

The scene was filled with tear gas, as police battled riotous youth seeking to break their cordon and get in. There were violent scenes, too, reminiscent of what Kenyans witnessed during the clamour for a return of multipartism in the early 1990s, and the pro-reform rallies of 1997.

Tempers flared in Parliament earlier in the day, after Imanyara sensationally claimed four armed men threatened to kill him on Tuesday night. The MP explained they stopped him when he was driving home at about 11.30pm, before he got to his house along State House Crescent.

His account was blood curdling, too, as he claimed they vowed to chop off his head and deliver it to his wife and children if he attended two meetings, one in Limuru and another in Meru.

Alleged intimidation

“I was warned against attending the Limuru 2B meeting and a public meeting in Meru that Prime Minister Raila Odinga is scheduled to address,” the MP claimed.

Imanyara is set to host Raila in Meru on Saturday, and has vowed to proceed with the meeting despite the alleged intimidation.

The other notable voices from Mt Kenya region believed to be sympathetic to Raila’s cause, apart from Imanyara, are: former Kabete MP Paul Muite, retired Anglican Archbishop David Gitari, Kiambaa MP Stanley Githunguri, former Attorney General Charles Njonjo, and businessman Peter Kuguru, among others.

But on the opposite end are Central and upper Eastern Kenya MPs’ brigade that is usually seen with Uhuru in G7 rallies convened with Eldoret North MP William Ruto.

The Gatundu South MP has also attracted the support of Gema leaders, who have met twice in Limuru and resolved to support him for president.

At the same time a political caucus – Friends of Raila (Fora) – also claimed its officials received threats linked to PM’s planned trip to Meru.

Fora also said Imanyara was threatened moments after attending a meeting with them to prepare for the visit.

“In the threatening message, I was asked why I want to hold a rally in Meru and warned. These are acts of intimidation intended to scare ODM members, but they will not stop our plans,” said Fora secretary general Eliud Owalo.

Running battles

Police tear-gassed and fired in the air to disperse youthful supporters linked to former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga from attending the anti-Gema meeting in Limuru.

Led by Muite, the youth overran police roadblocks and engaged the anti-riot force in running battles along Limuru Road before they were repulsed.

Imanyara vowed he would not be intimidated into supporting another presidential aspirant, in reference to what he said was pressure to jump onto Uhuru wagon. But the DPM dismissed his statement and drew a parallel between it and Gem MP Jakoyo Midiwo’s allegations that there is a plot to assassinate Raila.

“Don’t you find it peculiar that Midiwo at a funeral made allegations of assassination? Now Imanyara at a live television session in Parliament is making similar allegations,” posed Uhuru, through his spokesman, Munyori Buku.

Buku further said, “Now that Kenyans have laughed off Midiwo’s allegations, Imanyara has come on as the supporting cast.”

He claimed the allegations were coming from a “cabal of leaders who had lost direction”.

Mr Owalo claimed when he called the number of the person who threatened him, the owner insisted on meeting him. He said he had reported the matter to the police, and asked Internal Security Minister George Saitoti and the police to investigate the matter.

Imanyara told Parliament the threat against his life was linked to two meetings at a hotel in Nairobi, which some MPs attended.

“The meeting identified some leaders, including myself, as being stumbling blocks to some political agenda. But I’m willing to die defending the Constitution. I will not allow some MPs to force me to support certain individuals with presidential ambitions,” he vowed.

MPs’ worry

“I will not be cowed. I will not be stopped from implementing this Constitution. The Government must investigate this incident and state what measures it is taking to protect its citizens,” said Imanyara.

Internal Security and Provincial Administration Assistant Minister Orwa Ojode blamed MPs for not using of their security personnel.

Gichugu MP Martha Karua accused Ojode of taking the matter lightly. She wondered whether with this kind of attitude police would investigate the claims conclusively.

Police disperse Limuru meeting, cite security

A meeting called to counter the recent gatherings by the Gema and Kamatusa groups was on Wednesday broken up by police who used bullets and teargas to disperse some of the participants in Limuru.

Several others were injured in the confrontation that spread from the main Limuru Road to private farms in the area as the two groups engaged in running battles.

The meeting, dubbed Limuru 2B, was meant to counter earlier ones held by supporters of Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto.

The organisers of the meeting, led by former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga, Paul Muite, Mpuri Aburi, retired bishop David Gitari and Mr Ngunjiri Wambugu had arrived at a hotel in the area ready for the event.

Police led by Central PPO John Mbijiwe had sealed the venue of the meeting and set up roadblocks.

The officers were informed the conveners of the meeting were at the Wida Hotel, few kilometres away before one senior officer was sent there to inform Njenga to leave Kiambu County because he was not wanted there.

This led to a confrontation between him and Muite who told the officer his orders were illegal and Njenga was free to visit any place in this country.

Muite and his group later addressed journalists.

Muite said some politicians are behind the purported cancellation of the meeting and urged police not to take illegal orders.

“We will sue these senior officers for violating the laws and demand that they pay the damages using their own money. Again, some politicians think they can make decisions and think for others,” said Muite.

Muite left the area condemning the acts and police dashed to back up their colleagues who had been overpowered at the roadblock.

By then, approximately 2,000 youths had overpowered the officers and were marching to the Jumuia Conference.

A confrontation ensued on the road with police firing to the air and throwing teargas canisters at them.

Escorted out

Last evening, Njenga blamed a politician for the drama saying the individual wants to impose ideologies on other Kenyans. He said he was escorted out of Wida Hotel by police cars and ordered not to go back.

The PPO said they had reports that some criminals planned to use the event to champion their ideas to the masses hence the cancellation.

“We have been informed even some Mungiki people will be there. That is like allowing a criminal gang to gather and map the way forward,” he said.

De La Rue row latest dent in integrity firewall

Published on 17/04/2012

Integrity is not something you can legislate. It’s not something akin to teaching a savage how to handle a knife, fork and spoon in the ways of the genteel. It is a very personal trait and comes from a combination of Nature and Nurture interventions. And on that platform of “meaningful change” and adherence to the principles of fair play and integrity, the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) Government came to power.

Sadly, an audit of the level of adherence to the positive attributes that took the election reveals a worrying descent back into the abyss.

No week seems complete without some or other scandal screaming from the non-Establishment newspapers, TV stations and social media. And the currency printer De La Rue falls in the same skein.

It all started in 2003 when Kenya invited officials of Central Banks from several African states to help develop an instrument to guide the international tendering for a new generation currency printing contract for use in the region and earn benefits of economies of scale.

The deal now reeks of improper motive, arm-twisting, underhand dealings, tender manipulation, suspect accounting and a longstanding relationship between State and an international firm that will never be the same again.

Once Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee gets to the bottom of the role of various players in this saga, the paper trail should lead to the Sh2.7 billion (maybe more) the taxpayer lost.

shades of truth

At the time the new Narc regime was cancelling the contract claiming it was suspiciously single-sourced by the former Kanu regime just before the 2002 elections, appeared to have been the right move then.

Problem is the negative vibes coming from the cancelled deal that was replaced with a pricier one.

Like we argued earlier, no number of court appearances, incarceration, preaching will add an ounce of integrity to a public officer if they do not wish to do what is right and in the public’s interest.

How many shades of truth exist in this billion-shilling deal that is still in contention 10 years on? Let the House Committee work this out. Urgently.

Ruto’s supporters in a great panic following the ICC request for the detailed account of the land grabbing court case in Kenya

Leave a reply

Writes Bob Ndira Uradi In Edloret Town

FRESH panicking mood has gripped this fast growing farming town I the North Rift following the revelation by newspaper reports that the International Criminal Court at the Huge is keenly following events related to a court case in which the area MP William Samoe Ruto is involved in another legal tussle in a case connected to land grabbing from an internally displaced person.

Local media house reported on Tuesday this week that Ruito is again on spot following revelations of his acquisition, owning up and controversy surrounding a piece of 100 acres of land allegedly grabbed from an internally displaced person.

The report revealed that the International Criminal Court has stepped in to acquaint itself with a court case that pits Ruto against an IDP over a large tract of land which the MP had acquired after post-election violence.

Ruto supporter in this town could be seen engaged in low tone discussions in groups while looking visibly wearing worrying faces. On of them intimidated that more case of similar nature against their MP could sprung up in the near future.

The newspapers had reported that the ICC head of investigation has formally written to the government of Kenya on behalf of the Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo.

In the letter addressed to the Internal Security Minister Prof. George Saitoti dated March 22, the ICC Head of Investigations Division Mr Michael De Smedt had noted that they had learnt of the existence of a civil case between one Andrew Gilbert Muteshi and William Ruto over a land dispute.

According to a report appearing in the Kenya’s most influential and authoritative, the STANDARD, the Internal Security Minister has sine forwarded the letter to the Kenya’s Attorney general Githu Muigai seeking to have the Ruto case file for onward transmission to the ICC.

Smedt had said the case might contain information that is relevant to Ocampo’s investigations into conduct of Ruto during the period of post-election violence of 2007/2008.

“The OTP hereby request the assistance of the competent authorities of the Republic of Kenya to transmit the following documents,” he added.

According to the ICC request, they want to be furnished with a copy of the full civil case file containing all documents filed in the case between Muteshi and Ruto concerning the disputed land in Uasin Gishu district.

Ocampo is also reported as seeking copies of the new or additional documents that would be added to he case file subsequent to the execution of this request.

Mr Smedt promised that all information given to the prosecutor’s office would be dealt with confidentially.

“In accordance with Article 87{3} of the Rome Statute, the competent authorities of Kenya are requested to keep the request for assistance and any supporting documentation confidential except to the extent that disclosure is necessary for the execution of the request,” Smedt added.

Smedt further appealed to the Kenyan government to treat the matter with the utmost urgency so as to facilitate investigation by the prosecutor’s office.

Last week, Ruto beat a hasty about- turn following an earlier pledge he had made to return the 100-acre piece of land he allegedly acquired illegally from Muteshi.

The abrupt change of heart occurred after the MP and the IDP failed to agree on certain conditions.

The case is now set to go to full hearing paving way for tabling for details on how Ruto acquired the land Kaptebei Settlement Scheme in Turbo area in 2008inside Ruto’s parliamentary electoral area.

Also on Monday last week Muteshi who was allegedly forcibly evicted fro the piece of land, told the court that Ruto who had agreed to surrender the land and relinquish the title deed for the property he bought from a woman said he was not ready to accept that he acquired it illegally.

Muteshi had indicated through his lawyer Antony Lubulelah that he would only accept the property back if Ruto also catered for the expense he had incurred filing the case.

Due to failure to record an agreement before the High Court Judge Lady Justice Rose Ougo as ordered two weeks ago, the Judge ordered the matter to be heard on April 25 and 26.

RUTO had prior to court brief appearance during which he had his accused were expected to sign the formal settlement agreement had convened pre conference and tired to put up a spirited defensive words how he had acquired the piece of land and detailed account of the transactions. But legal experts were quick in cautioning hi against putting up his defense via the media instead of making them before the court.

Ruto’s supporters have expressed fear that the particulars contained therein the civil case could furnish the ICC with fresh ammunition with which the ICC prosecutor could use during the forthcoming trials at The Hague with which the court could justify the claim that Ruto ha caused illegal eviction of people from their farms and homes during the post-election violence.

Ends

ICC First verdict: Thomas Lubanga guilty of conscripting and enlisting children under the age of 15 and using them to participate in hostilities / Premier verdict de la CPI : Thomas Lubanga Dyilo coupable

Leave a reply

From: News Release – African Press Organization
PRESS RELEASE

THE HAGUE, Netherlands, March 14, 2012/ — Today, 14 March 2012, Trial Chamber I of the International Criminal Court (ICC) (http://www.icc-cpi.int) decided unanimously that Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is guilty, as a co-perpetrator, of the war crimes of conscripting and enlisting children under the age of 15 and using them to participate actively in hostilities from 1 September 2002 to 13 August 2003. It is the first verdict issued by an ICC Trial Chamber. At present, 14 other cases are before the Court, three of which are at the stage of trial.

The present war crimes of enlisting and conscripting children under the age of 15 and using them to participate actively in hostilities were committed in the context of an internal armed conflict that took place in the Ituri (the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and involved the Force patriotique pour la libération du Congo (Patriotic Force for the Liberation of the Congo) (FPLC), led by Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, against the Armée Populaire Congolaise and other militias, including the Force de résistance patriotique en Ituri. A common plan was agreed by Mr Lubanga Dyilo and his co-perpetrators to build an army for the purpose of establishing and maintaining political and military control over Ituri. This resulted in boys and girls under the age of 15 being conscripted and enlisted, and used to participate actively in hostilities.

Mr Lubanga Dyilo was the President of the Union des patriotes congolais (Union of Congolese Patriots) (UPC), the Commander-in-Chief of its military wing, the FPLC, and its political leader. He exercised an overall coordinating role regarding the activities of the UPC/FPLC and he actively supported recruitment initiatives, for instance by giving speeches to the local population and the recruits. Furthermore, he personally used children below the age of 15 amongst his bodyguards and he regularly saw guards of other UPC/FPLC staff members who were below the age of 15. The Chamber, comprising Judge Adrian Fulford (presiding judge), Judge Elizabeth Odio Benito and Judge René Blattmann, found that the evidence presented by the Prosecutor establishes beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Lubanga Dyilo’s contribution was essential to the common plan.

At the request of Mr Lubanga Dyilo, and in accordance with article 76(2) of the Rome Statute, the Chamber will hold a separate sentencing hearing. The Chamber will, furthermore, establish the principles that are to be applied to reparations for victims. The defence is entitled to appeal the conviction within 30 days of receiving the French translation of the Judgment.

Background information

Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, a national of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was transferred to The Hague on 17 March 2006, pursuant to a warrant of arrest issued by Pre-Trial Chamber I. His trial, the first at the ICC, started on 26 January 2009 and the closing statements were presented by the parties and participants on 25 and 26 August 2011.

Over the course of 204 days of hearings, the Trial Chamber has delivered 275 written decisions and orders and 347 oral decisions. The Chamber heard 36 witnesses, including 3 experts, called by the Office of the Prosecutor, 24 witnesses called by the defence and 3 witnesses called by the legal representatives of the victims participating in the proceedings. The Chamber also called 4 experts. A total of 129 victims, represented by two teams of legal representatives and the Office of Public Counsel for Victims, were granted the right to participate in the trial. They have been authorised to present submissions and to examine witnesses on specific issues. The Prosecution submitted 368 items of evidence, the Defence 992, and the legal representatives of victims 13.

Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of the the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The ICC (http://www.icc-cpi.int) is the first permanent, treaty-based, international criminal court established to help end impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes of concern to the international community, namely war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression. At present, 15 cases have been brought before the Court in the context of 7 situations that are currently under investigation: Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Darfur (Sudan), Kenya, Libya and Côte d’Ivoire. The ICC Judges have issued 20 warrants of arrest (2 withdrawn following the death of the suspects) and 9 summonses to appear. Currently, five individuals are in the ICC custody and 11 suspects remain at large.

Judgment pursuant to Article 74 of the Statute: http://www.icc-cpi.int/Menus/Go?id=98c44348-cc3f-4138-a9ac-23b9b2f0fced&lan=en-GB

PDF: English: http://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/doc/doc1379838.pdf

Summary of the “Judgment pursuant to Article 74 of the Statute”: http://www.icc-cpi.int/Menus/Go?id=9f33b727-80fb-447e-8127-3a8aa6ae8c87&lan=en-GB

PDF: English: http://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/doc/doc1379843.pdf, Français: http://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/doc/doc1379841.pdf

Case Information Sheet

English: http://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/PIDS/publications/LubangaENG.pdf

Français: http://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/PIDS/publications/LubangaFRA.pdf

The Court Today

English: http://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/PIDS/publications/TheCourtTodayEng.pdf

Français: http://www.icc-cpi.int/iccdocs/PIDS/publications/TheCourtTodayFra.pdf

For further information, please contact Fadi El Abdallah, Spokesperson and Head of Public Affairs Unit, International Criminal Court, by telephone at: +31 (0)70 515-9152 or +31 (0)6 46448938 or by e-mail at: fadi.el-abdallah@icc-cpi.int.

You can also follow the Court’s activities on YouTube and Twitter.

SOURCE

International Criminal Court (ICC)

Uhuru-Ruto prayer meeting ends in Hague

Leave a reply

The prayer meeting ends in Hague
From: john vorster

That long “prayer warrior” just begun the journey to meet the master of International Criminal Courts bench! Since the confirmation of charges against the two of the Ocampo four, Kenya has witnessed that indeed we have political prayer warriors’ who would wish to turn-table for the sake of protecting themselves in public though they have been branded fourth name-the victims of “Crimes against humanity”. These guys have spent enormous energy to avert the voices of the international Criminal Court but to their disappointment, Ocampo stands with his word-setting Kenyan case an example to the world. Can you just imagine Hon. Ruto making it very clear in a bright sunny day that the ICC cases will take 100 years to begin? Surely, Ruto might have been misguided by his friends to speak a top his voice. On the other hand, Hon. Uhuru too played a stage managed video to appease the African Union and the world that he was a leader-cum a preacher. What else did the video achieve? Kenya has highly talented lawyers whose demand to the International Criminal cases would be needed today and the day after. What then happened to these lawyers at the time they were supposed to have advised our “government” on the possible implications and die consequences of ICC? Then there’s the very lawyer- Hon. Kalanzo Musyoka who ought to avoid wasting tax payer’s money going around the globe in search of nothing but his own simple ambition of stomach development while meeting high African and World leaders for photography. Did he bring any tangible or arguable matter upon his many tours? The answer is best known to his master Hon. Kibaki whom he claimed consented to his missions. Well, should Kenya blame anybody for all these? I guess not! What then happened to the well speculated motion and letters sent to Security Council from the Members of the August house to have Kenya withdraw her signature from ICC? Who then placed the initial pen that made Kenya join a court that spares nobody irrespective of your ethnical popularity and political base?

Fellow Kenyans, ICC is in serious business and we should be ready to pay for the very price of those individual who succumbed to death in the name of politics during 2007/2008. That contract was sealed then and those who died mercilessly will surely witness the curtain falls behind the doors of ICC when Ruto and his dear friend Uhuru will be stepping in at the door steps of the chambers. Could it be true to point out that the spirit of the dead is touching the volumes of files in ICC? I bet that those who dearly lost their lives are having the morning and evening prayers daily at The Hague just to meet these fellows who have been indicted. Will the group of friendly MPs again accompany them to sing “Kenya ni nchi yetu tunaipenda sena…?” How about Ruto himself, I remember seeing him running west to have a dialogue with Ocampo but to his dismay, Ocampo never discuss crimes against humanity with senior suspect whose names had featured in the Waki envelop, the court does. This gentleman was part of the very team that helped the Waki Commission but little did he know that he set himself in that burning dish. The ICC is a court and there are leaders with divergent portfolios, I bet somebody will be a duty leader of wing “A” while the other will represent the integrity of upcoming criminal lawyers and prosecutors by virtue that he held the ministry of higher education prior to his wake up call. On the other side, we will be ready to see that every department avail their personal request to the secretary Muthaura. All these will be tuned with live coverage coz Mr. Sang is the head of communication department. NOTE: For every one of the 1,300 people whom we believe to have been murdered, they will be given time to ask the simplest question-Mr. Ruto and Uhuru, did I deserve to die like an animal? While for the entire Internally Displaced Persons, will be keen on watching and expecting compensation in the same manner Ruto has started giving back the lands he grabbed from the poor. To the ICC judges, please we are only requesting that your governance should consider better praying grounds for these folks for they have shown that yes they can. Allow them the room and chambers to preach beyond their wealth in Hague. Now lets go to Hague and the journey began with a good sermon at meet the people prayers…..we need the calendar updates for routes in The Hague where such prayers will be held.

Regards

John Vorster

Kenya: WATCH LIVE :- Kivuitu blames Kibaki and Moi…..He says chaos and Killings were organized

1 Reply

from Judy Miriga

This is really sad…….but, Kivuitu will bring flavour to ICC Hague over genocide of 2007/2008 in Kenya.

Kivuitu agrees that the election was flawed, but he announced it anyway and precided over Kibaki’s swearing in at State House…..

Sad to say……..

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

– – – – – – – – – – –

Four years on…Samuel Kivuitu’s reflections on 2007 election

Uploaded by NTVKenya on Dec 29, 2011

http://www.ntv.co.ke
He was blamed for the mayhem that rocked the country exactly four years ago, following the announcement of the disputed presidential election. He had to announce the results in a secret room under heavy protection from armed security personnel. But four years on, Samuel Mutua Kivuitu says he has no regrets about how he handled the election. In fact Kivuitu says, he would conduct that election, the exact same way, if he were do it all over again. The former ECK chairman, who is now being treated for throat cancer, spoke to NTV’s Joe Ageyo.

@ogwemigo True, sad that he is so arrogant and unrepentant. God will judge him for all that. Thank God? for the new constitution and the provisions for the creation of strong and independent institutions that will hopefully put Kenyan interests above the elite’s political interests.
sirjonduke 26 minutes ago

This is a COLD BLOODED killer with no remorse. He is? enjoying the blood of his victims. For how long will you enjoy the millions you were given?
nyangi77 29 minutes ago

Enzi Zao: Samuel Kivuitu

Uploaded by kenyacitizentv on Jul 13, 2011
Wako Wapi? Makala ya Enzi Zao inamuangazia Samuel Kivuitu, aliyekuwa mwenyekiti wa tume ya uchaguzi.

Kivuitu: Kibaki and Raila mistreated me

Uploaded by NTVKenya on Aug 5, 2009
http://www.ntv.co.ke
Six months after the electoral commission he headed was unceremoniously disbanded Samuel kivuitu is tonight sharing some of his reflections of the 2007 elections exclusively with NTV. Kivuitu feels badly treated by the president and prime minister but has no regrets. A much-relaxed Samuel Kivuitu spoke to NTVs Emmanuel Juma.

Kivuitu’s Reaction to Kriegler Report

Uploaded by kenyacitizentv on Sep 22, 2008
ECK chairman Samwel Kivuitu reacts to Kriegler Report.

Kivuitu: Vote tallying was grossly flawed.

Uploaded by NTVKenya on Aug 20, 2008
Vote tallying was grossly flawed.

Kivuitu’s turn in the dock

Uploaded by NTVKenya on Aug 18, 2008
Kivuitu’s turn in the dock

Samuel Kivuitu says he did nothing wrong

Uploaded by NTVKenya on May 14, 2008
Samuel Kivuitu

SHOWDOWN – Kivuitu emerges from the woodwork – Feb 13, ’08

Uploaded by NTVKenya on Feb 14, 2008
February 14, 2008 – Electoral Commission chairman Samuel Kivuitu wants an inquiry to establish rigging claims on the presidential poll.

SHOWDOWN – Kivuitu emerges from the woodwork – Feb 13, ’08

Uploaded by NTVKenya on Feb 14, 2008
February 14, 2008 – Electoral Commission chairman Samuel Kivuitu wants an inquiry to establish rigging claims on the presidential poll.

Kivuitu Tries To exonerate Himself

Uploaded by bwanakeino on Jan 4, 2008
Kivuitu

kibaki swearing in

Uploaded by juicethedj on Jan 9, 2008
kibaki swearing in

Kenya ECK put on task on vote tally

Uploaded by juicethedj on Feb 6, 2008
ECK blamed

Kivuitu: “I dont’t Know Where The Reurning Officers Are”

Uploaded by makozewe on Jan 6, 2008
Kivuitu: “I dont’t Know Where The Reurning Officers Are”.

Election Rigging: “A Matter Of Life And Death” – Kwach

Uploaded by makozewe on Jan 6, 2008
Election Rigging: “A Matter Of Life And Death” – Kwach.

ECK Kivuitu gets tribal

Uploaded by juicethedj on Feb 20, 2008
kivuitu gets tribal out of the closet

Kibaki Winner Kenya elections 2007 and sworn in immediately

Uploaded by nmugaya on Dec 30, 2007
Kenya elections final results; Kibaki wins and sworn in immediately

Martha Karua

Uploaded by ruffcast on Dec 30, 2007
PNU,ODM kenya election rigging, Kibaki Raila martha karua vote recount kivuitu ECK nairobi

Election Rigging: “Something Is Wrong” – Kosgey

Uploaded by makozewe on Jan 6, 2008
Election Rigging in Kenya: “Something Is Wrong” – Kosgey.

Kosgey pleads with ECK

Uploaded by ruffcast on Dec 30, 2007
Kosgey’s pleas to ECK PNU,ODM kenya election rigging, Kibaki Raila martha karua vote recount kivuitu ECK nairobi ODM PNU kosgey nairobi kibaki fraud stealing raila kenya elections voting rigging KTN

Kenya: Court of Appeal Declines to Quash Bashir Warrant

Leave a reply

From: Judy Miriga

Folks,

This was the best gift for the Holiday Seasons and the 2012 best wishes……Keep up the good work good people……

We eagerly await to read report from ICC Hauge with relevant activities from the desk of Fatou Bensouda, as Justice delayed is Justice denied……and so, Justice must be seen to be done……

Cheers everybody…….!!!

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

– – – – – – – – – – –

Kenya: Court of Appeal Declines to Quash Bashir Warrant
George Omondi and Agencies

20 December 2011

The government has suffered a fresh blow in its push for a quick restoration of diplomatic and trade ties with Sudan after the Court of Appeal declined to quash an arrest warrant against President Omar al-Bashir.

The Court of Appeal on Tuesday rejected a supplementary application filed by the State to stay a ruling issued by a High Court Judge last month against the Sudanese president.

The ruling delivered by Mr Justice Nicholas Ombija requires the Attorney-General and Internal Security minister to arrest Mr Bashir and hand him over to International Criminal Court (ICC) to answer to charges of alleged crimes against humanity.

“We are not convinced the reasons given by the deputy solicitor general are sufficient to grant a stay. The application for interim stay is refused,” Appeal Court Justice Emmanuel O’Kubasu told reporters on Tuesday.

This means that Kenya remains a no-go-zone for Mr Bashir up to January 24 when an appeal case that State lodged against Mr Justice Ombija’s ruling is determined. On Tuesday, the Attorney General’s office downplayed the setback, maintaining that it was more of a technicality than a substance issue.

“We are waiting for the ruling to be delivered early next year with a lot of confidence. Although we would have preferred an interim order against the High Court ruling, we appreciate that the Court needed more time given the critical issues involved in this case,” Attorney-General Githu Muigai told the Business Daily in a phone interview.

Mr Justice Ombija’s ruling had earlier raised a storm, sparking a diplomatic row between Khartoum and Nairobi that saw the former expel Kenya’s ambassador and recall its country’s envoy within 12 hours.

Foreign minister Moses Wetangula said Kenya would also have lost a key market for its tea, coffee and other products if the state had not move with speed to appeal the case.

He told Parliament that Mr Bashir had ordered that all flights from Kenya be banned from Sudan’s airspace, jeopardising tea worth $200 million among other goods that it buys from Kenya every year.

Also facing uncertainty in the country are hundreds of students and merchants who have established businesses under past cordial diplomatic relations.

Kenya is a signatory to the Rome Statute which established the ICC in 2002 but has opted, alongside the African Union, not to enforce the ICC’s warrant of arrest against the Sudanese leader.

According to Prof Muigai, however, a sitting head of state enjoys immunity from criminal proceedings under the Rome Statute, a ground that informs an appeal case that the State has lodged against the High Court ruling.

Kenya: Journey to the ICC
23 December 2011

Nairobi — This holiday season Kenyans will be watching the International Criminal Court (ICC), awaiting a decision – expected between 23 December and January 2012 – on confirmation-of-charges hearings against the first three of six high-level suspects who allegedly bear the greatest responsibility for violence that erupted after the disputed 2007 presidential poll, leading to the deaths of at least 1,200 people and the displacement of hundreds of thousands.

Below are 12 key events on Kenya’s journey to the ICC:

The Post-Election Violence (PEV): Following the 30 December 2007 presidential election results, then opposition leader Raila Odinga (now prime minister) and his supporters reject the declared victory of incumbent Mwai Kibaki (now president), alleging rigging. Protests degenerate into widespread violence with calm only returning after the formation of a coalition government in February 2008.

23 May 2008: The Commission of Inquiry into the Post-Election Violence (CIPEV) is set up and mandated to investigate the violence, the conduct of state security agencies in their handling of it and to make recommendations concerning these and other matters.

October 2008: CIPEV, popularly referred to as the “Waki Commission” after the chairman, appeal judge Phillip Waki, releases a report, which concludes that the post-election violence “was more than a mere juxtaposition of citizens-to-citizens opportunistic assaults [but] systematic attacks on Kenyans based on their ethnicity and their political leanings”.

The report calls for the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute the post-election violence crimes. In late 2008/early 2009, attempts to establish a special tribunal fail. Chants such as “Don’t be vague, go to the Hague” became popular, with most citizens expressing a distrust of the local justice system.

16 July 2009: An envelope with a list of persons who could be implicated in the violence and documents compiled by CIPEV is handed over to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo, at The Hague. On 5 November 2009, Moreno-Ocampo notifies the ICC president of his intention to submit a request for the start of an investigation into Kenya’s PEV. The ICC presidency issues the “Decision assigning the situation in the Republic of Kenya to Pre-Trial Chamber 11” on 6 November. This was followed by a 26 November 2009 request by the prosecutor to initiate investigations in Kenya.

31 March 2010: The ICC Chamber, by majority, concurs with the prosecutor that the alleged crimes against humanity occurred in Kenya, paving the way for the PEV investigations for the period between 1 June 2005 (when the Rome Statute ratifying the court entered into force in Kenya) and 26 November 2009 (the date of the filing of the Prosecutor’s Request).

15 December 2010: The list of the “Ocampo six” is released. Moreno-Ocampo then requests the court to issue summonses to Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Industrialization Minister Henry Kosgey, Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Muthaura and former education minister William Ruto, as well as former police commissioner Mohamed Hussein Ali and radio journalist Joshua Arap Sang, to voluntarily appear before the ICC for their alleged responsibility in the commission of crimes against humanity.

8 March 2011: Pre-Trial Chamber II issues, by majority, summonses for the six suspects to appear before the court.

31 March 2011: Kenya challenges the admissibility of the ICC cases, arguing in a submission to the Court that as a result of the adoption of a new constitution and ongoing judicial reforms, it is now capable of investigating the six suspects itself.

7 and 8 April 2011: Ruto, Kosgey, and Sang – case one; and Muthaura, Kenyatta and Ali – case two – appear voluntarily before the Court.

30 May 2011: Pre-Trial Chamber II rules on the admissibility of the cases against the six.

30 August 2011: The ICC’s Appeals Chamber confirms the Pre-Trial Chamber II 30 May 2011 decision on the admissibility of the cases against the six suspects as no national investigations are ongoing into the same individuals.

1-8 September 2011 and 21 September to 5 October 2011: The confirmation of charges hearing is held for the suspects in cases one and two, respectively.

The ICC, established by the Rome Statute on 1 July 2002, has been conducting investigations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Central African Republic, Kenya and Sudan. Moreno-Ocampo is to be replaced by his deputy, Fatou Bensouda, when his term ends in 2012.

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]

Kenya & ICC: Former Mungiki leader spilt the beans and disclosed that he had been threatened by a senior politician linked to ICC suspects

2 Replies

Writes Leo Odera Omolo

The Criminal cases pending against senior Kenyan politicians and top government official at the International Criminal Court of Justice at The Hague may soon take a new legal dimension following the shocking claims by the for leader of the dreaded and outlawed Mungiki religious sect.

Members of this sect were extensively mention by the ICC Chief Prosecutor Moreno Ocampo during the confirmation hearing before the ICC judges two months ago as having played key role in planned and well executed attacks, maiming and killing of innocent people for political expediency during the post-election violence which erupted in Kenya after the dispute presidential election results in December 2007.

The violence orgies that followed post election periods of 2007 and 2008 claimed the lives of more than 1500 Kenyan citizens, destruction of property worth billion of dollars and internally displaced people estimated to be numbering about 3500 whose homes were torched and forcefully evicted from their farms.

Six top politician and senior government official have appeared before the ICC judges t The Hague for the confirmation hearing as to whether they will have cases to answer leading to a full scale trials in the same ICC court. The politicians and top official hired some of the best lawyers in Kenya, UK and US for their defense team.

Among the suspect were former Minister for Higher Education and Eldoret North MP William Ruto, the suspended Industrialization Minister Henry Kosgey who is the serving MP for Tinderet in Nandi South district, a local FM Kass Radio Station presenter Joshua Arap Sang. The trio are suspected for committed criminal offences against humanity, causing illegal eviction of people from their homes and destruction of property and mass murder.

The second bunch of the suspect include the Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta who is also the MP for Gatundu South, the Head of civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet Ambassador Francis Muthaura and the former Commissioner of Police Maj-Gen Hussein Ali, who is currently serving the government as the Postmaster General.

The latest revelation by the former Mungiki leader Njenga Maina is likely going to incriminate and hurt the Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta who is also the one of the leading contender for the next year Kenya’s presidential race,Ambassador Muthaura and the former police Commissioner Hussein Ali.

Evidence were presented before the ICC Judges that the three had planned the arming and use Mungiki militias for retaliatory attacks against members of the communities considered hostile to the government leading to the killing of dozens of members ODM supporters, mainly Luos, Kalenjin, Luhyia and Kisii who were living in Naivasha and Nakuru towns in the Rift Valley Province.

The former Mungiki leader Njenga Maina told newsmen early this week that he fear his life is in danger because a senior politician linked to the ICC suspect want to kill him.

He claimed that the unnamed politician from Central Kenya believes that it was he {Njenga} who had sent a prosecution witness to the Hague with incriminating information about the retaliatory attacks against members of Kenya tribes who supported the opposition ODM party in Naivasha an Nakuru during the post-election violence.

Njenga Maina who is now a born again Christian and Preacher, said he fear for his life after strangers claiming to be officers from the dreaded anti-Mungiki police unit visited his two homes the previous week.

He told reporters in Karen Estate, a suburb of the capital city, Nairobi that a motor vehicle with the government registration number plate went to his Karen residence last Sunday with five unidentified occupants.

“The men claimed they were officers from the dreaded Kwekwe Squad and that they want to talk to me.”

Another Nissan van visited my Kitengela home and told my workers that they want Kshs 2 million to pardon me over crimes I do not know,” Njenga aid.

“Some people are asking why I had sent former Mungiki people to The Hague to testify for Ocampo. I am truly tell you the pressmen that I do not know who I at the ICC as a witness,” said Njenga

Njnga Maina believes that he unnamed politician from Central Kenya become angry with him after he {Njenga} had demanded that the senior politician honor his pledge to offset an outstanding mortuary bill for his {Njenga’s} wife Virginia Nyakio Njenga and her two bodyguards who were mysteriously murdered in 2008 according o other sources.

The politician in question had made a pledge to give Kshs 7 million and had initially made down payment of Kshs 4 million. After the politician allegedly told Njnga that he woud not pay the Kshs 3 million balance at the Umash Funeral home where the bodies of his wife and two other victims had remained uncollected for burial for well over two years.

The bodies of Virginia Nyakio Njenga, her bodyguard and her driver remained at the funeral home because the Mungiki followers had said they could not bury the three while their former Mungiki leader himself was still in prison.

Njenga Maina now felt threatened because the politician has said that he {Njenga} would not live to see the ICC suspect being locked in at The Hague because the Mungiki had implicated him in crimes against humanity.

The Mungiki informer is now hiding somewhere in Europe. H is expected to give testimony in The Hague against Deputy prime Minister an Minister for Finance Uhuru Kenyatta, Civil Service Head Ambassador Francis Muthaura and the former Police Commissioner Maj-Gen. Hussein Ali who are jointly accuse of organizing the Mungiki attacks in Naivasha and Nakuru Towns.

The politician close to the susect apparently believes that the Ocampo witness was sent to The Hague by Njenga.

Njenga told journalists suspicious cars have been trailing him since the heated exchange of words with the unnamed senior politician linked to the ICC suspects.

The story about Njenga Maina outbursts at the press conference, which he called at Karen was completely given the black out by the mainstream media houses in Kenya, but prominently mad a front page headline by the upcoming and aggressive Nairobi daily, The STAR.

Njenga disclosed that n Asistant minister had called to threaten him with dire consequences over the decision he made in supporting the former Defense Minister Mzee Njenga Karume as the sole spokesman of the Kikuyu community.

He said he had so far recorded statements at the Karen and Athi River police stations over the threat, a claim which the Police Spokesman Erik Kiraithe was quoted by he STAR as having been confirmed and that the police were actively investigating the matter.

Virginia Nyakio Njenga was buried with three others in January 2010 in Njenga’s home at Kitengela ia few kilometers in the outskirt of Nairobi City. Mrs Njnga was murdered with her driver and a bodyguard in April 2008 in Ngong’ Forest near Nairobi possibly by suspicion implicating the Kwekwe Police Unit Squad could have been secretly involved.

Former Defense Minister Njenga Karume and former MP Ferdinand Waititu were among the high ranking individuals who contributed money towards the Kshs 9 million mortuary and burial expenses for Nyakio. During the funeral Njenga Karume told the mourners that Starehe MP and an Assistant minister for Housing Bishop Margaret Wanjiru and Nairobi business tycoon Irshad Sumra had also contributed to the mortuary fee along with other donors who sent money through MPESA money transfer outlet.

Ends

ICC & Kenya: “Tomorrow will come” film

Leave a reply

from Tebiti Oisaboke

Viewer discretion required while watching this video

TOI

– – – – – – – – – – –

“Tomorrow will come” is a film about the ICC process following the naming of the six suspects most responsible for the post election violence which occurred in Kenya in 2007-2008.

Tomorrow Will Come Part 1-MPEG-4 .mp4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCQY13XtYxc&feature=email

Tomorrow Will Come Part 2-MPEG-4 .mp4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJEfHqq8jxc&feature=email

Kenya & ICC: Reviewed: Top Lawyers Seek Ocampo’s Job

Leave a reply

From: Judy Miriga

Folks,

It is my Prayer the Ocampo post will be given to an open public opinion, nomination and endorsements amongst the 4 top candidate picks, before appointment is made.

It will be a fair deal people…a just fair deal for the poor souls from Black Continent of Africa’s Human Rights, livelihood, wealth and destiny.

Ocampo in preparation to exit ICC Hague, presented and displayed a very painful-to-watch press conference with Jeff Koinange of Capital Talk from the Hague….

Watch the video clip attached here under………This is the reason why it should be made more prudent and specifically crucial that participants in a referendum opinion endorsement backed with facts to be made by the people of African Descent in the nomination of who to be at the ICC Hague………Africans who presently crave for Real Justice……..

With a step of faith as we get involved, May our Good God hear and provide answer to our Prayers……..

Thank you all,

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

– – – – – – – – – –

Ocampo to Pursue Justice http://www.youtube.com/user/K24TV#p/u/3/V4Zw0-STmBg

IS UHURU MUNGIKI ? http://www.youtube.com/user/K24TV#p/u/2/z202E_d4vxo

WAS RAILA INVOILVED http://www.youtube.com/user/K24TV#p/u/1/Vm8tyC5gKAI

ANY MORE EVIDENCE http://www.youtube.com/user/K24TV#p/u/0/iFx2ftLmmhY

Amiyo nyingi duong’

Mak Lweta Ruoth by Carol David. Director: Okidi

Kenya: Top Lawyers Seek Ocampo’s Job
Murithi Mutiga

8 October 2011

Four senior lawyers are seen as early favourites in the race to succeed Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo at the International Criminal Court.

A new prosecutor will be named in the second week of December, an appointment that will be keenly watched as the new prosecutor will take over the two Kenyan cases in The Hague.

Informed sources say the four lawyers are the leading candidates among dozens of candidates in the race to take over from Mr Moreno-Ocampo.

International Criminal Tribunal of the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz, Mr Ocampo’s deputy Fatou Bensouda, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda prosecutor Hassan Jallow and former ICTY prosecutor Louise Arbour are seen as the top picks.

Different reasons

Mr Brammertz and Ms Bensouda are said to enjoy frontrunner status within the search committee for very different reasons.

Ms Bensouda has the advantage of being an African, a woman and a Muslim. These factors have seen her touted as one of the strongest candidates considering some critics claim the ICC is hostile to Africa. Ms Bensouda is also described as an exceptionally gifted lawyer.

The biggest weakness in her application, though, is her association with Mr Ocampo’s time in office. Some critics say that Mr Ocampo has had an undistinguished record, and he has come under severe criticism for his love for publicity, which critics argue has detracted from the serious work of investigations.

This is how international criminal law lecturer Kevin Jon Heller describes Ms Bensouda:

“She’s brilliant, tough, fair and the reason that the OTP has not collapsed under the weight of Moreno-Ocampo’s incompetence,” he wrote on the law portal Opinio Juris. “She’s also inspiring, having broken though every glass ceiling imaginable in Gambia.”

Ms Bensouda will have to overcome the strong constituency of doubters within and outside the ICC who argue that it is vital that the institution achieves a clean break from the Moreno-Ocampo era.

The outgoing chief prosecutor is yet to win a conviction in The Hague.

The courtroom performances of his team have also come under fire with Francis Muthaura’s lawyer Karim Khan establishing himself as one of the prosecutor’s fiercest critics.

In the latest round of hearings Mr Khan demanded that the judges order an investigation into what he termed “prosecutorial misconduct” in handling the Kenya case and in the prosecution’s dealings with witnesses.

Another strong candidate is Mr Brammertz, a Belgian former professor of law at the University of Liège who is widely regarded as one of the most impressive figures in international law.

He speaks German, Dutch, French and English, and in his role as the chief prosecutor at ICTY, led the team that has assembled the cases against the ICTY’s most high profile suspects – former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic and military leader Ratko Mladic.

Mr Brammertz is seen as possibly the strongest candidate in the race. There are those who say that the ICC should not bend over backwards to pick someone from a developing country, but should be guided purely by merit.

However, to qualify for the position of chief prosecutor one must be nominated by their home state and it is not clear if Mr Brammertz has won the support of Belgium.

It is said that some in Belgium were unhappy at the manner in which Mr Brammertz resigned from his former position as deputy chief prosecutor to Mr Ocampo.

Been unhappy

It is thought that Mr Brammertz quit due to serious differences between him and Mr Ocampo.

He is said to have been unhappy with the chief prosecutor’s methods and was especially disgruntled over the decision of the ICC to take action against the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda and its failure to take similar action against the Ugandan army.

A scholar who studies the impact of the ICC’s work in Uganda and Libya, Mr Mark Kersten, says that it is unclear if at a time when the ICTY has its most high profile suspects in detention they will be willing to lose their chief prosecutor.

Another candidate in the running is Hassan Jallow who has been the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda since 2003. Mr Jallow is seen as a safe choice. He would be unlikely to shake up the office of the prosecutor too much.

However, Mr Jallow has two things against him. His relatively advanced age – he is 61 which means that he would be 70 at the end of his nine-year term in the OTP- and his nationality.

As a Gambian, Mr Jallow will be one in a crowded field of African candidates that have applied for the job. That list of applicants is said to include three Kenyans, although the Sunday Nation could not immediately establish their identities.

One of their own

If Africans do not succeed in pushing through one of their own, one of the Western candidates that has been touted as a potential replacement is the Canadian former chief prosecutor at ICTY.

Mr Kerster writes no other candidate “has been more involved with issues of justice, human rights and conflict than Arbour …. she is tough as nails and not overly worried about annoying state and non-state actors in the defence of principles and values. At the same time, Arbour is one of those rare characters, unlike Moreno-Ocampo, who don’t feel the need to be flashy or use unnecessarily high rhetoric in the way they go about their business.”

The next prosecutor will be elected by the 10th session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

KENYA & ICC: POLICE IN KENYA ARE PROVIDING 24 HOURS SECURITY MEASURES AND ARE GUARDING THE HOME OF THE FAMILY OF AN ICC WITNESS IN THE RIFT VALLEY FOLLOWING LAST FRIDAY NIGHT ATTACK

Leave a reply

Reports Leo Odera Omolo In Kapsabet Town.

POLICE in Kenya’s expansive Rift Valley Province are maintaining a 24 hours vigil at the home of an ICC witness at the Hague in the Netherlands.

The home is located a few kilometers from this town, which is situated in North Nandi district, about 300 kilometer North-south of the capital, Nairobi.

The witness and his family are currently under protection in an undisclosed location abroad at the expense of the International Court of Criminal Justice {ICC}where six top Kenya government officials are facing confirmation hearing on whether they should stand for trial for numerous offences related to the post-election violence of 2007 and 2008.

The top officials include the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, the Permanent Secretary in the Office of the President and the Head of Public Service Ambassador Francis Muthaura, the suspended Minster for the Industrialization, Henry Kosgey, the sacked Minister for higher Education, William Ruto, the Postmaster General and a form Commissioner of Police, Maj-Gen Hussein Ali and local Kass FM Radio station news broadcaster Joshua Arap Sang.

The case has attracted a lot of interests among Kenyans and their friends abroad. Thousands of TV viewers have been following the proceedings at the Hague with keen interests.

Five top police sleuths from the Department of Criminal investigations {CID}visited the home on Tuesday where they collected sample of stones and broken window panes used by the attackers who the locals believes are the supporters of one of the suspect in the Hague criminal cases of violating human rights.

On Monday this week the Director of Public Prosecution {DPP} Kariako Tobiko was reported to have written a letter to the Commissioner of Police Mathew Iteere directing him to investigate the matter and provide round the clock security at home.

The DPP ordered to the relevant security agencies to investigate the incident was confirmed by the Council of NGO Council Ken Wafula.who confirmed having receive a copy of the letter said it was also copied to the Kenya’s Attorney General Githu Muigai and the CID Director Ndegwa Muhoro.

The ICC officials operating through its liaison office in Nairobi have also contacted the family of its prosecution witness which was attacked last Friday during the wee hours of the night.

Unknown people suspected to be the youths allied to politicians currently facing prosecution at the ICC in the Netherlands stoned the roofs of houses covered by corrugated iron sheet The threw stones and other missiles on the roof and destroyed window panes while shouting “The Hague the Hague” in the darkness.

The family led by the 65 year old has since fled the home and have sough for refuge with relatives in Eldoret Town. They escaped under the cover of darkness and boarded a matatu van destined to Eldoret Town. No one was injured in the attack.

Officials from the Witness Protection Advisory have also moved to the home and are said to be in contact with the family in Eldoret town. Following last Friday incident the several families whose members are suspected to be connected to the ICC cases as witnesses are said to be living in fear for their safety in the entire North Rift region of Kenya.

The region witnessed the Mayhem that engulfed Kenya following the hotly disputed result of the presidential votes tallying in December 2007 and early in 2008. Close to 1,500 people lost their lives, while close to 350,000 lost their dwelling homes, most of the torched by marauding political goons. Properties worth millions of shilling were destroyed by political thugs.

“I direct that you cause urgent and speedy investigation to be carried into the incident and statement should be recorded and all the persons who might have been involved interrogated,” says Tobiko’s letter in part.

The DPP wants the on the matter forwarded to his office as soon as possible. The Witnesses Protection Advisory {WPA} says it is considering the possibility of a preliminary stop-gap intervention or protection of the family.

The Attorney general through his state law office public relations officer Dominic Onyango promised he will work with the ICC liaison office in Nairobi on the issue to ensure that justice is done.

Ends