By Dickens Wasonga in Kisumu.

Hopes for the Ocampo Six ,as they are now commonly known, seemed to sink further as the Kenya’s prime minister declared the country had lost the opportunity to have the suspects tried locally.

Speaking at Kenyatta sports grounds in Kisumu, Raila Odinga said the ICC had taken over the case and it was formally underway adding that the recent developments in parliament where MPs passed a motion seeking the country’s withdrawal from the courts as futile efforts that should not worry Kenyans.

The PM, who was in Kisumu to witness the home coming ceremony of the recently installed chairman of Luo council of elders, Mr Willis Otondi, said those who initially opposed the Hague process, while describing the local tribunal option as vague, have now realized that the ICC process is real and was here with them.

” When the matter of forming a local tribunal was brought for debate before the floor of parliament, most MPs who are now anti-Hague, described it as the best option. One of them even told the house that we should not be vague,go to the Hague. They believed the process would take years to catch up with the perpetrators.”, said Raila.

The ODM supremo said Kenyans had all the time to ensure those implicated were tried locally but the MPs frustrated the move and they must now chew what they picked.

” If a child cry for a razor blade, you as a parent should give him or her and if he or she cut himself or herself with it,they learn”, Raila said in Kiswahili.

He said Kofi Annan,, who brokered a peace deal that eventually ended the post poll chaos and later saw Kenya form a coalition government, held the secret envelop, which had names of those believed to have organized and funded the violence, for three months with the hope that the leaders would chose the local option in vain.

” Even Ocampo also held the envelop for a while, thinking that we could agree to have a local solution to this matter, but it did not happen, so nobody should claim he is favouring any side of the political divide because he is not even a Kenyan” He said.

And as if to offer solace to the Ocampo six, Raila said the Hague process can be reversed only if a local tribunal was formed and a thorough judicial reforms are carried out which will meet the UN set standards.

Raila said that route would take several years, and the six would still be under the close watch of the ICC, until Kenya convinces the international community that it now has the capacity to try and deliver justice to the victims of the post poll chaos.

He said the only way to end impunity in the country was by ensuring those who committed any atrocity during the violence are tried.

Other MPsj who spoke at the functionj included MPs Nicholas Gumbo [Rarieda], James Rege [Rachuonyo], Oyugi Magwanga [Kasipul Kabondo, and also included ministers James Orengo [ lands] Otieno Kajwang’ [Immigration] and assistant ministers Ayiecho Olweny[ Education]and Dr.Oburu Odinga[Finance].

Since the naming of the suspects, MPs allied to those six have been making claims that Raila had and in the issue and allegedly knew who was to be picked.

Those now opposing the process have of-late been pushing for withdrawal of Kenya from the ICC claiming it was partisan.

ENDS.