Bid to defer ICC cases ‘waste of time, money’

By Lucianne Limo

The Government has been told that its bid to defer the International Criminal Court ( ICC) cases is an exercise in futility.

Former Anti-Corruption Czar, John Githongo and the civil society on Tuesday urged the Government not to waste time and money in trying to rally Africa against the ICC.

“The cases have been confirmed and trial dates already set, why are we wobbling now? Let’s not cheat ourselves,” said Githongo.

Githongo said the move smacks of bad faith that will lead Kenyans to be suspicious of government’s intentions regarding prosecuting perpetrators of post-election violence .

“Opinion polls have indicated that Kenyans overwhelmingly supported the trial of post-election suspects at The Hague and this back and forth attempts to derail the process will only heighten suspicion and distrust in government,” he added.

Admissibility test

The former Governance and Ethics PS was speaking  on Tuesday at forum on the constitution and the ICC organised by International Centre for Policy and Conflict (ICPC) in Nairobi. ICPC director Ndung’u Wainana pointed out that Kenya is no longer party to the ICC proceedings after failing the admissibility challenge saying the ball is now with the chief prosecutor and the four suspects in court.

Kenya has been using the AU as a platform to have the trials against four of its citizens postponed or referred to an African court.

The election of Dlamini-Zuma may complicate Kenya’s efforts to postpone trials because they have been relying on former AU boss Jean Ping to marshall support for the cause.

Ping was instrumental in pushing for the pulling out of African countries from the ICC as well as having the cases against key suspects deferred.

Three months ago the AU, under Ping, wrote to the UN Security Council asking for the trials to be deferred in a letter that was delivered to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon through the AU representative at the United Nations.