By Standard Reporter

President Kibaki and Prime minister Raila Odinga will on Monday, assemble a special Cabinet meeting as a last ditch effort to salvage plans for home-based trials for post-election violence suspects.

One of the agenda items on the table, would be demand for a second envelop by Justice (Rtd) Johann Kriegler, fashioned alongside that of Justice Philip Waki, but whose subject are those responsible for the mess that was the 2002 elections.

Members of Cabinet pushing for the second envelope argue that it is foolhardy to expect the Kenyan problem can be dealt with in isolation of what they see as State-sponsored theft of 2007 elections.

The push is buoyed by Kriegler’s own admission the election was a sham and it was impossible to tell who won.

"There is one envelope missing, which should have come from Justice Johann Kriegler," said Lands Minister James Orengo, who was in the delegation that met Dr Kofi Annan and Luis Moreno Ocampo last week.

Like Agriculture Minister William Ruto this weekend, he too called for punishment to be meted out on those found guilty of election offences under the commission investigated by South Africa’s retired judge who probed the flawed process.

Mr Orengo said: "Kriegler should have come up with another envelope that names persons bearing greatest responsibilities on election offences and malpractices".

He added: "For Kenya to deal firmly, fairly and finally with events during and after elections and for everybody to have a feeling justice has been done, Government must conduct investigations on election offences by election officers, corrupt practices, illegal actions and other general offences revolving around election officials."

Mr Ruto, who contradicted Raila’s push in Orange Democratic Movement, and supported The Hague option before the envelope changed hands from Annan to Ocampo, maintained those who ‘rigged’ 2007 elections to be the first to face ICC.

"Those who caused the chaos are guilty, and those who rigged the elections are equally guilty, and when the time comes, all should go," he said.

Ruto added: "Those who planned the rigging by paying and using the (disbanded) Electoral Commission should be first, followed by those who created the chaos".

On Saturday, the minister called for closure of debate on whether perpetrators of post-election should be prosecuted locally or at The Hague. "Now that the envelope has been handed over to The Hague, let us talk about a new Constitution and how to make Kenya prosper," he said.

The Cabinet will also discuss proposals from meetings that have taken place since Thursday when Annan surprisingly handed the envelope to the ICC chief prosecutor, well ahead of his deadline.

And on Monday, Ocampo breaks the seal of the envelope with names of prominent Kenyans suspected to have fanned the chaos.

He will also pour on his desk the cache of evidence against the suspects also sent to him by Annan last week, after his patience with Kenya’s delegation to himself and Ocampo ran out, because of a feeling he was being taken round in circles and the Government was making empty promises.

The Cabinet session was summoned in a bid to beat the September deadline set by Ocampo on the status of investigations and prosecutions.

With the list said to implicate both PNU and ODM politicians, Kibaki and Raila are under pressure to win a hostile Parliament to their side or risk having Ocampo taking up the cases.

The principals will be picking up the pieces, right from Parliament’s defeat of a Bill seeking to install a local tribunal, even as hope dwindles of stopping the ICC option that could see some of their ministers being bundled to The Hague.

But even as they prepared for the meeting, amidst a flurry of consultations, the positions within the fractured Grand Coalition appear to get more entrenched.

On Friday, a meeting to draft the proposed Independent Tribunal Bill, took place and was attended by Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo, Kiraitu Murungi, (Energy), Orengo, Prime minister’s advisor on Coalition Affairs Miguna Miguna and Attorney General Amos Wako. It is this proposal that the Cabinet is scheduled to discuss.

Among the contentious issues that had made MPs hostile to the Special Tribunal Bill were: Presidential clemency for suspects; a requirement that those implicated should immediately step aside; and proposal that those who took orders that led to deaths are also personally responsible for their actions.

President Kibaki’s Party of National Unity’s Secretary General and nominated MP George Nyamweya said those whose names were in Ocampo’s envelope were "criminals" who did not deserve protection and sympathy, and should be left to bear their own crosses.

"All those who participated in the violence from all parties will have to defend themselves alone. According to the law, anyone who killed or maimed is a criminal. Our party will not defend such a person," Mr Nyamweya said.

"Let the envelope be opened so that we can move forward. It does not matter now if it is a minister, party leader or even myself. They are all criminals and if found guilty, they should pay for it," he said.

"Fraudulent election is a manifestation of corruption and impunity we are seeking to address and the time is nigh," said Orengo.

He went on: "Just like international crimes it is possible to prosecute offences that did not exist in domestic or municipal statutes at the time offences were committed through a constitutional dispensation and put measures to deal with corrupt and illegal practices during elections."