By ALLY JAMAH
Kenya: The International Criminal Court (ICC) has set up two chambers to deal with the two Kenyan cases to reduce workload during the trial.
The court also changed the Presiding Judge who will oversee the trial of Deputy President William Ruto and radio journalist Joshua arap Sang as the Kenyan suspects await the court’s decision on the date of the crucial trial.
The ICC Presidency appointed Judge Olga Herrera Carbucci as the new presiding judge on a temporary basis replacing Judge Kuniko Ozaki in the Ruto and Sang Case in chamber V (b).
According to the statement from ICC, judge Ozaki who will now handle the trial of President Uhuru Kenyatta in chamber V (a). But the two other judges in the Ruto and Sang case remain the same. The same judges are also in the Kenyatta case. The judges are Robert Fremr and Chile Eboe-Osuji. Carbucci previously served in the Pre-Trial Division. The Trial chamber is always composed of three judges.
“The decision of the presidency was taken to ensure the proper administration of justice, taking into consideration each Judge’s workload,” said a statement signed by Vice-President Judge Sanji Monageng.
On May 2, Judge Ozaki requested ICC’s presidency to excuse her from serving as the presiding judge in the case facing Ruto and Sang to ease her workload. The judge was attached to Uhuru and Ruto cases in March last year.
Yesterday, the ICC presidency also split the Trial chambers into two to handle the cases facing Kenyatta and Ruto separately. Ruto will appear before chamber 5a while Kenyatta will be at Chamber 5b.
Similar changes in the composition of Chambers have been made in previous cases before the ICC, such as the cases of Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui, of Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo and of Abdallah Banda Abakaer Nourain and Saleh Mohammed Jerbo Jamus.
