Plan to aid 'Ocampo 6' raises heat

By Beauttah Omanga and Boniface Ongeri

Plans by Government to pull out of the International Criminal Court generated a lot of heat at the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

It has emerged that Public Works Minister Dalmas Otieno expressed shock that he had been tasked to conduct shuttle diplomacy to engineer the pullout without being informed.

"He claimed that he was out of the country when he was assigned the task and the letter forwarded to his desk where he found it," said a senior officer in Government who asked not to be named.

The issue has also generated a lot of heat at the African Union headquarters in Addis-Ababa where a lot of pressure has been mounted on Kenyan lawyer Ben Kioko over his alleged role in the plot.

Kioko has denied reports that he was among those being chosen by the Government to spearhead Kenya’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court.

Kioko said in case there was such a plan; he was yet to be approached by the Government.

"I would like to state for the record that as of now, I have neither been consulted nor have I offered any advice to the Kenyan Government on the ICC issue either as alleged or at all. Furthermore, to my knowledge no communication has been received by the AU Commission to date from the Kenyan Government relating to the "alleged secret plot against the ICC" he stated in a statement.

Speculative

He termed the reports as speculative, unfounded and without basis, adding that it was not part of his "routine official duties to advise the Kenyan Government" or any other Government individually.

Back home, Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka returned from South Africa and jumped on another plane to Kampala, Uganda to meet President Yoweri Museveni.

The Vice President has in the past made it clear that post-election violence suspects should be tried locally because the country is implementing the new Constitution.

A lot of meetings taking place on the continent over the past two months have revolved around the planned pullout by African countries from the ICC.

Last month, a panel of retired presidents met in Algiers and recommended that efforts by the ICC and other organs to end impunity in Africa should not undermine peace and reconciliation.

Adopted report

The meeting adopted a report — Non Impunity, Truth, Peace, Justice and Reconciliation in Africa —calling for an end to impunity on the continent, but carefully chose its words for the final resolutions in which the statesmen argued that debate on how justice should be achieved has not ended.

The panel said: "This choice was informed by the recurrence, within Africa, of the debate on the fight against impunity and its connection with the issue of peace, justice, peace and reconciliation, as illustrated, among other things, by the controversy surrounding the action of the ICC in Sudan and elsewhere on the continent, as well as other experiences in Africa."

The leaders, including Zambia’s Kenneth Kaunda and former Tanzanian Prime minister Salim Ahmed Salim, argue that although Africa must turn the page on impunity, its leaders ought to address the "dual imperative of seeking peace and promoting reconciliation, on the one hand, and fighting impunity and upholding justice, on the other."

African positions

Yesterday, a furious Kioko said his duties require him to proffer legal advice to the Commission and other organs of the African Union as well as Member States at the level of their multilateral processes.

"I have no role in advising member states individually except in communicating and engaging on common African positions on different issues’ stated, Kioko who is the AU’s legal director," he said.

He demanded for a retraction of the article carried by The Standard on Tuesday, saying it had caused him some degree of injury to his professional standing and international reputation.

On Wednesday, it was confirmed that the Government would shoulder the legal fee of public servants named by the International Criminal Court as post-election violence suspects, if they acted in the Government interests.

Two of the mentioned six are Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura and former Police Commissioner Maj-Gen Hussein Ali are civil servants. Ali is the current Post-Master General.

Government Spokesman Alfred Mutua said if they are charged in The Hague the Government would review their role and come to their legal aid.

"By shouldering their legal fee the Government is not shouldering responsibility in the post-election bloodshed. If someone is charged they would be charged as an individual, but we will analyze if their role was in accordance with Government interest. If a civil servant is charged with what they did for the State the Government would not abandon him", he said during his weekly press briefing.

Legal fees

He dismissed claims that the Government had budgeted for Sh4.7 billion to pay legal fees saying proper projection would be made if ICC finds the named have a case to answer.

He also denied that the Cabinet discussed the ICC matter during its last meeting, saying the prevailing drought dominated the session.

Mutua also said the issuance of ID cards and work permits had not been stopped.

"The contract of a company to supply material for new generation ID cards expired and is currently under review, resulting in a slowdown of issuance," he said.

He said the issuance of citizenship was suspended because of national security.

Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang was reported last week accusing Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura of blocking the re-advertisement for production of third-Generation ID cards.