Good People ! African leaders must face reality. People lost their loved ones on politically engineered clashes.......people want justice, yet Africa political leaders engage on side-shows to defeat justice. The scars are still sore from many lives lost and livelihood that were destroyed in the skimishes. The boldness displayed by these leaders to evade justice is a sign that, to them, killing the innocent is part of the reason they are in power.....which is why, more people continue to loose their lives mysteriously and others are killed by organized thugs and terrorists, yet some are attacks from police force who are used to drive and force people out of their land to pave way for the unscrupulouse special interest. These motive mission to discredit ICC from going on with the case as fronted by African Leaders in Ethiopia, is a way to evade justice and allow killings with pain and sufferings of innocent people to go on unsensored without interruption or obstruction .........I dont think these African Leaders are genuine in their cause nor are they doing what they are doing in good faith.... ....to them, it is business as usual driven by selfishness and greed.....and they are after failing justice including humiliating and putting ICC Hague to shame of disrepute and a laughing stock. Justice are the cornerstone for organized discipline needed by the rule of law to ease Government's pressure and burden and be able to execute and facilitate efficient services delivery within checks and balances to the people without discrimination and where all are treated the same playing by the same set of rules. As a matter of fact, if you make your bed, be ready to lie on it.... Judy Miriga Diaspora Spokesperson Executive Director Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc., USA http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com --- On Mon, 5/27/13, Maurice Oduor <mauricejoduor@gmail.com> wrote: From: Maurice Oduor <mauricejoduor@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [PK] UHURU RUTO TO END CASES AT THE HAGUE To: "Progressive Kenyans" <progressive-kenyans@googlegroups.com> Date: Monday, May 27, 2013, 9:37 AM Parasis, These people (Uhuru/Ruto supporters) wanted the Hague and demanded it and shot down Local Tribunals in Parliament. But thanks to an incompetent ODM/CORD PR machine (if at all there was any), they managed to convince Kikuyus and Kalenjins that it was Raila who took them to the Hague. From: bapfrancis@gmail.com Sent: Monday, 27 May 2013 11:21 PM To: Progressive Kenyans Reply To: progressive-kenyans@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: [PK] UHURU RUTO TO END CASES AT THE HAGUE Dear All I think we are conveniently forgetting that Kenyan MPs voluntarily took us to the Hague. Now its been made to appear like Pres Uhuru and DP Ruto have been wrongly targetted by some forces. They really should ask Isaac Ruto and team to get the cases back and form a local tribunal which they actively resisted. Some are even blaming the west saying the ICC is only targetting Africans. What they fail to note is that the West has fairly robust systems for dealing with miscreants. America has impeached a seating president. It is often the case that folks will resign in the west if there is a whiff of a scandal. I have at least seen in Kenya ministers stating they won't resign in the midst of serious scandals. I am not convinced that most of those AU leaders necessarily mean well for their countries. Some have been known to have dictatorial tendencies. In any case, I do not know what the process is but if it were me, I would ensure there's a very credible justice mechanism, eg like the one at Arusha that was done for Rwanda and approach the ICC with that option. I believe that would be a stronger case for referral. I think merely referring the cases to the Supreme Court of Kenya might not satisfy some of the victims as there is the chance of interference (perceived or otherwise) by some in the executive. Francis Sent from my BlackBerry® -----Original Message----- From: Faiza Hassan <wasitara@gmail.com> Sender: progressive-kenyans@googlegroups.com Date: Mon, 27 May 2013 01:02:32 To: <progressive-kenyans@googlegroups.com> Reply-To: progressive-kenyans@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: [PK] UHURU RUTO TO END CASES AT THE HAGUE But what about Supreme Court President hearing the case in Kenya. You are not supporting the move? Hague is vague Kenya is the place. On 5/27/13, mark osano <osanomark@gmail.com> wrote: The two ICC inmates to end their cases at the Hague since it is their supporters whom demanded the Hague issue as the best option beyond no reasonable doubt, No cases should be sent back to Nairobi we know they will use their usual fussy maths to dilute the process here just the way they did to supreme court cases. trials back to Kenya noooo way!!!
The West may have forgotten to request UhuRuto to "quietly cooperate fully" with the ICC. They only asked them to "cooperate fully". Of course the UN can't stop the cases at the ICC. Kamau has decades of experience to know that. Don't write him off as a fool. What could be taking shape here is the making of a "diplomatic storm" around the ICC which could have the potential of discrediting it. The timing is not a coincidence, the AG is due to meet the ICC tomorrow. What we are seeing so far could be just the tip of the iceberg.
Very well Kamau, this case was politicised right from day one by Mr. Ocampo. While it might not be possible for UN to make a decision in Kenyas favour, this attempt will the very least put forth some of the weaknessess that will further
Togo go home and do not interfere with Kenya's affairs.
Without judicial clearing by the ICC, the two will remain to many Indictees.To earn respect in the comity of nations as well as tender the feelings of victims , the two leaders must desist from shortcuts by arguing their cases at the Hague.
AugustineKaruga Marenga James•14 days ago
You have attacked them for nothing. None of them has written the appeal. As you write, you should be watching one of them defending himself at the ICC in the courtroom on TV, It is live! see more Mkenyanoboundaries AugustineKaruga•14 days ago Could be he has, but on who's instruction is Mr. Macharia acting? I too think it will do both Mr Uhuru and Ruto, as well as Kenya good in th international eye if they are not seen to be trying to take short cuts or subvert the ICC cases see more Obimbiwachi AugustineKaruga•14 days ago We should see justice in this case. A crime is a crime and not who commited it. The national anthem makes this clear "justice be our shield and defender". Lets remember the 1333 Kenyans who lost their lives. What about them? Are they not Kenyans??? see more
Is this the beginning of another shuttle diplomacy or this kamau is just trying to retain his job by pleasing his boss? Mr. kamau should know that The ICC is an independent international organisation, and is not part of the United Nations system, hence the UN can not alter or interfere in matters concerning the ICC, Ban Kimon made this perfectly clear 1 year a go. Kamau is making a fool of himself in a frying pan.
I think the Kenya government is just testing the waters to see who its real diplomatic friends are so as to formulate its foreign policy and relations. This is especially so following the recent trips the President has been making and the rhetoric about increased African alliances. As expected, the usual suspects will reveal their true colours.
"He is expected to tell the council's members that in striving to defend the ICC, they should not extend its writ to the point where it becomes potentially damaging to international peace and security."
Africa closes ranks to condemn ICC on Kenya cases Africa closes ranks to condemn ICC on Kenya cases/AFP After lavish celebrations to mark its 50th anniversary on Saturday, the 54-member African Union was set to come together to condemn International Criminal Court (ICC) trials against one of its own, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, and his vice president. "We will be approving this morning what the ministers have proposed, definitely," AU security commissioner Ramtane Lamamra told AFP, referring to a draft resolution agreed Friday by foreign ministers. The resolution calls for the ICC to refer back to Kenya the cases against Kenyatta and Vice President William Ruto. Kenyatta and Ruto, elected in March, both face a crimes against humanity trials in The Hague for their alleged roles in orchestrating deadly violence after previous elections in 2007 that left 1,100 people dead. African leaders will call for the "termination of the ICC process… jurisdictions in Kenya will have to take care of the situation," Lamamra said.
The proposal would have no legal impact on ICC proceedings if passed, but would significantly boost Kenyatta's standing on the continent. "Heads of state will support what the ministers have proposed," Lamamra added, speaking on the sidelines of the meeting at AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, where leaders are expected to endorse the proposal before they close their two-day summit later Monday. Leaders have also been discussing conflict on the continent, including in volatile eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Islamist threats in Somalia, Mali and the Sahel region, and wider global security concerns. "African security is inextricably linked to international security," Lamamra said. Today's AU is the successor of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), established in 1963 in the heady days when independence from colonial rule was sweeping the continent. The move against the ICC would be first time the pan-African body has moved formally against the international court, even though Kenyatta is the second African leader to face trial, after genocide charges were brought against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. Rwandan President Paul Kagame, in a speech to the AU, said that while tackling impunity was "an important step toward sustainable peace and security", the ICC is biased. "International criminal justice needs to be free of political interference and to uphold the principle of sovereign equality of states, an objective Rwanda believes the ICC has completely failed to accomplish," he said in a speech.
Many African leaders, as well as the AU as a body, have claimed the ICC unfairly targets Africans, while ignoring war crimes suspects in other parts of the world. However, several of the African cases at the ICC were brought to trial at the request of the countries themselves, including from Uganda, DR Congo, Central African Republic and Mali. The Kenyan cases moved to the ICC after a failure to make headway in a domestic court. Amnesty International has criticised the move, saying it is a "worrying attempt by the Kenyan authorities to avoid justice". The rights group called on the 34 AU members who have signed the ICC's founding Rome Statute – including Kenya – to "protect the international justice mechanism they have committed to". Both Kenyatta and Ruto deny the charges and have agreed to cooperate fully with the ICC. Lamamra said Africa remains committed to justice on the continent. "Africa is committed to fighting impunity, but fighting impunity is not exclusive through the ICC," he said. Despite optimistic rhetoric at Saturday's anniversary celebrations praising the spirit of pan-Africanism, the bloc is riven with divisions. Splits revealed by the 2011 conflict in Libya – when members squabbled between those wanting to recognise rebels and those backing leader Muammar Gaddafi – showed its disunity and lack of global clout. Gaddafi's death also stripped the AU of a major source of funding, and diplomats say the leaders have also been discussing ways to find backers for the cash-strapped body.
Envoy to push for end to Uhuru, Ruto cases President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto announce Cabinet members at State House, Nairobi on April 23, 2013. Photo/BILLY MUTAI NATION MEDIA GROUP By KEVIN J. KELLEY, Nation Correspondent in New York Posted Tuesday, May 14 2013 at 17:56 In Summary
The United Nations Security Council is set receive Kenya's request for termination of the Hague cases against the country's two top leaders, Nairobi's UN envoy has said. In a 13-page letter, Kenya aims to rally the UN council to urge the International Criminal Court to end its proceedings against President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto. Ambassador Macharia Kamau told the Nation that the country expects to present its arguments while Togo holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council this month. Togo could invite Kenya to speak to the council as early as this week, the ambassador added. Kenya's request is said to have elicited support from at least five of the council's 15 members. Rwanda's representative is in tandem with the request as heard during a recent public session of the council, while Morocco, Pakistan, China and Russia are understood to be inclined toward Kenya's position. China and Russia are among the council's five permanent members. The other three -- France, the United Kingdom and the United States -- are said to regard Kenya's arguments unfavourably. It is thus highly unlikely that the Security Council would accede to Kenya's request and intervene to halt the ICC cases. Diplomats note that the terms of the treaty establishing the ICC do not permit such action on the part of the council, regardless of the views of its members. According to Mr Kamau, while the council may be unable to act on purely legal grounds, it has the political ability to "innovate" due to its status as the ultimate arbiter of international law. If and when he speaks to the Security Council, Mr Kamau is expected to call attention to Kenya's founding membership of the ICC and relate efforts to strengthen an institution that Kenya supports as a reason to end Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto's cases. The envoy says that the ICC is acting inappropriately in moving to prosecute politicians whose national leadership has been democratically affirmed by Kenyans. He is expected to tell the council's members that in striving to defend the ICC, they should not extend its writ to the point where it becomes potentially damaging to international peace and security. Kenya asks UN to end Uhuru, Ruto ICC trial By PATRICK MAYOYO | Thursday, May 9 2013 at 09:52 Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta. FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP Kenya is calling for the termination of crimes against humanity charges facing President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto at the International Criminal Court. Former radio journalist Joshua Sang is the other Kenyan set to stand trial. In a strongly worded statement to the United Nations Security Council through Kenya's Permanent Representative to the UN Macharia Kamau, the government asked the UN to present its petition to ICC during a meeting with The Hague court prosecutor held on Tuesday. "What this delegation is asking for is not deferral. What this delegation is asking for is the immediate termination of the case at the Hague without much further ado," the petition says in part. The statement warned that violence could break out in Kenya that would affect stability in the entire region if President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto were forced to attend trial at The Hague after having secured endorsement of the people in an election despite the charges facing them. The petition questioned the jurisdiction, partiality and competence of the ICC, expressing the government's reservations over the manner in which the cases facing the three have been handled. Hot on the heels Kenya argues that the proceedings against President Kenyatta, Mr Ruto and Mr Sang are misplaced in light of the prevailing circumstances and lack of cogent evidence to back the charges. "The original claims might have been false and or manufactured. It has since come to light that the evidence could be tainted and or procured through inducement and or corrupt measures," Mr Kamau said in a the confidential letter to Mr Menan Kodjo, the President of the UN Security Council. The two leaders and Mr Sang are facing charges of crimes against humanity arising from the 2007-2008 post-election violence that led to the death of 1,133 people and 650,000 rendered homeless. Mr Kamau's letter comes hot on the heels of a similar attack by his deputy Koki Muli Grignon, who last month questioned the courts performance at the UN General Assembly. Ms Grignon stated that continued intervention by the ICC would jeopardise peace, stability and efforts at communal reconciliation in Kenya. "Punitive vengeance in the name of justice cannot be a means to reconciliation; it instead festers quietly until … it explodes," Ms Grignon declared. Mr Kamau adds President Kenyatta and MNr Ruto "who are under question before the Court have not only been the greatest agents of cohesion and but have been at the forefront and are the glue that binds the country during the election and transition period". It adds that continuation of the case is not in the interest of peace and justice in Kenya, concluding that the absence of the ICC suspects from the country may undermine the prevailing peace not only in Kenya, but across the region. "It is a fact that the very suspects who are being prosecuted and suffice to say have received overwhelming support from the citizens of Kenya in the just concluded 4th March 2013 elections," the petition notes. It adds that the support President Kenyatta and his deputy received during elections suggest that Kenyans are ready for them to be their political masters. "This mandate was received from the Kenyan public in exercise of their inalienable democratic rights and civic duty," Mr Kamau observes. Kenya adds that the manner in which the cases are being conducted is neither impartial nor independent. "There is no demonstrable intent from this conduct to show that the main purpose of the proceedings is to bring justice," Mr Kamau says. Kenya's attempts to have the cases facing President Kenyatta, Mr Ruto and Mr Sang at the ICC deferred or terminated have centred on challenging the court's jurisdictions over the cases and in convincing the UN Security Council to postpone and return the cases to Kenya. The twin assaults begun immediately after the naming on 15 December 2010 of six Kenyans as suspected perpetrators of the killings which claimed more than 1,300 Kenyans and displaced more than 500, 000 others. The first round of diplomacy, which was led by then Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, targeted African countries and it succeeded in persuading the African Union to accept to its request of a deferral. Lobby super powers Then in February 2011, Mr Musyoka left for Beijing to lobby China's support for a 12-month deferral even as former Agriculture Minister and diplomat, Dr Sally Kosgei, was dispatched to Brazil and Washington to lobby super powers to support Kenya's bid to compel ICC to defer the cases to give the country a chance to establish special judicial process to prosecute the post-election violence suspects. Then Attorney General Amos Wako in March 2011 filed an application at the International Criminal Court challenging cases facing six Kenyans summoned to make an initial appearance at The Hague. The government hired British lawyers Geoffrey Nice and Rodney Dixon to handle the suit. It lost the case. On April 26, the East African Legislative Assembly, passed a resolution urging the EAC Council of Ministers to implore the ICC to transfer the cases to the East African Court of Justice (EACJ). The accused have also been calling for deferral of the cases citing inclusion of evidence from five new witnesses and the shortage of time for the defence to prepare its case. The trial date for Mr Ruto and Joshua Sang has since been put off. On Tuesday, Mr Kamau said the election of President Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto sent a clear message to the world that the two persons were not only innocent but also deserving of the highest office of the land. Mr Kamau said the incoming administration should be given a chance to start off without the 'yoke and burden of the past fettering their action.' The envoy said the country's top leadership cannot be expected to effectively perform their duties in an orderly manner 'in the face of an offshore trail that has no popular resonance and that serves no national or international purpose.' "Neither can the state be expected to be orderly under such circumstances," he said. 'The UNSC must therefore play its role and bring this matter to a halt…we ask it to take the much needed political stance that Kenya must be given the time and opportunity to apply the principal of pre- eminence of National Courts," added Mr Kamau. "The UNSC also has a duty and obligation to assist Kenya overcome this serious politically sensitive and potentially destabilising situation," he went on pointing out that the two cases before The Hague based court were crumbling fast. He said the UNSC needs to take 'bold and decisive' steps to ensure that Justice is done and the same is achieved within the confines of the Rome Statute.
ICC: Kenya cases 'difficult'
By ANTHONY KARIUKI and AFP ( email the author) Posted Wednesday, February 13 2013 at 12:16 In Summary
ICC President Sang-Hyun Song cited the imminent elections and logistics as a cause for worry. Two of the suspects, Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, are contesting the elections on a joint presidential ticket in the March 4 vote. South Korean judge Song said the trials are meant to start in April, but "since there are so many variables here, we don't know what's going to happen." "At the moment, I must admit that the logistics aspect of the Kenya case, for example, is not necessarily easy," Justice Song said in a speech at Columbia University in New York Tuesday. He said the suspects are free and the court has to rely on their word to cooperate with it. "These four suspects are under summons to appear. They are not arrested people. They kept on saying they will comply with the ICC procedures and so on and so forth. "How they will come all the way to The Hague to attend the trial and for how long?" On Thursday, Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto will attend a status conference through video link but other accused former Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura and former radio presenter Joshua arap Sang will travel to The Hague. On Tuesday, the government and ICC officials in the country were working to agree on a venue — either a hotel or institution — where Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto will link with the sitting at the Hague led by ICC Trial Chamber presiding judge Kuniko Ozaki. The video conference will bring together judges Christine Van den Wyngaert and Chile Eboe-Osuji, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, registrar Silvia Arbia, defence legal teams, lawyers for victims and friends of the court. "The court, in cooperation with Kenyan authorities, would work on the modalities to ensure the possibility of the accused participating in the hearing via video link. The location of the video link is made confidential for security reasons," said ICC Outreach coordinator for Kenya and Uganda Maria Kamara. The ICC Trial Chamber had ordered the four suspects to either appear in person or attend through a video link. "The main purpose of the status conference is to discuss the conditions of the summonses to appear issued by the Pre-Trial Chamber/ as well as to address any practical, financial and/or legal matters related to the attendance of the accused at trial, including the modalities of the accused's stay on the territory of the Host State during the trial," they said in their communication. "Given that these issues impact directly on the accused, the Chamber considers this to be a hearing requiring the accused's attendance and the accused are ordered to attend the status conference, either in person or via video link." On Friday, the High Court will rule on a case challenging the eligibility of Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto to contest the General Election. |
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