NAIROBI, June 24 – Attorney General (AG) Amos Wako has refuted claims that Kenya is not doing enough to apprehend Rwandan Fugitive, Felicien Kabuga, who is accused of orchestrating the 1994 Rwanda genocide in which over 800,000 people were killed.
In a letter dated June 20 and addressed to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) Hassan Ballow, Wako termed accusations by Senior Trial Prosecutor Richard Karegesya as grossly unfair, unwarranted and undiplomatic.
Karegesya wrote a letter on May 22 to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Keriako Tobiko describing the steps taken by the Kenyan government in relation with Kabuga as ‘too little too late’.
“The steps undertaken by your government in implementing our request has come too little too late and falls far short of implementing the full range of recommendations of the Joint Taskforce,” Karegesya stated.
The letter was a reply to another one sent by the DPP on May 9, which sought to inform the tribunal of the recent development on the case (the freezing of Kabuga’s estate) and included copies of relevant documentation, according to Wako’s letter.
The AG termed the move to freeze Kabuga’s assets in Nairobi as ‘a significant achievement for which credit was due’.
Kabuga’s property in Nairobi was frozen early May, and this, Wako said in a letter was a bold move because ‘there lacks express legal provisions in the country’s jurisprudence on the subject’.
“I am indeed gratified to note that the government of Rwanda itself appreciates these efforts,” Wako stated.
“Concrete steps have been undertaken and continue to be undertaken by the Kenya Government to the full implementation of the recommendation in the Third report including bringing on board the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), who have embarked on investigations on the properties and bank accounts of the individuals and entities associated with Kabuga, for the purpose of recovering unpaid or evaded taxes,” he continued.
The AG carried on to say Kenya has ‘cooperated and worked closely’ with the tribunal in the arrest and surrender of all the indictees, and in the relocation, protection and facilitation of crucial witnesses.
These developments come against the backdrop of intensified efforts to apprehend the fugitive upon whose head the US government has placed a $5 million bounty.
A week ago, police in Nairobi arrested a man on suspicion of being Kabuga but later confirmed that it was a university don of Rwandan descent.
Police Spokesman Eric Kiraithe said detectives had acted on information received at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) headquarters to the effect that a ‘most wanted man’ had been sighted on the outskirts of Nairobi.
The man was questioned and then released.
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