NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 13 – The government has now agreed to handover minutes of top-level meetings that were held at the height of the 2008 post election violence to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
However, the Cabinet committee on ICC matters that briefed President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Wednesday said the minutes would first be edited.
During the four-hour meeting held at Harambee House, the committee presented the two Principals with the proposed government position ahead of the visit by ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo.
A source present at the meeting told Capital News that the committee said every Member State of the ICC has the right under the Rome Statute to withhold information it thinks is not important.
The committee which met on Tuesday indicated that it was planning to meet High Court Judge Kalpana Rawal and the representative of the Attorney General on Thursday to finalise procedures and regulations of statement recording by senior government officials.
The team had also met with lawyers representing government officials who served at the time of the post election violence to discuss procedures and regulations of recording the statements.
There has been pressure on the Government to hand over to ICC investigators copies of minutes of meetings of the National Security Council.
Even as the government agreed on the information and minutes it will hand over to the court, Senior ICC Situation Analyst Emeric Rogier left for Rift Valley with a team of about five other officials from the court to lay the ground work for the investigations.
Mr Rogier who arrived in the country on Monday night is expected to visit major towns that were affected by the post election violence.
A source told Capital News that his first stop would be in Naivasha where he will meet select groups and individuals affected by the violence.
The analyst will proceed to other hot spots of the violence as Mr Ocampo prepares to visit the country this month. Rift Valley was one of the most affected areas in the country.
Reports from The Hague on Wednesday also indicated that a prominent Kenyan had agreed to surrender to the ICC if he is among those being targeted for prosecution .
Mr Ocampo reportedly told Kenyan editors visiting The Hague that the individual had written to him a few weeks ago making the request but firmly declined to reveal if it was a politician or businessman.
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