NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 6 – Civil rights group Kituo Cha Sheria on Monday criticised the government over its appeal against the prosecution of six Kenyans at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
In an interview with Capital News, Kituo Cha Sheria Programme Officer Martin Ouma scoffed at the latest application lodged by the government\’s lawyers before the ICC appeals chamber, which indicated that Kenya had commenced its own investigations on the six prominent Kenyans.
"It is a false attempt to try and stop the ICC process. There is nothing much that the government has done beyond indicating that investigations are going on. You need to show the products of those investigations," he asserted.
He described the move as egotistic and alleged that it was meant to shield the suspects from the hands of justice.
He believed if Kenya\’s reasoning was genuine, it should have started the investigations immediately after the violence or after the Waki Commission had compiled its report.
The Waki commission was set up to investigate the post election violence in Kenya in 2008 and make recommendations in attempts to resolve the issues that caused the violence.
Mr Ouma said almost four years down the line, the government had not demonstrated its will to win justice for the victims and punish those responsible for the 1,500 lives lost and the 350,000 thousand people displaced.
He was concerned that the government had also shifted focus to the six suspects and neglected the victims who suffered physically, economically and psychologically.
Mr Ouma was more saddened that the government has the capability to help the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) yet they continued to languish in camps in the full glare of the authorities who were busy trying to prove to the ICC that they are investigating the violence.
"It is unfair that the government is keener on stopping the ICC process yet victims of the violence are suffering, some are integrated IDPs, others are in camps, others lost friends and relatives and they are living with this trauma," he insisted.
Victims of the violence are yet to find a closure on the happenings of early 2008 since most of them are yet to see justice delivered.
He claimed that the progress in government\’s efforts to stop the ICC process was unlikely to succeed since the police have already said the Ocampo Six have no links to the post election violence.
He said for the court to name them as suspects it had concrete evidence to investigate them and it will not be easy for Kenya to convince the ICC Prosecutor Moreno Ocampo otherwise.
On Tuesday Kenya informed the ICC that it had began questioning the six individuals facing charges before The Hague court over their alleged role in the 2008 post election violence.
Director of Criminal Investigations Ndegwa Muhoro attached a report that was forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions informing him on the progress of the probe.
He said police had already questioned Tinderet Member of Parliament Henry Kosgey over the violence.
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