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Matsanga seeks ASP intervention in Kenyan ICC cases

He particularly wants the ASP President to include the matter as a priority agenda in this year’s 14th annual meeting set for November. Photo/FILE.

He particularly wants the ASP President to include the matter as a priority agenda in this year’s 14th annual meeting set for November. Photo/FILE.

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 30 – Ugandan Peace negotiator David Matsanga has written to the Assembly of State Parties (ASP) in The Hague, insisting on the need to initiate internal mechanisms to investigate the flawed investigations of the Kenyan cases.

He also wants the ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda censored for failing to adhere to the resolutions on Rule 68 that was passed in the12th ASP held in The Hague in 2013. “This is a serious violation and bad conduct of the OTP that is supposed to implement fairly the Rules and Procedure of evidence as amended.”

He particularly wants the ASP President to include the matter as a priority agenda in this year’s 14th annual meeting set for November this year.

“I hereby submit our request to you through your secretariat to notify member states under Article 112 2 (b) that a motion to censure and constitute an independent inquiry into the conduct of the Office of The Prosecutor (OTP) and in particular the Chief Prosecutor be added to the agenda,” Matsanga who wrote, addressing the ASP President through his Pan African Forum Limited which has been in the fore front of the Kenyan cases.

He states that he resorted to take the matter to the ASP because all other avenues of addressing it have failed, including through ICC court itself.

“”All avenues of correcting the mess in OTP have been rejected by the Presidency of ICC, and by the Chief Prosecutor,” he argues.

Six top Kenyan officials were initially facing Crimes Against Humanity charges in the world court but cases against four have since been dropped for lack of evidence, while two are on the trial tail end stage.

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s case was the latest to be dropped earlier this year when ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda declared that she had no sufficient evidence to move the case forward, eventually withdrawing all charges against him.

His Deputy William Ruto and a former journalist Joshua arap Sang are standing trial in The Hague-based court where they are fighting off charges of planning or financing the 2008 post election violence that left over 1100 people dead and displacements of thousands more.

The ICC has been under sharp criticism of conducting shoddy investigations in all the cases, with defense lawyers accusing the prosecution of largely relying on reports filed by human rights organizations in Kenya.

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“The OTP did not conduct sufficient investigations, that is why most of those cases were dropped,” Matsanga has previously argued, this time round saying “there is need for a commission of inquiry to be conducted to investigate the matter.”

He wants the matter put on the agenda and circulated to all member states, international organizations, corporations and individuals who have supported ICC about the lapses and failures that have besieged the OTP in the Kenyan cases.

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