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Kenya

Raila wants FBI, Scotland Yard in chaos probe

NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 23- Prime Minister Raila Odinga now wants a credible inquiry led by foreign investigators to probe the post election violence that followed the 2007 general election if his party, the Orange Democratic Movement is to support a local trial.

In his weekly address to Parliament, Mr Odinga said ODM would support a referral of the Kenya case at the International Criminal Court (ICC) if investigations are conducted by sleuths from the United Kingdom or the United States and not Kenyan police.

"We\’d rather go for Scotland Yard or the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to come and carry out these investigations, then we recruit the prosecutor transparently and then we have a competent Judiciary that has been vetted or an independent tribunal that will try these suspects," he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura and former Police Commissioner Major Gen Hussein Ali are among the six Kenyans summoned to appear before the ICC at The Hague between April 7 and 8.

Others who are required in the Netherlands are suspended Higher Education Minister William Ruto, Tinderet MP Henry Kosgey and radio journalist Joshua arap Sang.

On Tuesday, ODM appeared to soften its stand on the trial of the Ocampo Six after it announced that it was backing a referral – where the ICC sends back cases to the state party – if a credible local Tribunal was set up.

The decision was reached after a Parliamentary Group and National Executive Council meeting at Orange House chaired by Mr Odinga.

The latest stand was however dismissed by ODM rebels who urged the party to be consistent on the ICC trials but Mr Odinga maintained they had been unwavering on the issue.

"If you are a suspect and you are being charged, don\’t tell us that I am innocent or that I am going to tell the people that it was so and so… go and clear your name there," charged the ODM party leader.

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"That is why we are saying we are for a referral we are not for deferral, ODM has never contradicted itself and that situation will not change."

At the same time, ODM MPs have protested a letter by Attorney General Amos Wako to two British lawyers instructing them to start the process of challenging the admissibility of the Kenyan case at The Hague.

Parliamentary Group Secretary Ababu Namwamba said that the party objected the move to challenge admissibility as it was aimed at stopping the prosecutions of the Ocampo Six completely.

"The good Queen\’s Counsel admits and I quote him verbatim; that the application that the AG is giving instruction to be filed in The Hague, has near nil chances of success," he said.

He said that they were in support of a credible local mechanism backed by a credible and international investigation into the post poll violence.

The party said the government was planning to waste tax payers\’ money despite advice from the two UK lawyers indicating there were no chances of winning the case as long as there was no reformed Judiciary in the country.

"These are conditions stated in the Rome Statute, they are not beyond the capacity of this country, what we lack is the goodwill. I believe that there are people in the country who want to play cheap politics with this process," said the Budalang\’i MP.

Mr Namwamba said they want the immediate convening of the Cabinet Committee on ICC to discuss the way forward.

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