A statement from the CORD Coalition Management Board Secretary Eliud Owalo said the Minority Coalition wanted to ensure justice for victims prevailed and political impunity put under check/FILE
A statement from the CORD Coalition Management Board Secretary Eliud Owalo said the Minority Coalition wanted to ensure justice for victims prevailed and political impunity put under check.
“The CORD Coalition Parliamentary Group today reiterated its earlier position that it neither supports a deferral of the ICC Cases against President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto nor Kenya’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute, and that the ongoing cases should be pursued to their logical conclusion within the judicial framework,” said Owalo.
CORD said it was willing to have a “structured and constructive” engagement with the government and the international community in the context of the Rome Statute to ensure victims of post election violence gets justice.
Siaya County Senator James Orengo who read the Parliamentary Group meeting resolutions chaired by coalition luminaries Raila Odinga and Moses Wetangula had agreed that any withdrawal debate will lead the country nowhere.
“For the record, CORD has not changed its position on this matter and we are prepared to have a structured and constructive engagement with both the government and the international community within the context of the Rome Statute to ensure that victims get justice and impunity is punished,” stated Orengo.
“If anybody wants to engage us, it must be structured and constructive our history shows that if we do that we can get a solution,” the Siaya Senator said. “But the anything that is an academic debate anybody can take part in that debate.”
Homa Bay County Senator Otieno Kajwang told reporters that the coalition would not be advocating for bi-partisan talks on the issue. This comes after National Assembly Members allied to the Jubilee Coalition began charming some CORD MPs to support a Bill that seeks to withdraw Kenya’s membership to the Rome Statute which establishes the ICC.
“I do not see any engagement between us and the Jubilee or with anybody else that will change the status-quo of the current process of the ICC; and we should not waste time with things that will not happen. I can tell you without any equivocation that the UNSC will not make any decision that will over rule ICC,” Senator Kajwang told reporters.
The meeting was attended by 150 legislators from both Senate and National Assembly.
During the meeting, Kajiado Central MP Joseph Nkaiserry who is also ODM’s Deputy Secretary-General was criticized over his statements over the weekend where he is reported to have advised President Kenyatta against attending his Hague trial.
Nkaiserry said President Kenyatta is a subject of national concern and allowing him to be tried at the International Criminal Court will compromise Kenya’s sovereignty.
“I cannot allow my President to be intimidated and ashamed as if we have no government in place. We cannot play second fiddle to the ICC and those wishing that Uhuru be locked up at The Hague are spoiling for an endless war with the majority of Kenyans,” Nkaiserry said during Sunday’s homecoming ceremony in honour of Interior and Coordination of the National Government Joseph ole Lenku, which was attended by the President.
Nkaiserry is also reported to have threatened to lead youths to form part of a 10 million man blockade aimed at preventing the President Kenyatta from flying out of the country for his ICC trial.
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