Walter Barasa Fights His Extradition To The Hague

Ndugu Warsama,

If Uhuru refuse to comply with Rome statute and defy order from ICC yet Ruto is complying with the same ICC court, and considering the provocative derogative instances of naming Sang in every media reporting as dwarf, dont you think a lot is providing fodder to chaos?

What shall become of the Victims of injustices of Kenya? Isn’t the situation as well creating a fluid situation of serious mistrust pitying Ruto against Uhuru with suspicion of Ruto and possibly sang being taken for the goose for roast........thus creating a crack with looming war between the Kalenjin and the Kikuyus............???

Is Kenya really safe even after the smoky Wastegate situation of terror with some more threats for renewed attack worse than the Wastegate hovering all over in the news media???

If Kenyas court has failed and are not able to prosecute even the small local cases and also extradite Walter Baraza to ICC Hague because of high level of corruption and impunity, and if Kenya is still host to many criminal gangs like Chinedu what do we expect of the security and safety of Kenyans in general, are Kenyans safe???

Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com

 

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----- Forwarded Message -----
From: mohamed warsama
To: uchunguzionline@yahoogroups.com; changemombasa2012@yahoogroups.com; kiswahili@yahoogroups.com; kenyaonline@yahoogroups.com; thelastwordtokenya@yahoogroups.com; wanakenya@googlegroups.com; NaijaObserver@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, October 18, 2013 5:27 PM
Subject: WE BRAVED COLONIAL GUNS WITH BARE HANDS TO WIN OUR FREEDOM, SO WHAT CAN A LOUSY ARREST WARRANT THREAT DO TO US ?

I am sure God mandated Uhuru Kenyatta to lead Africa out of the trap that was set for her by the Rome Statute in 1998 which only now we are beginning to discover is nothing less than a neocolonial conspiracy against African national independence and sovereignty. Just see who are pulling the puppet strings behind the ICC - none other than the Greatest Butcher since Stalin's Russia, the USA.
What business or interest does the USA have in insisting Kenya complies with the ICC when the USA has been and continues to refuse to be a party to the ICC because it will compromise its national sovereignty ? The day George Bush removed the USA from the ICC Statute because of American sovereignty, Africa should have walked out of the ICC. That little island called Britain which is an errand boy for the USA has also refused to join the ICC because it conflicted with its sovereign interests.
It comes as no surprise that the biggest violators of international laws and perpetrators of genocide and impunity are these two partners in crime, USA and Britain, both of whom shun the ICC like the plague but are not averse to telling Kenya to obey the ICC.
Africa won its independence by fighting with bare hands against the might of colonial guns. Africa should now reclaim its independence and sovereignty from the Western-controlled ICC by ditching the ICC overnight.
I am hoping to hear our President, Uhuru Kenyatta, boldly declare on Mashujaa Day October 20 that he is answerable for his sins only to the People of Kenya and that only the People of Kenya can arrest him, not the ICC. Hence, he will not be cowed by threats like an ICC arrest warrant. and let the whole of Africa stand solidly with him.
If this happens, the West will beat a hasty retreat including scrapping the ICC. Let us not be duped by the Western propaganda that the ICC will not budge and all that kind of shit.
If we unanimously resolve that Africans will be judged in Africa by Africans there is nothing the white man can do to us.

Mohamed Warsama

News / Africa

Kenya Court to Rule on ICC Extradition Request

 

 

Walter Barasa fights extradition on charges of witness tampering

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmAIlFdbHRk

Published on Oct 11, 2013

Published on Oct 15, 2013

Journalist Walter Barasa will not be handed over to the international criminal court and will continue receiving 24 hr. security. This is after high court judge Richard Munga ruled that the interim orders be extended. The parties to the case will however be back to court on Friday for directions on how the case will proceed. Barasa is wanted by the ICC on accusations of interfering with witnesses to the ongoing cases against deputy president William Ruto and Joshua Arap Sang.
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Defense attorney Kibe Mungai (l) and Walter Barasa (r) (Credit- James Shimanyula)

Peter Clottey

Last updated on: October 17, 2013 3:59 PM

A Kenyan court plans to rule Friday on the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) extradition request for activist Walter Barasa. The Hague-based court accuses him of interfering with witnesses. Barasa denies the accusation as without merit.

“I’m comfortable, because I deny allegations leveled against me, and much of it my lawyer has it and will [introduce] it in due course,” said Barasa.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant against Barasa, but he challenged the extradition order in a Kenyan court.

Barasa’s defense attorney Kibe Mungai accused the ICC of undermining the country’s constitution. He says, for example, his case should be tried in Kenyan courts, and also that the ICC move violates his constitutional rights to see evidence against him. The Kenyan Office of the Prosecutor says he can only see the information if he cooperates with the international court.

“Mr. Barasa wants the court to declare that the government of Kenya cannot oblige the request by the ICC,” said Mungai. “If he succeeds, that is the end of the story. If he also succeeds on the other part that the trial should be in Kenya, then the issue of warrant comes to an end. If he does not succeed then he may be surrendered in due cause to the ICC.”

Mungai says if the court upholds Kenya’s constitution, his client would not be subjected to extradition or to arrest by the ICC. He said both the ICC and Kenya erred in issuing a warrant for Barasa.

“Our chances are good,” said Mungai. “The ICC has been acting illegally in this matter and the state [Kenya] has misinterpreted the law in issuing the request for surrender.”

The ICC accused Barasa of bribing witnesses in the trial of Kenya’s deputy President William Ruto. The court accuses Mr. Ruto and President Uhuru Kenyatta of playing a key role in the country’s 2007-2008 post-election violence that left about 1,300 people dead and tens of thousands internally displaced. Barasa denies the ICC charges.

Defense attorney Mungai says the ICC’s arrest warrant against Barasa flouts Kenya’s constitution.

“Under the laws of Kenya to implement the Rome Statute [establishing the court], the trial for those offenses is supposed to be in Kenya and even after issuing the warrant and knowing that Kenya is a signatory state, they tried to arrest Mr. Barasa unlawfully,” said Mungai. “All these issues will be raised in the Kenyan court [Friday and] I am confident that we shall succeed.”

In a related matter, the Kenyan Daily Nation newspaper quotes the ICC coordinator for Kenya and Uganda, as saying that Kenya could try Barasa if the country’s courts are equipped to handle the case.

Clottey interview with Kibe Mungai, defense attorney

Wednesday, 09 October 2013 08:18

Barasa Fights His Extradition To The Hague

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Journalist Walter Barasa is on Wednesday expected to formally file an application challenging his arrest and subsequent extradition to The Hague.

Barasa’s lawyer Kibe Mungai is expected to file the case before a High Court Judge.

The journalist who is wanted by ICC over alleged witness interference says that he deserves a fair trial in the country.

He says that being extradited to The Hague to face charges would infringe on his rights protected by the constitution.

The Kenyan government has already handed over warrant of arrest documents regarding Barasa to the Judiciary, according to Internal Security Cabinet Secretary Joseph Ole Lenku.

While briefing the press, Ole Lenku said it was now upon the Judiciary to give orders regarding the issue.

Once the documents are handed over to the Judiciary, a Judge would consider the application as well as listen to the submissions from the wanted journalist.

If the Judge proves there is a valid case and that the rights of the accused have not been violated, he or she can grant permission for the journalist to be arrested and handed over to the ICC.
By Daniel Korir




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Unmasking Westgate: How terrorist attack was executed

 

Updated Friday, October 18th 2013 at 22:34 GMT +3

By NYAMBEGA GISESA

A treasure trove of hours and hours of never before seen CCTV footage and interviews with impeccable security sources have revealed for the first time new details on how the Westgate attack unfolded and the identity of the four men caught on camera killing shoppers. Investigative writer Nyambega Gisesa has spent hours analysing the footage and talking to sources privy to information on the Westgate terror attack. And for the first time, The Standard on Saturday provides a chronological order to how the attack was executed and how Kenya security forces responded to the terrorist attack that claimed close to 70 lives.

 

A silver Mitsubishi sedan number plate KAS 575X inched casually towards the entrance to Westgate Shopping Mall using Peponi Road.

The day: Saturday September 21.

Time: 12:26pm

Weather: clear sky, occasional intermittent clouds

Inside the vehicle were four men, Abu Baraa Al Sudani, Khatab Alakene aka Khadhab, Umir Al Mogadish and Omar Abdulrahman Nabhan.

Al Sudani: He is a Sudanese national and the presumed attackers leader. Al Sudani is a man with a cheeky smile who killed as he beamed a wry smile. He is a man of mischievous character who loved to flaunt the one finger obscene gesture salute while dressed in black.

Khadhab: who was once illegally a victim of rendition by the CIA to Somalia from a bookshop where he worked in Nairobi’s Eastleigh Sixth Street. Extraordinary rendition or irregular rendition is the apprehension and extrajudicial transfer of a person from one country to another against his will.

During the United States war on terror under the Bush administration, the term became infamous with US practices of abducting and transferring terrorism suspects to countries known to employ torture, for the purpose of interrogation. Khadhab had spent considerable time refining his clandestine skills at the terrorist training camps of the Al Qaeda militant group.

Omar Abdulrahman Nabhan: He is a Kenyan who is a nephew to Swaleh Nabhan the associate of East Africa Al Qaeda terror mastermind Harun Fazul. The presumed leader of Al-Qaeda in East Africa, Fazul was killed in Mogadishu in June 2011.

Alakene and Mogadish were both Somali nationals of US extraction. Both were born in Somalia, but were also naturalised US citizens.

The experiences of these men were about to pay off in one of the most ambitious and highly choreographed strike to date on Kenyan soil.

The iconic Westgate Mall was the centerpiece of their plan. The mall insured through UK’s Lloyd’s for about Sh6.6 billion, was constructed several walls thick with the ability to withstand heavy bombardment.

Four days after the attack, the mall stood only shaken with a few cracks even after facing an anti-tank weapon

After studying exclusive footage unseen before, interviewing various witnesses and getting access to confidential information at the heart of the investigations, Standard On Saturday brings you the first true account, which in itself contradicts almost everything that the Government has been telling the public.

We unveil facts behind the Westgate siege from the moment the terrorists planned the attack, when the first security personnel arrived for a rescue meeting, when soldiers shot dead a police officer to the moment the Government scrambled and started disseminating contradicting statements.

And finally, why you will probably find it hard to get a believable and accurate Government official account of what really transpired those four days in September. In the recent past, Kenya’s spy agency the National Intelligence Service (NIS) had issued various situational reports on possible terror attacks in the country.

Although the report mentioned a dozen names of potential terrorists and terror sympathizers, it did not have the names of the four men in the silver Mitsubishi sedan car. This, not surprisingly, was not the only security lapse before the attack.

Lodged in Eastleigh

Our story begins in the dusty streets of little Mogadishu, Eastleigh. Months before the attack, the attackers were able to obtain the map of the Westgate Mall building.

According to details in a report leaked to the Standard On Standard from the team of investigators, the attackers identified a place so ideal for their operation that even if you located them, extraction would be a difficult task to undertake- Eastleigh’s 6th and 3rd streets.

“The planning may have been conducted at Evermay Lodge or used for preparation and storage place,” an investigators report reads. “Possible accommodation area Eastleigh 6th street, known to have lodges associated with 6th street mosque.”

According to the report, “Evermay Lodge and Solar Lodge (were) most likely areas for meetings.” It’s believed that it’s from these places where the terrorists outlined their mission, using videos, photos and maps.

“The holder (Al Sudani) conducted confirmatory reconnaissance and final coordination,” the Intelligence brief reads. Other than Al Sudani, the choice of an operation base in Eastleigh also placed the Kenyan Alakene, the attacker who gave a child a chocolate bar after the young boy told him that “he is a very bad man” and who is captured by CCTV cameras escorting children out of the mall.

Beyond these bizarre acts of compassion, investigators believe he was one of the key men plotting the attacks. Three weeks ago, we visited Eastleigh in search of the family and friends of Alakene. For two days, no one identified himself as either a friend or member of the family of the man popularly known as Khadhab. At last, a journalist who used to practice in the area told us that Khadhab used to work in an Islamic bookshop in 6th Street Eastleigh before he was arrested and spirited away to a prison in Somalia, where it is alleged the CIA tortured him while in custody. After being released, he is said to have travelled back Kenya and then returned to Somalia and joined the terror group Al-Shabaab.

As the plot took shape, spy agencies and counterterrorism officials warned about threats in various places including malls. However, connecting the dots proved a big challenge to security agencies that last dealt with a terror attack in 1998 and 2002.

They were only depending on bits and pieces of information and they never knew the men behind or the hour when terrorists would strike. Evidently, the attackers were several steps ahead in the game. Whereas the anti-terror officers kept on monitoring the family of Sheikh Aboud Rogo and his associates who have kept on denying that they are linked to terrorism, the Westgate terror plot was developing fast far away in Somalia and in the Kakuma refugee camp, established in 1992 to serve Sudanese refugees.

Kakuma safe

In the recent past, the Dadaab refugee camp that is reputed to be the biggest refugee camp in the world has become a haven for terror attacks. Last year alone, the refugee camp was attacked over 10 times by terrorists who sneaked into the country through the porous border between Garissa County and southern Somalia.

When in 2009, Sudanese refugees began moving back to their country in anticipation of the referendum that eventually resulted in the division of the country to two, Sudan and South Sudan, the Kenya Government saw a window of opportunity to reduce the bulging population of Dadaab by moving refugees from Dadaab to Kakuma.Security agencies put all their efforts in securing Dadaab and guarding the fragile border between Somalia and Kenya so as to stop terrorists from accessing Dadaab or other parts of the country. Information availed to us points out that knowing where the government’s focus was to be glued, the terrorists slipped into the country from Southern Sudan, entered Kakuma before travelling all the way down to Nairobi.

Once in Nairobi, they stayed under the radar for months until they resurfaced when their linkman Abdikadir Haret Mohamed visited a bank within the CBD.

Two weeks before the Westgate horror, on the evening of September 6, a CCTV camera positioned at the entrance to the Queensay House branch of Barclays bank on Mama Ngina Street picked out Abdikadir Haret Mohamed alias Muhammed Hussein entering the bank. During a press briefing, the Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo described Abdikadir as “light skinned and about 5.8ft tall, speaks fluent Kiswahili and Sheng and is believed to be a Kenyan from Marehan clan in Mandera.”

He was also in the company of another suspect identified as Adan Dheq, aka Hussein Abdi Ali, a.k.a Abdulahi Dugon Subow who the police have said speaks in broken Kiswahili.

Visit to the bank

On that particular day, Abdikadir was visiting the bank to withdraw cash to buy a car, a vital piece for investigators. According to investigators, Abdikadir made a cash exchange of between US$4,000 and US$5,000. With the cash, both Ali and Abdikadir on various times made calls from their mobile phones to Elvis Weulo of Buruburu, a car owner who was willing to sell his car registration number KAS 575X.

It’s in in this Mitsubishi saloon car that police found four SIM cards.

It ferried the attackers to Westgate. Investigators have revealed to The Standard On Saturday that all the SIM cards were found to have been activated on September 18 in Eastleigh. Intelligence officers frantically checked the SIM cards looking for details on records to reveal calls made and who shared the same phone through employing IMEI numbers, a unique phone number for every mobile phone handset. The IMEI can be used to track a stolen or missing phone and provide information on calls made from that number.

 

2days ago Ruto dwarfs Sang as he grabs all attention

2 days ago Ruto dwarfs Sang as he grabs all attention

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Ruto alleges PNU officials’ plot to fix him

The third witness in the case against Deputy President William Ruto told the International Criminal Court that high ranking officials in government and PNU had plotted to incriminate Ruto for the violence in the north rift whether he was responsible or not. The defence further read out the names of 8 people including former Justice minister Martha Karua and then permanent secretary in the ministry of Internal Security Mutea Iringo alleged to have been working for the PNU to gather evidence on the post election violence which they are said to have presented to the Waki Commission.

By Walter MenyaMore by this Author

Deputy President William Ruto on Wednesday accused the inner core of former President Kibaki of seeking out witnesses in his case at the ICC.

The plan, his lawyer said, was to fix Mr Ruto as the sponsor of the violence that erupted after the 2007/08 General Election.

Defence counsel Shyamala Alagendra told the court that the plan was carried out by senior officials in the Kibaki administration, lawyers sympathetic to PNU, some of whom, he said, even offered cash and protection to witnesses who would testify against Mr Ruto.

Ms Alagendra listed those in the plan as former Gichugu MP Martha Karua, who was at the time the Justice minister, Mr Mutea Iringo, then the Deputy Permanent Secretary for Internal Security and Ms Nancy Gitau, who was President Kibaki’s political affairs director.

The defence said Mr Iringo oversaw a witness protection scheme, which also disbursed cash to those who would testify against Mr Ruto during the Waki Commission hearings.

PNU, Ms Alagendra said, used lawyers Kamotho Waiganjo, currently a member of the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC), Mr Njenga Mwangi, Mr Peter Maundu and Mr George Morara, who was in the Vijana na Kibaki lobby group that also included Mr Joseph Njoroge, Mr Evans Gor Semelang’o, Mr Jack Wamboka and Mr Thomas Mbewa.

This group of lawyers, the defence proposed and the witness confirmed, were “associated in some way with PNU” and went to Eldoret in advance of the Waki Commission to procure witnesses who would testify against Mr Ruto. The Waki Commission was in Eldoret between August 5 and 6, 2008.

“What was happening at the time was that ODM was eager to show that PNU had rigged the elections,” Ms Alagendra said.

But on the other hand, she said, PNU wanted to demonstrate that ODM was behind the violence that rocked the country.

“In order to demonstrate that ODM was behind the violence they put together a group of people who would assist them locate witnesses to say ODM was the cause. There was a group of people who came to Eldoret. The group was made up of PNU and government officials. PNU was trying to gather evidence that it is ODM that caused the violence,” Ms Alagendra posed to the witness, who declined the proposition.

According to the defence, the lawyers and government officials who were identifying witnesses to present to the Waki Commission were assisted by former Cabinet minister Stephen Tarus, Ms Karua, Mr Abraham Limo, Mr Iringo, a Mr Bethwell Ruto and a Mr William Rono.

The defence said the witnesses PNU identified were taken to a witness protection programme which was under Mr Iringo.

Defence: Did you hear that the aim of some PNU officials was to blame William Ruto for the violence?

Witness: Yes.

Defence: Regardless of the truth, madam witness?

Witness: Yes.

Defence: Even though he had nothing to do with it?

Witness: Yes

The defence was cross-examining Witness 189 for the second day yesterday. She is the third prosecution witness since the trials of Mr Ruto and Mr Joshua arap Sang started on September 10.

The defence also sought to dismantle the prosecution’s theory that it was only Kalenjin youths who were armed with bows and arrows.

The defence played a video clip of Mr Ruto, former ODM treasurer Omingo Magara and Mr Chris Bichage arriving in a helicopter at Wilson Airport after they were attacked and seriously injured in Nyamarambe, Kisii.

The Nyamarambe incident was dubbed a fundraising meeting which was attended by former minister and Nyaribari Chache MP Simeon Nyachae and Ford People’s Henry Obwocha who the defence said had instigated the violence meted out against the then ODM leaders.

The defence said the Nyamarambe incident was a clear demonstration that not only PNU campaigners had been attacked but also ODM campaigners.

It also sought to demonstrate to the court that both PNU and ODM had supporters from all the ethnic groups.

According to Ms Alagendra, the Kibaki Tena lobby group was chaired by Mr Lee Karuri while other officials were Agricultural Finance Corporation boss William Kirwa, Mr John Kipkorir Too, who was in the PNU presidential elections board and coordinated campaigns in the North Rift and Mr Ken Nzioka, who was the PNU director of elections.

Defence: Am I correct to say PNU was reaching out for the vote of every Kenyan?

Witness: Yes.

Defence: PNU wanted the Luhya, Kalenjin, Kisii, Luo votes. Am I right?

Witness: Yes.

Defence: ODM too wanted all the votes?

Witness: Yes.

Defence: That ODM wanted to portray itself as the party of all ethnicities?

Witness: Yes.

Defence: You will agree with me that there were other prominent Kikuyus in ODM?

Witness: Yes.

Defence: Am I right to say that in 2007 it wasn’t unusual for an individual to support (President) Kibaki and at the same time support Raila (Odinga)?

Witness: Yes.