Kenya President Unlikely to Attend ICC Trial
In the aftermath of the
attack on a Nairobi shopping mall, Kenya's president appears increasingly
unlikely to attend his trial at the International Criminal Court where he is
charged with crimes against humanity.
According to multiple sources, Barasa, 41 years, began working for the
International Criminal Court in 2012 around Eldoret as an intermediary for
investigators collecting evidence for the post election violence cases.
The ICC investigators needed individuals who knew the Rift Valley and understand how the post election violence occurred.
One investigator approached several journalists to serve as intermediaries supporting the ICC.
Some journalists rejected offers to work with the ICC but eventually they struck a deal with Barasa.
After agreeing with the witnesses, Barasa would help arrange their travel
documents like passports so that they could travel to the Hague when the case
started.
Barasa reportedly handled more than ten witnesses for the ICC and helped move the witnesses out of Kenya to other East African countries for safety.
“He would be sent to those countries to locate areas where the witnesses were to be put under protection,” said one source.
Barasa linked up with several civil society groups who had also helped the ICC carry out its investigations.
NGO sources indicated that the agreement between Barasa and the ICC was on casual terms and he was paid according to the work he did.
The ICC paid him through allowances for travel costs and other needs. He reportedly could get between Sh50,000 and Sh100,000 for a single operation like helping a witness to get travel documents.
Around June, Barasa started to disagree with the ICC over payments.
However some operatives heard that Barasa was unhappy and and approached him to help bring back the witnesses due to testify at the ICC.
He continued to work with the ICC although he was suspected of dealing with individuals interested in having the witnesses refuse to testify.
The ICC investigators were reportedly caught by surprise when some witnesses did not arrive at the Hague at the start of Ruto and Sang’s trial in September.
Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda immediately dispatched a team to the areas in Kenya where the witnesses were to living to find out what had gone wrong.
The investigators led by Paul Ilani met Barasa and reportedly disagreed hotly. He was cautioned that a warrant of arrest would be issued against him for attempting to bribe witnesses.
The warrant was issued secretly in August but was made public last week.
Yesterday Peter Murigi Macharia, a TNA media officer during the last election, send out a “profile of ICC double agent Walter Baraza containing the hard facts about his involvement with the ICC.”
The document was prepared by a lobby group called African Forum on ICC which is based in Chester House on Koinange Street, Nairobi.
The document claims that the ICC wanted Barasa to work with them to “implicate” Ruto as they had realised that he was tampering with witnesses.
Barasa was apparently angered by insinuations that he was working with Ruto.
“He told them that the last time he met the Deputy President was in 2007. Ilani told him that they were aware that he met the DP after he came back from Japan. Barasa dared them to instigate any warrant of arrest against him and that he was ready to face them before the ICC,” said the document prepared by the lobby group.
The document says that Barasa was in touch with a lady witness who was in Uganda, Burundi and Congo under ICC protection but who sought his help to leave the witness protection programme.
Even as heads of state prepare to gather for an
African Union summit Saturday, where they could debate the possible exit of some
African countries from the International Criminal Court, Kenyan officials are
warning that President Uhuru Kenyatta might not show up in The Hague next month
for his trial.
"He has cooperated fully with the court up until now,"
Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed told a news conference Wednesday held in front of
the president's downtown Nairobi office. She was referring to past ICC hearings
before Kenya's presidential election in March.
Mohamed underscored the contrast between then — when
Kenyatta was the country's deputy prime-minister and a presidential candidate —
and now, when he is president of East Africa's most powerful country, which
faces a rising threat posed by Islamic insurgents.
"Are the circumstances different? Absolutely. Totally.
Completely different. Before he wasn't the head of state of the republic. ...
It's going to be the first time that a sitting head is brought before any court
of any time, not just here but anywhere in the world," Mohamed said.
The ICC charges against Kenyatta and Deputy President
William Ruto relate to Kenya's 2007-08 post-election violence that killed more
than 1,000 people. Kenyatta has asked the court if he can attend the trial by
video link. Judges have not yet ruled and have rejected that request from
Ruto.
Herman von Hebel, an ICC executive, told reporters in
The Hague on Wednesday that Kenyan authorities have so far fully cooperated with
the case and he has not yet seen "any concrete element" to indicate that will
change.
Privately, several members of Kenya's government have
told The Associated Press they do not believe Kenyatta will report to The Hague.
One official said tribal elders are urging Ruto not to return after finishing
his current court session. All officials insisted on anonymity to speak freely
about internal government deliberations.
Before this year's election, U.S. officials obliquely
warned Kenyans that it wouldn't be a good idea to elect Kenyatta, the son of
modern Kenya's founding father, as their president because of the charges
hanging over him. Washington's assistant secretary of state for Africa said
"choices have consequences."
Before this year's election, the top U.S. official for
Africa obliquely warned Kenyans that it wouldn't be a good idea to elect
Kenyatta as their president because of the ICC charges, saying "choices have
consequences."
But the Sept. 21 mall
attack has increased Kenya's — and Kenyatta's — value to the West in the war
against terror. The Somali Islamic group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for
the assault and said it was in retaliation for Kenya's sending of troops into
neighboring Somalia.
If
he decides not to attend the ICC trial, Kenya could become politically isolated
and be sanctioned. But after the mall attack that killed more than 60 people,
international repercussions may be lighter.
Officials at the U.S. Embassy refused to comment on the
developments and the possibility that Kenyatta may snub the court.
"The already strong but now reinforced counterterrorism
relationship between Kenyatta's administration and the U.S. and U.K. will likely
diminish the impact of ongoing ICC cases against Kenyatta and his deputy," said
Clare Allenson of the political consulting firm Eurasia Group.
She pointed out that the West's heightened security
engagements with Kenya "will require more direct interaction and support of the
Kenyatta administration at a senior level, including with the president
himself."
Seth Jones, a terrorism analyst at the Washington
D.C.-based Rand Corporation, said: "Kenya's importance as a counterterrorism
partner should increase after the Westgate attacks."
At the African Union summit in Ethiopia's capital,
African leaders could recommend a deferral of Kenyatta's case, or even seek to
rebuke the court or sever the continent's relationship with it. Kenya's
parliament in a non-binding vote last month voted to pull out of the Rome
Statue, the legal mechanism that created the ICC.
The ICC faces a perception that it singles out
Africans for prosecution even though many of the cases before the ICC were
self-referred, said David M. Crane, a professor at Syracuse University College
of Law.
"Politically I cannot see a head of state voluntarily
being present in The Hague to stand trial," Crane said. "Legally I see no
advantage for him to submit himself to the court. The bright red thread of
modern international criminal law is politics. Politically this is a lose-lose
situation, for both the ICC and the Kenyans."
The United States, which is not a party to the Rome
Statute, says it supports the goals of the ICC and believes in promoting justice
and ending impunity.
More than 1,000 people were killed in Kenya's
post-election violence six years ago. Kenyan courts have prosecuted less than a
half dozen people.
———
Associated Press
reporter Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands contributed to this report.
JOURNALIST Walter Barasa who is wanted by
ICC originally worked with the Hague based court to look for witnesses against
Deputy President William Ruto.
After Barasa differed
with the ICC, he switched to working with a network of people working behind the
scenes to encourage witnesses to recanted their statements.
Yesterday Interior
Minister Joseph Ole Lenku announced that he had passed on the ICC arrest warrant
for Barasa to Chief Justice Willy Mutunga so that the courts can handle it.
The ICC investigators needed individuals who knew the Rift Valley and understand how the post election violence occurred.
One investigator approached several journalists to serve as intermediaries supporting the ICC.
Some journalists rejected offers to work with the ICC but eventually they struck a deal with Barasa.
“Barasa’s work would mainly be to get in
touch with people who had been identified to be witnesses and then convince them
to be put under protection in or out of the country in readiness to give
evidence before the ICC,” said a source.
Barasa reportedly handled more than ten witnesses for the ICC and helped move the witnesses out of Kenya to other East African countries for safety.
“He would be sent to those countries to locate areas where the witnesses were to be put under protection,” said one source.
Barasa linked up with several civil society groups who had also helped the ICC carry out its investigations.
NGO sources indicated that the agreement between Barasa and the ICC was on casual terms and he was paid according to the work he did.
The ICC paid him through allowances for travel costs and other needs. He reportedly could get between Sh50,000 and Sh100,000 for a single operation like helping a witness to get travel documents.
Around June, Barasa started to disagree with the ICC over payments.
However some operatives heard that Barasa was unhappy and and approached him to help bring back the witnesses due to testify at the ICC.
He continued to work with the ICC although he was suspected of dealing with individuals interested in having the witnesses refuse to testify.
The ICC investigators were reportedly caught by surprise when some witnesses did not arrive at the Hague at the start of Ruto and Sang’s trial in September.
Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda immediately dispatched a team to the areas in Kenya where the witnesses were to living to find out what had gone wrong.
The investigators led by Paul Ilani met Barasa and reportedly disagreed hotly. He was cautioned that a warrant of arrest would be issued against him for attempting to bribe witnesses.
The warrant was issued secretly in August but was made public last week.
Yesterday Peter Murigi Macharia, a TNA media officer during the last election, send out a “profile of ICC double agent Walter Baraza containing the hard facts about his involvement with the ICC.”
The document was prepared by a lobby group called African Forum on ICC which is based in Chester House on Koinange Street, Nairobi.
The document claims that the ICC wanted Barasa to work with them to “implicate” Ruto as they had realised that he was tampering with witnesses.
Barasa was apparently angered by insinuations that he was working with Ruto.
“He told them that the last time he met the Deputy President was in 2007. Ilani told him that they were aware that he met the DP after he came back from Japan. Barasa dared them to instigate any warrant of arrest against him and that he was ready to face them before the ICC,” said the document prepared by the lobby group.
The document says that Barasa was in touch with a lady witness who was in Uganda, Burundi and Congo under ICC protection but who sought his help to leave the witness protection programme.
-source, The Star
Newspaper, Kenya.
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