ANNAN, OCAMPO SET TO PUSH FOR KENYA REFORMS AND TRIALS

DAILY NATION
SEPTEMBER 30 2009

Mr Annan, the former UN secretary-general who helped broker the peace deal that ended two months of post-election violence, arrives at the weekend, while ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo is expected from next week.

Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) vice-chairman Hassan Omar said Mr Annan will be in Kenya to assess progress made in the implementation of reforms agreed on under Agenda IV to help solve long-term problems facing the country.

Meeting

Land, constitutional and legal reforms, eradication of poverty and ensuring equity are the issues that fall under Agenda IV. “I am among those invited for the Tuesday meeting at Serena Hotel,” Mr Omar said. Mr Annan is scheduled to hold a meeting with Kenyan Government and civil society officials who travelled to Geneva, Switzerland, in April to conduct an audit of the grand coalition government.

The International Centre for Policy and Conflict executive director Ndungu Wainaina also said he had received an invitation for a meeting with Mr Annan. Mr Wainaina said the meeting would be a follow-up on discussions the civil society leaders held with Mr Moreno-Ocampo on a strategy to engage the government on reforms.

“The meeting may be part of the international diplomacy aimed at exerting pressure on the Kenyan Government to institute reforms,” Mr Wainaina said. Mr Moreno-Ocampo announced on Wednesday that he will be in Kenya in the “coming weeks” to meet President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to speed up justice.

The announcement coincided with a deadline given to the government by ICC to establish a special tribunal to try the post-election violence suspects or the matter be handled by ICC. But in a statement posted on the ICC website, the chief prosecutor outlined a three-pronged approach that should be adopted to avert a recurrence of violence.

The ICC, he said, is to prosecute those most responsible while national accountability proceedings, as defined by the Kenyan Parliament, “such as a Special Tribunal” for other perpetrators should occur.

“Mechanisms such as the Justice, Truth and Reconciliation Commission should shed light on the full history of past events and to suggest mechanisms to prevent such crimes in the future,” he said.He also stressed that “Kenya will be a world example of managing violence”.

Principals

“Decisive consultations between the prosecutor and the Kenyan principals will take place in the coming weeks. Justice will not be delayed,” said Mr Moreno-Ocampo. In a statement on behalf of KNCHR, Mr Omar welcomed ICC’s move and urged it to immediately intervene by seeking cooperation of the state and conducting preliminary investigations and analysis.

“The ICC should immediately take action. The move will help hasten the local process,” Mr Omar said. On Wednesday, the local liaison office of the African Union Panel of Eminent African Personalities held a meeting to lay down modalities of Mr Annan’s visit.