20100405
ALLAFRICA

Nairobi — An advance team from the International Criminal Court lands in Kenya this week to launch investigations that could see some Cabinet ministers and other top politicians, civil servants and businessmen taken to The Hague to answer charges of crimes against humanity.

ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, who plans to visit next month, has already informed Kenyan authorities of the advance team's visit.

Sources at The Hague said the team would lay the groundwork for investigations into the roles of specific people seen as the key planners and financiers of the violence, following the disputed 2007 elections.

The advance team has set up appointments with some of the government and private institutions that carried out investigations into the violence in which 1,133 people were killed.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo's team intends to talk to the ministries of Internal Security and Provincial Administration, Justice and Constitutional Affairs, the Attorney General's office and the police force.

The team will also be talking with the official and independent organisations like the statutory Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) and the Kenya Human Rights Commission, that inquired into the blood-letting in which at least 650,000 people were uprooted from their homes.

Last Wednesday, the Pre-Trial bench allowed the prosecutor to start investigations into the post-election chaos.

A day after, Mr Moreno-Ocampo addressed a press conference at The Hague with a video link to Nairobi during which he said he would launch quick, robust, independent and impartial investigations.

He said he would be arriving in the country in May to meet President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga before embarking on his mission.

The team, sources said, would work with the local agencies that investigated the chaos, to identify the addresses of the witnesses, their locations and the risks they faced for being lined up to give evidence against the masterminds of the killings.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo has said the names consist of key leaders from PNU, whose candidate was President Kibaki, and the ODM, whose flag bearer was Mr Odinga. Also on the list are businesspeople associated with the two parties.

Key to the investigations would be the safety of the witnesses who have been threatened if they implicate some key leaders.

The prosecutor has said that ICC will help protect the witnesses, but also stressed that their safety is the responsibility of the government.

Contacted by the Nation on Monday, Attorney-General Amos Wako was optimistic that Parliament would speedily pass the Witness Protection (Amendment) Bill.

"I am expecting Parliament to act quickly on the amendment, now that the issue of the (draft) constitution has been dispensed with, so that we can have a mechanism in place," he said.

Mr Wako presented the Bill in the House on Thursday and it is now before the Parliamentary Committee on Administration of Justice and Legal Affairs.

The current law has been faulted for failing to put in place an effective witness protection programme, putting at risk the lives of those who give evidence.

"We want to be in a position, if asked by the ICC, to be able to help. However, the ICC can also provide its own protection of witnesses," said the AG in a telephone interview.

Sources at the Office of the President said Internal Security minister George Saitoti had received communication from Mr Moreno-Ocampo's office over the investigations.

On Monday, Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo said his ministry would only intervene if The Hague team faced difficulties or some government officers failed to cooperate.

He, however, urged MPs to agree on a national mechanism that would deal with those who would not face justice at The Hague.