Thursday 16 May 2013

AG Muigai: Why I went to The Hague

Attorney General Prof Githu Muigai who led the Kenyan delegation to Geneva on May 15, 2013. He has has explained why he travelled to The Hague, Netherlands on the eve of the status conference to discuss the case facing Deputy President William Ruto. FILE
Attorney General Prof Githu Muigai who led the Kenyan delegation to Geneva on May 15, 2013. He has has explained why he travelled to The Hague, Netherlands on the eve of the status conference to discuss the case facing Deputy President William Ruto. FILE  NATION MEDIA GROUP
By PETER LEFTIE pmutibo@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Thursday, May 16  2013 at  09:55
 
Attorney General Githu Muigai has explained why he travelled to The Hague, Netherlands on the eve of the status conference to discuss the case facing Deputy President William Ruto.
Prof Muigai who travelled with Mr Ruto to the Netherlands on Monday explained that he had gone to attend informal consultations regarding cooperation between state parties to the Rome Statute and the ICC.
“This meeting had been scheduled by the ASP and its objective was to bring both the Government and Non-Governmental Organisations experts from The Hague and capitals to exchange views on various co-operation issues,” he explained in a statement.
Prof Muigai said the meeting discussed the question of “Non-essential” contacts, ICC’s arrest strategies and the privileges and immunities of the court’s officials.
The AG also stated that he paid a courtesy call to the Deputy Prosecutor, the Registrar and the Vice-President of the Court, assuring all of them that Kenya will continue to co-operate with ICC.
Prof Muigai has recently clashed with ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda over the latter’s claims that witnesses in the cases facing Mr Ruto, President Uhuru Kenyatta and radio presenter Joshua Sang are being harassed.
He has dismissed Ms Bensouda’s claims that the government has refused to furnish her office with documents relating to the cases.
He has maintained that the government has fully cooperated with the ICC and furnished it with all the documents relating to the cases. The government had also facilitated the relocation of witnesses to safe places outside the country whenever requested by the ICC prosecutor, he has maintained.
“The Kenyan Government is not party to the proceedings currently taking place at the ICC and it has no knowledge of who the witnesses are and it has no desire to deal with the witnesses whatsoever. All the Kenyan Government has done as regards witnesses is to facilitate cooperation between the ICC Victims and Witnesses Unit and the Kenyan Witness Protection Agency,” he was quoted.
Ms Bensouda had accused the government of refusing to furnish her office with documents relating to the cases despite several requests.
She also claimed ICC witnesses were facing harassment, intimidation and even outright bribery to compromise the cases.

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