Anxiety as Tobiko, AG plan local trials

By Martin Mutua and Beauttah Omanga

Even before the dust settles on confirmation of charges against four Kenyans at The Hague, the State has set up a team to reopen the 5000 local case files for minor offenders.

The decision to restart the cases lying in files that have been gathering dust for the last four years is

already generating heat, with questions raised about the independence and integrity of the investigations that brought them out

The decision follows President Kibaki’s statement last week when, while commenting on the decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to commit the four Kenyans to full trial, he said the country now has a robust and reformed judicial system.

"We now have a radically transformed judiciary, an independent office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, a police service that is being fundamentally reformed and a functional witness protection agency," said the President, a statement that is now being seen as heralding the start of local trials.

He added: "It is now the collective responsibility of all these institutions to ensure justice for all at all times."

Already Attorney General Githu Muigai has asked Chief Justice Willy Mutunga to open a new wing of the High Court to handle international crimes, which incorporates the majority of post-election violence cases, and includes the crimes for which the four are being tried for at The Hague.

A multi-agency Task Force on investigation and prosecution of post-election violence cases made up of two members each from the State Law Office, Ministry of Justice, Police Commissioner’s office, the Director of Criminal Investigations and the Witness Protection Agency, will spearhead the new bid for domestic trials, after the failure by Parliament to set up a local judicial instrument to handle them.

But the move has received strong opposition from some leaders in the Coalition Government, who suspect it may lead to witch-hunts against their supporters by those who were in Government and investigating agencies when the violence broke out.

The Standard