‘Ocampo Did Not Do His Job Properly,’ Francis Muthaura Speaks On Being Suspect In ICC Case
Former Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura now says that Luis Moreno-Ocampo, a former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) did not perfectly execute his job during the 2007 post-election case in Hague, Netherlands.
According to Muthaura, who was among the main suspects facing trial, Ocampo did a faint assessment of the matter which lacked grounds for arguing in court.
“I don’t think our friend Ocampo didn’t do his work properly,” he said in an interview with Royal Media Services (RMS) Editorial Director Linus Kaikai.
“He came and talked to the people who were at the forefront NGOs and everybody and they thought that they had gathered a lot of evidence but it could not stand in the ICC court in fact a lot of it was found not to be true.”
He went on to finger at Parliament for escalating the matter to ICC, arguing that the case would have been well solved at home without involving external parties.
In Muthaura’s view, the then conflicting parties – ODM and the ruling party Party of National Unity (PNU) – were obsessed with getting rid of their political enemies and mis-judged the matter.
“The failure was with our parliament. When it went to parliament they were in a hurry. The initial proposal by Kofi Annan was not to go to the Hague,” he said.
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“There was a lot of misinformation. Both ODM and PNU wanted to call their so-called enemies to the ICC. Even when the matter of how to deal with culprits came in, the Parliament said ” Let’s go to Hague, they did not even debate it very much.”
Muthaura was among a team of six suspects who were presented before the ICC to answer to allegations of being responsible for the deaths of thousands of Kenyans during the 2007 post-election violence.
Ocampo, who was the lead prosecutor also presented the then Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, former Industrialisation Minister Henry Kosgey, ex-Education Minister William Ruto, former radio executive Joshua Arap Sang, and former police commissioner Mohammed Hussein Ali.
The six suspects were known colloquially as the “Ocampo six”.
All charges were dismissed against the six as William Ruto and Sang were the last to be tried and were determined free on April 5, 2016.
‘Ocampo Did Not Do His Job Properly,’ Francis Muthaura Speaks On Being Suspect In ICC Case