Kenya Spent About $40,000 USD to Lobby for Deferral & Kenya Still Unwilling and Unable to Prosecute

Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka told Parliament yesterday that the Kenyan government spent close to $ 40,000 USD in the shuttle diplomacy to lobby African Union members to support Kenya’s bid to defer the issuance of summonses against six Kenyans. See story here.

That is an unjustifiably high amount of money particularly since the government has consistently failed to re-settle the hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Kenyans following post election violence in early 2008. The government is planning to spend even more money lobbying members of the Security Council for a deferral. This is yet another sign that Kenya’s ruling elites are putting their best interests ahead of those of ordinary Kenyans and particularly of the very victims of post election violence that the government has failed repeatedly by having no domestic effort or initiative to try these offenders.

In the meantime, the President and the Prime Minister remain deadlocked over nominations for a new Chief Justice and Attorney General. See stories here and here.

This deadlock which both have handed over to Parliament to resolve further casts a dark shadow over claims that Kenya would meet the test of complimentarity by having a credible local tribunal  as an alternative to the ICC under Kenya’s new Constitution. After all  no domestic tribunal has been set up or any investigatory mechanism for that matter. The impasse over appointments in the judicial system also clearly demonstrate that Kenya is still unable and unwilling to prosecute post election violence offenders.