The ICC ghost is back to haunt President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government after judges yesterday referred Kenya to the Assembly of States Parties for non-cooperation.
Reports by Trial Chamber V (B) found that Kenya failed to comply with its obligations by not providing information related to Uhuru. The court said the ASP would be best placed to address the lack of cooperation to provide an incentive for the Kenyan government to cooperate with the court.
“Noting that the case against Mr Kenyatta has been already terminated and considering the relevance of the materials sought in the Prosecutor’s request to current or future investigations, Trial Chamber V(B) considered a referral to the ASP appropriate for the purpose of fostering cooperation more broadly for the sake of any ongoing and/or future investigations and proceedings in the Kenyan situation,” the court said.
Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda filed an application for a finding of non-cooperation against the Kenyan government on November 2013. She said it failed to comply with a request to produce records relating to Uhuru, which she claimed were at the heart of her case against him.
Bensouda, who dropped Uhuru’s case for lack of sufficient evidence, said the government’s cooperation drastically changed when Uhuru became President.
Dropping the case, Bensouda accused the Kenyan government of failing to cooperate with her office in her quest for evidence.
She sought information on Uhuru’s finances, property and telephone records but said the government refused to assist her. On December 3, 2014, the trial judges rejected the application for referral of the matter to the ASP, a decision Bensouda appealed on March 20 last year.
On August 19 last year, the Appeals Chamber reversed this decision and referred the matter to the trial judges for a review. The judges said yesterday they based their decision on the further observations from Bensouda, the victims’ lawyer and Kenya.