National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale. [Photo: Capital FM Kenya]
National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale has slammed International Criminal Court (ICC) Senior Trial Lawyer Anton Steynberg, after he said he would revive cases against President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto.
In December 2014, ICC prosecutors in the Hague withdrew all charges against the two, due to lack of evidence. They were facing crime against humanity charges, in relation to the 2007/2008 Post-Election Violence, in Kenya.
According to Duale, Steynberg's announcement of possible revival of the case, if another government takes over from Kenyatta's government, after the August 8, polls, is ill-planned.
"In his extremely poorly-timed statement, Steynberg did not claim to have any new information or evidence on which to reopen the case, but merely hoped that he would be given the chance to do so," Duale said, in an Opinion piece, to the Standard.
He quoted a section of the lawyers' statement, as indicated in the immediate, below paragraph.
"I am not about to retire... I can wait," he reportedly said. Even more problematically, Steynberg appeared to wade into the elections and seemed to indicate that if the Opposition wins the elections, he will have his chance to reopen the long-closed case. INTERFERENCE "Who knows, the next regime may be much more cooperative," Steynberg reportedly said.
According to Duale, "it is extremely obvious what can be extracted from that statement as it is unlikely a second Jubilee government will be any more or any less cooperative than it has been, so it is quite a clear what win is being sought by the ICC."
The Garissa Township MP said such comments pointed to the possibility of interference in Kenya's domestic democratic and political process.
"That a senior member of an international legal institution could display such a position unfortunately continues a long history of personal vendettas from within the ICC against Kenyan leaders," Duale said in the June 14, 2017 publication.