Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka is a renowned politician and diplomat.
Kalonzo is regarded and rated among the country’s top diplomats owing to his political experience on matters of foreign relations.
In 2010, while serving as Vice President in the grand coalition government under former president Mwai Kibaki and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Kalonzo embarked on African Nations tour to seek the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN) approvals to have the crimes against humanity that were facing six Kenyans deferred and tried at local courts.
Kalonzo wanted the AU backing to convince the International criminal Court (ICC) to refer the cases to local courts.
The former Vice President in what was known as ‘shuttle diplomacy’ was to lobby the African nations to back Kenya’s push to have the cases tried locally.
Kalonzo toured 10 African countries and some foreign nations lobbying for support on grounds that Kenya was a sovereign state and should be allowed to try the suspects locally.
He said while Kenya was a signatory to Rome Statute, it had a right to asks for the cases against the ‘Ocampo six’ tried locally.
Among the countries Kalonzo visited in his diplomacy mission included Uganda, Libya, South Africa, Ethiopia, Gabon, Nigeria, Malawi, Egypt, and Tanzania.
Kalonzo’s push was described by diplomatic analysts as a way to save the ‘Ocampo six’ who were facing crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court over the 2007-2008 post-election chaos that led to the loss of lives, destruction of property and mass displacement of Kenyans.
The former Vice president's mission was partially successful as some African nations backed Kenya's push to have the cases against the six suspects tried locally.
The Ocampo six suspects were later released by the International Court on grounds of lack of sufficient evidence to sustain their charges.
Kalonzo later defended his mission, saying that it was for the interest of the country’s sovereignty.
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