Court_Ruling2
Originally uploaded by ateka.
Hanging outside the court waiting for the judges to finish reading their ruling on the validity of the referendum.
Orange Supporters Outside Court
Originally uploaded by ateka.
Orange supporters awaiting for Raila et. al to emerge from court after Tuesday’s ruling on the validity of the referendum.
It’s been a crazy busy day…no time to blog. Just wanted to say that the nolle accepted, the charges against Mr. Mbathi and Hon. Khaniri were thrown out. Ruling was predictable, particularly because the magistrate is bound by lots of bad Chunga-era law. Details to come when I get a chance.
Here is the official version of events. We are back in court for the ruling tomorrow morning…I predict that we will lose, and the nolle will proceed. If that happens, the Commission should be filing two more cases either on Friday or Monday. Maybe Wako will run out of nolles eventually. My personal observations to come soon. For more on the KNCHR’s monitoring efforts including PDF and Word versions of the Lists of Shame that have been released so far, click here.
A number of you have left comments congratulating the Commission on a job well done. I urge you to email them and express your support directly via
haki-at-knchr.org. They are doing a difficult job under difficult circumstances (wouldn’t it have been nice if Githongo had operated in such an above-the-board manner…but I digress).
This is totally outrageous!
So our government has a rare chance to send one of our best and brightest to the International Criminal Court (ICC), and who do they nominate instead? Someone who has been accused of corruption and was indeed named in the Ringera List of Shame and who chose to resign rather than clear her name and defend herself against the allegations against her.
Professor Makau Mutua has just released the following press statement in protest:
I would like to express shock and outrage, as the Chairman of the Kenya Human Rights Commission, at the nomination of Effie Owour, formally a Judge of the Court of Appeal of the Republic of Kenya, to the bench of the International Criminal Court. The ICC is the world’s only permanent international court with the mandate to prosecute suspects for war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. It is therefore non-negotiable that judges of the ICC possess the most sterling legal and human rights credentials. Nominees to the ICC must be excellent legal thinkers and have the highest moral standing among their colleagues and in their countries of origin. Judges on the ICC cannot have been implicated in or suspected of any impropriety or corruption. Nor can theey be incompetent.
Kenyans will recall that Justice Owuor was sacked from the judiciary by President Kibaki on the recommendation of the Ringera panel. The Ringera panel looked into allegations of corruption, incompetence, and other improprieties involving Kenya’s judiciary and recommendation the dismissal of many of his colleagues on these grounds. Some of those named challenged their dismissals before tribunals. Justice Owuor was not one of them.
It is shocking and a stain on Kenya that a judge that had been sacked by her country — following an exhaustive investigation, whose conclusions she did not challenge — can be nominated for the world’s top international criminal court. Why does our country only insist on rewarding those who are mediocre, incompetent, and corrupt? Why does the Republic of Kenya besmirth the good name of its citizens by putting a candidate with a questionable and dubious background before the ICC?
I am troubled by our country’s culture of anti-intellectualism and graft. The are numeruous Kenyans — both men and women — who are eminently qualified to sit on the ICC. Think of Dr. Githu Muigai, Dr. Willy Mutunga, Ms. Betty Murungi, Mr. Pheroze Nowrojee, Mr. Nzamba Kitonga, Justice Martha Koome, Ms. Raychelle Omamo, and many others who would have made serious nominees. Yet they were passed over a person with a shady background. If she becomes a justice of the ICC, how will Ms. Owuor explain her dismissal from Kenya’s judiciary? Kenya has many eminent and exceptionally qualified lawyers. It did not have to insult the country’s integrity by nominating Effie Owour.
Makau Mutua
Chaiman, Kenya Human Rights Commission
Professor of Law
Director, Human Rights Center
State University of New York
Buffalo Law School
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