Participants at a workshop organised by the International Centre for
Policy and Conflict (ICPC) at the weekend, blamed the Government for
what they termed a move to protect impunity by pushing for a local
tribunal.
Lawyer and former Kabete MP Paul Muite said he was sceptical on the independence of the proposed local tribunal.
The constitutional validity of statutes, and the way they are being
debated in the House leaves a lot of room for challenges at the High
Court," he said.
He said lawyers were already drawing constitutional references to make
sure the law that will be enacted remains hostage to the supreme law.
Last week, a vote to pass a Bill to entrench the Special Tribunal in
the Constitution was frustrated by lack of quorum in Parliament.
Parliament postponed the vote on the Constitutional (Amendment) Bill
2009 to Tuesday as Constitutional Affairs Minister Martha Karua called
for support from President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga.
Muite said the Bill should be withdrawn and redrafted.
When a Bill is defeated in Parliament, it means it will wait for
another six months to be reintroduced, and this, he said, is pushing
justice very far.
The only way
The International Transitional Justice Director, Howard Varney, criticised the Government's handling of the matter.
He raised questions on why the civil society's input was rejected and
also read mischief in how politicians are rushing the amendment in
Parliament.
"This (ICC) is the only way justice will be seen to be done here and for all to be satisfied," he said.
Mr Davis Malombe, a programme officer, Kenya Human Rights Commission
said the way the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2009 was designed gave
the special tribunal few chances of success.
And KNCHR Vice-Chairman Hassan Omar, on Sunday urged MPs to pass the Bill and pave way for the establishment of the tribunal.
"The commission is supporting a local solution based on strong legislation," he said on telephone.
He regretted that politicians plotting to derail the formation of a local tribunal were driven by ethnic and partisan interests.
"It is unfortunate that politicians have allowed political and ethnic
interests to override the pursuit of justice. We have to drop politics
on the issue of tribunal," he said.
He asked the political elite to see the importance of a local tribunal
without viewing the International Criminal Court at The Hague as an
alternative.