Attorney General Githu Muigai has spoken warmly of the current International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda but at the same time criticized her predecessor in the office Moreno Ocampo for his ‘showmanship’ in handling the Kenyan cases before the ICC.
The AG said that Bensouda, in her short stint in the office so far, has managed to foster strong working relations with the Kenyan government. He could not however say the same about Ocampo, who he said had mishandled the Kenyan case before the ICC. Speaking in Nuremberg Germany the AG could not hold back the venom;
“During the tenure of the first prosecutor I found that it was not possible to sustain a professional dialogue with the court. Sometimes I found the prosecutor patronising, sometimes downright discourteous and disrespectful of a state party,” said the AG.
The AG accused Ocampo of using the Kenyan case before the ICC for self-promotional reasons;
“I was on many occasions shocked by what appeared to be the prosecutor’s self promotion using the Kenyan case… a case that was and is now extremely delicate arising out of complicated circumstances and where I would have expected a professional prosecutor to exercise the greatest possible caution,” he said.
Muigai also told the attendees that the Kenyan cases before the ICC were complicated because they had two presidential aspirants. He however assured everyone of the government’s commitment to seeing the process through.
