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Kenya's Attorney General Planning To Sue U.S. Over Travel Ban

(RTTNews) - Kenya's Attorney General Amos Wako said Thursday that he was planning to sue the United States over a travel ban imposed on him last month for allegedly opposing the implementation of political reforms in his country.

Wako on Thursday confirmed for the first time that he was the unnamed high-ranking Kenyan official who received a letter from Washington last month, informing him that he was banned from traveling to Unites States. He said at a press conference held in his office that he was seeking legal advise on suing the U.S. over the travel ban, alleging that the U.S. ban was for "defamatory reasons".

"The ban was done in bad faith and only serves the interest of US and not in support of reforms in Kenya," Wako said. "The attorney general has not in any way obstructed or stifled reforms. To target only the attorney general is therefore an American or foreign agenda."

Last month, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson had announced at a news conference in Nairobi that Washington had imposed a travel ban on an unnamed senior Kenyan official it believes was opposing the implementation of political reforms in the country.

Without naming the official, Carson said that the individual had "obstructed the reform process, failed to end the cycle of impunity and has been an obstacle in the fight against corruption". He added that the U.S. is considering similar action against three other senior government officials, without naming them.

The development came a month after Carson warned in a letter sent to 15 senior Kenyan officials that the U.S. was considering imposition of travel bans on them over failure to implement the reform agenda, despite agreeing to do so in an earlier accord that ended the country's post-poll violence in early 2008.

According to U.S. Ambassador Michael Ranneberger, the letter was sent to both sides of the coalition government, as they shared equal responsibility in implementing the proposed reforms. The Ambassador also said in September that the U.S. would "closely scrutinize any proposals for Kenya in international financial institutions," adding that the reforms "reflect the view at the highest levels of the U.S. government."

The proposed reforms were part of a UN-brokered power-sharing deal, which ended the post-poll violence that erupted in the African country after the 2007 December presidential elections. The proposed reforms include stamping out corruption, creating a permanent electoral commission and bringing the perpetrators of the post-election violence to justice.

Post-poll violence broke out in Kenya after current Prime Minister Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement accused President Mwai Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) of committing fraud in the elections.

The violence that followed the election, killed an estimated 1,500 people and displaced 300,000 others. It was finally halted by a UN-brokered power-sharing deal, according to which Kibaki remained president while Odinga was appointed the country's prime minister. Former UN Secretary-General Annan was the chief mediator in the successful power-sharing talks.

Despite agreeing to set up a special tribunal to prosecute the post-election violence suspects, Kenya's coalition government's repeated failures to do so prompted the International Criminal Court in September to take up the responsibility of trying "most responsible" perpetrators of last year's post-poll violence.

Kenya agreed in July to refer the case to the ICC if they failed to set up a special tribunal by July 2010, while promising to provide the ICC with details of their investigations into the post-poll violence by the end of September.

Earlier, Annan had handed a list of individuals suspected of involvement in the post poll- violence to ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo in August. The move was intended to pressurize the Kenyan government to establish a special tribunal to try senior politicians and businessmen accused of organizing the post-poll violence.

The list was compiled by an inquiry commission chaired by Justice Phillip Waki. The commission had requested Annan to forward the list to the to the ICC if the Kenyan government failed to set up the tribunal by the stipulated deadline of March 1, 2009.

Though Kenya's cabinet agreed in November to act on the recommendations of the commission by setting up a special tribunal to probe the post-poll violence, it missed the stipulated deadline after the parliament failed to pass a required amendment bill in January.

Despite the extension of the dead-line to establish the special tribunal by the ICC, the Kenyan cabinet repeatedly failed to pass a required amendment bill for setting up the tribunal, mainly due to differences over the issue among cabinet members.

While some ministers argued that the case should be handed over to the ICC for carrying out independent and credible investigations, others strongly believed that entrusting the case to the ICC would put Kenya alongside failed states that do not have proper legal mechanism or are not stable enough to try suspects at home.

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