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{
    "id": 389016,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/389016/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 380,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Orengo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 129,
        "legal_name": "Aggrey James Orengo",
        "slug": "james-orengo"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, can I be protected? I want to make a very short presentation if I can be given the time. I wanted to put this thing clearly before the Senate; that if you look at the Rome Statute, among the two biggest issues is the doctrine of complementarity. This was something which was negotiated over the years and I know the Attorney- General Emeritus, Sen. Amos Wako, was involved in some of these negotiations because the state parties to the Rome Statute did not want states that were members of the ICC to be subject to the jurisdiction of that court, notwithstanding their own national courts and the sovereignty of those countries. So, that the principle of complementarity is such that the ICC will only come to a situation if those national courts have no capacity and cannot prosecute state cases. The second principle was to allow the security council of the ICC to constitute the trigger mechanism for initiating cases before the ICC. Now, Mr. Speaker, Sir, three years ago, I was present when the President of the Assembly of State Parties, a Mr. Christian Wenaweser, who was the Ambassador of Liechtenstein, came here and met the Cabinet Committee which was dealing with ICC matters. He put the question to us in the presence of the President, and he asked: “Are you serious about bringing these cases back to Kenya? If you are serious about bringing these cases back to Kenya, have you read the Rome Statute carefully” instead of just running around? He told them “You are going to Addis Ababa; even if you go there ten times or a hundred times, the cases will not come back. If you go before the Security Council, the Security Council can only defer the cases in terms of Chapter 7 of the UN Charter when there is a regional conflict, not in any other situation.” And he said what other states have done in the review conference which took place in Kampala. In that review conference when it was being held, one of the members of the bureau which has only three members was a Kenyan named Zachary Mwita. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in the presentation that was given on behalf of the Republic of Kenya, the current Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs was the one who gave the presentation and it is here. She gave Kenya’s commitment to abide by the Rome Statute and ask other African states to do so. In fact, the African situation as it was at that time was given by Sen. Wako. I remember Sen. Wako giving a statement on behalf of the members of the state assembly. They were saying that if you want circumstances in which the cases can be deferred to Kenya, the only way out is to amend the Rome Statute. In fact, during the Kampala Review Conference, there was amendment on the law of crime of aggression which the Americans were very worried about and suggestions were given. What I am saying is that instead of suffering the repetition of The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}