Wednesday 13 July 2011

Ocampo’s Threadbare Evidence Against Six Kenyans


Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo appears to have relied on threadbare evidence to indict six Kenyans of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity following the 2008 violence.

His latest disclosure of evidence to the six persons indicate that the ICC prosecutor relied on reports whose credibility is almost nil, at the same time, lacking any incriminating content.

Of course unless he has some other material that can link the suspects to the violence, otherwise, what he has passed on to them do not show any links to the violence.

I have been reading several pages of evidence to some of the six individuals... Several of the pages and sentences are lies, some not true while others are illogical.

It consists of newspaper commentaries, news articles, Facebook posts, blog posts, minutes of an open meeting… ridiculous stuff.

This is besides the previous evidence he submitted to the suspects  a few months ago.

Wednesday 6 July 2011

Kenyan Judges, Lawyers Can Now Wear Studs, Dreadlocks

Below is a statement by Chief Justice Mutunga about the controversy on wearing a stud to the courts. He e-mailed this statement to a google group of Kenyan writers, and also posted on his Facebook page.


Over the past week, I have received questions on Facebook and Twitter by young lawyers about my position on studs and the dress code in Kenyan courts. To wit can lawyers appear before the Court wearing their studs? Because it is difficult for me to respond to each one of them individually, I wish to clarify my position here.

At this point, I can say that the Judges of the Supreme Court have agreed that we have no issues with anyone appearing before the Supreme Court, wearing their studs. Our position is that as long as officers of the court - both lawyers and judges can appear smart, a stud - or indeed dreadlocks - should not hinder the administration of justice.

At the Supreme Court, we shall not be wearing the colonial wigs and robes, and we shall seek the input of Kenyans on a simple robe that can be worn over a suit, for example. We will encourage the Court of Appeal and the High Court to review the dress code there. We will dialogue with them and the LSK and we expect the public to participate in the debate.

Willy Mutunga,
Chief Justice, Republic of Kenya
President of the Supreme Court

Friday 1 July 2011

RIP Tamo Kosgey of Kass FM Radio

Last night, I dreamt about a friend who died on Wednesday evening this week.

His name is Philip Rotich Kosgei, known to his colleagues at Kass FM radio as Tamo - short for Tamoron'giot. Tamo collapsed and died just next to his home in eastlands, Nairobi hours after presenting his drive evening programme on Kass.

Post-mortem has been done on his body. Results should be out by the end of today.

Tamo used to suffer from epilepsy. The last time he had a seizure was about four years ago, at around the same time he joined Kass FM as a comedian and later co-presenter of a main family show on Tuesday and Thursday.

I think he died after a seizure... fell into a small ditch, and no-one saw him, until hours after he had died. This is the saddest part that has remained in my mind.

I knew Tamo so well. I even worked with him at some point in his career in politics and radio comedy.

My heart goes out to his wife Margaret and children. May God rest his sould in peace.