UB Law Dean Mutua Faces ICC Allegations

In addition to being sued by an ex-UB professor, UB Law School Dean Makau Mutua is facing allegations of witness tampering in an International Criminal Court (ICC) case, according to news reports from his native Kenya.
The case concerns four prominent Kenyans charged by the ICC with inciting waves of violence throughout the country following a heated and controversial presidential election in 2007.
For almost a decade, Mutua has been a columnist and op-ed contributor to the Sunday Nation, a Kenyan newspaper. Mutua has recently published articles in the Sunday Nation regarding the testimony of James Maina Kabutu, known as prosecution “Witness Number Four” in the ICC case.
Kabutu is known to have recanted his evidence against two of the four charged Kenyans in a 2009 proceeding.
But Mutua wrote in a March 18 Sunday Nation column that Kabutu had been forced to recant his testimony.
In a piece entitled “How They Tampered With Ocampo Witness,” Mutua wrote:
“Today, I can absolutely – and without equivocation – confirm that Mr. Kabutu was put under unbearably incredible pressure to recant his testimony…and refuse to testify at the International Criminal Court.”
Mutua went on:
“I can now confirm that Mr. Kabutu never actually ‘recanted’ his testimony… He was instead forced – under threat of dire consequences – to read the ‘affidavit’ on the video ‘recanting’ his testimony.”
These statements have gotten Mutua the attention of the ICC and Kenyan authorities. Some commentators have wondered how it is that Mutua had inside knowledge of the witness and of the testimony. Mutua’s assertion that Kabutu had been intimidated has also been called into question.
Last March, Charles A. Taku, a lawyer involved in the case, wrote to the Daily Nation – the publisher of the Sunday Nation – in defense of his client, Dr. David Matsanga, who had been accused by Mutua for coercion and intimidating Kabutu.
Taku and Matsanga countered that Mutua and Maine Kiai, a co-contributor to the Sunday Nation, have hurt the integrity of the judicial process. Matsanga has been reported to openly oppose the ICC, describing it as a political entity used against African leaders on behalf of powerful Western nations.
“These are the people who should be investigated for incitement, interfering with the judicial process, malicious publications and incitement,” Taku wrote. “Prof. Makau Mutua perpetrates the crimes he is accusing my client in the most egregious manner bordering on impunity. He has not only exposed the identity of the witness but he provides details which only an insider to the prosecutor’s office could possess.”
Mutua denounced the allegations in an article at Mwakilishi.com, a Kenyan news website. According to the article, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID, a division of the Kenyan police) contacted Mutua with a message, of which Mutua said:
“The message did not disclose any laws that I was alleged to have broken, except make unintelligible references to vague offenses…Why the CID would waste scarce resources on such a wild goose chase beats me.”
The article also says of Mutua:
“He described as ‘a sham’ the [CID] investigation and said it ‘is part of an orchestrated campaign to intimidate and harass those who support the ICC process, the press, and thwart justice for victims. My message to the CID and those on whose behalf they seek to silence me and the press is simple – back off. I take this incident as an attempt by the CID – and the Kenya government – to obstruct justice at The Hague [where the ICC is headquartered in the Netherlands].”
In 2007, Kenya witnessed extreme violence in the wake of its presidential election. After Mwai Kibaki was announced as the winner of the election, thousands of men in the village of Kibera went to the streets and incited a tribal war. Kibaki, who is a Kikuyu, was charged with rigging the election against his challenger, Raila Odinga, a Luo. When the dust of the violence had settled, at least 1,600 people were dead and 500,000 injured.
Since then, four Kenyans have been charged by the ICC for inciting the violence. Uhuru Kenyatta, the deputy prime minister and the son of Kenya’s founder, Jomo Kenyatta; William Ruto, a Kenyan parliament member, Francis Muthaura, former head of the civil service, and Joshua Arap Sang, a radio and media mogul in Kenya.
Odinga and Kibaki have shared the powers of the Kenyan government since the two sides brokered a deal in 2008 with help of then-UN Secretary General Kofi Anan. Odinga spoke at UB’s Law School commencement ceremony in 2009 as a guest of Mutua’s. Some have speculated that Mutua would stand to benefit if Odinga wins this year’s Kenyan presidential election.
The allegations come on the heels of The Spectrum reporting that Mutua is facing a federal civil rights lawsuit. Former UB Law Professor Jeffrey Malkan filed the suit against Mutua and Vice Dean of Legal Skills Charles P. Ewing, contending that Malkan had been illegally fired from his tenured clinical position as the director of UB’s Legal Research and Writing program.
Mutua did not respond to a request to be interviewed for this article.
Source: http://www.ubspectrum.com/news/ub-law-dean-mutua-faces-icc-allegations-1.2864042#.T56CpdkmWM8