afrol News, 25 June - A row has erupted between Kenyan government with International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) over claims that Nairobi is sluggish in detaining Rwandan genocide most wanted fugitive Mr Felicien Kabuga.

Arusha based tribunal is frustrated by Kenyan government failure to catch and hand-over genocide suspect despite evidence showing that Mr Kabuga is a frequent visitor to the country.

A letter to Nairobi dated 22 May by the tribunal's Senior Trial Prosecutor Mr Richard Karegyesa said Kenya had done little to detain Mr Kabuga, even after it won financial control of his luxury Nairobi estate.

Mr Karegyesa alleges that government has done nothing on the assets, companies and bank accounts identified by the task force as being associated with Mr Kabuga, nor has it arrested and transferred him to the tribunal.

It stated that the steps undertaken by government in implementing ICTR request has come too little too late and falls short of implementing full range of recommendations of joint taskforce.

In response to Mr Karegyesa's letter, a letter dated 20 June addressed to ICTR Chief Prosecutor Hassan Jallow by Kenyan Attorney General Amos Wako termed accusations by Mr Karegesya as grossly unfair, unwarranted and undiplomatic.

Attorney general called the move to freeze Mr Kabuga's assets in Nairobi as a significant achievement.

Mr Kabuga's property in Nairobi was frozen early May and it was a bold move because there was lack of expression in legal provisions in the country's jurisprudence on the subject, responded the attorney general.

Mr Wako also indicated that concrete steps have been undertaken by Kenyan government to fully implement recommendations, including bringing on board Kenya Revenue Authority, which embarked on investigations to properties and bank accounts of individuals and entities associated with Mr Kabuga, for purposes of recovering unpaid or evaded taxes.

He mentioned that Kenya has worked closely with tribunal in arresting and surrender of all suspects and in the relocation, protection and facilitation of crucial witnesses. "These developments came against the backdrop of intensified efforts to apprehend the fugitive," he said.

Kenyan authorities last week arrested a man on suspicion of being Mr Kabuga but later confirmed that it was a university don of Rwandan descent.

Washington has placed a five-million-dollar bounty on the head of Mr Kabuga, an ethnic Hutu, accused of being a key financier and supplying machetes and other weapons to take part in the massacre of 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis, within four months in 1994.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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