afrol News, 9 March - The Rwanda Tribunal is taking Kenya to the UN Security Council in April for allegedly protecting the most wanted genocide fugitive Félicien Kabuga. Mr Kabuga was indicted in 1998 for allegedly masterminding the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi people.

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) chief prosecutor, Hassan Bubacar Jallow accused Kenya of blocking the tribunal to arrest the most wanted fugitive.

Last June, Justice Jallow told the Security Council that Kenya was not doing enough to arrest Mr Kabuga, who has been reported for the past decade to be in and out of Kenya. Mr Kabuga has been on the run since 18 August 1994, when he used a bona fide visa to seek asylum in Switzerland.

The UN has also threatened to slap Kenya with sanctions if it did not comply with the Tribunal’s demands leading to the arrest of Mr Kabuga, which the tribunal said the fugitive was on Kenyan soil.

However, the Kenyan Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetang'ula has dismissed allegations saying the East African state fully cooperated and it has also frozen all Mr Kabuga assets in the country.

He said the ICTR is using Kenya to prolong its mandate which is expected to expire 31 December this year. The mandate of the tribunal was supposed to end in December 2008, but the UN Security Council extended ICTR mandate by a year.

Kenya's Attorney General, Keriako Tobiko, has recently asked a local court in Nairobi to dismiss an application by Mr Kabuga's wife, Josephine Mukazitoni to set aside orders freezing their property. The Attorney General said the application by Ms Mukazitoni lacked merit.

To support its case against Kenyan authorities, the Tribunal said in September 2006, Mr Kabuga had left Kenya in April traveling on a South African passport and returned to Kenya around July 2006.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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