Uhuru's niece given top ICC Job

juma chrispinus

December 8, 2017 10:21 AM

She once failed to secure the position of IEBC chairman last year.

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s niece Margaret Shava, a seasoned lawyer and writer, has been elected to a 12-member Committee on Budget and Finance at the ongoing ICC member states’ meeting which kicked off on Monday in New York.

The appointment comes after the ICC requested Kenya to nominate her citizen into the highly criticised judicial institution, way back in March.

“The embassy has the honour to confirm that the Government of the Republic of Kenya has nominated Margaret Shava for election to the position of member of the Committee on Budget and Finance,” Kenya had said in its notification to the ASP.

It added: “The Government of Kenya is convinced that Ms Shava, whose resume is attached herewith, meets the requirements for appointment to the above position.”

Prior to her appointment, Mrs Shava served as a commissioner to the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (fondly TJRC) which drafted the TJRC report, which recommended prosecution of key Kenyan personalities in connection to colonial injustices in issues land.

In November 2016, Shava was shortlisted for the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) chairperson position, making among the five out of the 14 that had applied.

Shava scored a mean of 66.33 per cent. She got her highest scores from Jubilee’s nominees in the panel — Mary Kigen-Sorobit (73) and Evans Monari (72).

She was further weighed down by panel chair Musundi (61) while the religious leaders representatives — Prof Abdulgalfur El-Busaidy, Peter Karanja, David Oginde and Mohan Lumba gave her fairly impressive scores of 69, 67, 71 and 75, respectively.

What did her in, sources said was a record of eight petitions against her, lobbying against her by former colleagues at TJRC and rumours of her alleged relations with the First Family and a member of the recruitment panel who gave her quite high scores.

Her final entry into to The Hague-based institution puts to end earlier speculations that Kenya was mulling on leaving the ICC, even after Burundi lead Africans nations out of the pact to be part of ICC.

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