President Kibaki told the United States Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Fraser at the height of post election violence that he won the disputed 2007 elections squarely.
Kibaki maintained he had won the December 2007 elections fairly and since the defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya had declared him winner of the presidential elections, only the courts could make him relinquish power in case they ruled otherwise.
According to a diplomatic cable dated January 29, 2008 and now released by Wikileaks, Kibaki said this during two meetings he held with former US Assistant Secretary of State for African Jendayi Frazer and US ambassador to Michael Ranneberger.
The envoy says the US officials met Kibaki on January 5 and 7, 2008. This was at the height of post election violence.“While Kibaki repeatedly said in both meetings he was open to political dialogue, his position was quite clear: he won the election fairly; if ODM has concerns about the outcome they should take their complaints to court because once the Electoral Commission of Kenya makes a call on elections the courts are the sole constitutional remedy (and his government would obey their ruling, Kibaki said),” Ranneberger said in the cable.“In both meetings, Kibaki was fully engaged and in control of his meeting, though members of his team comfortably voiced divergent viewpoints,” Ranneberger said.
President Kibaki feared that ODM supporters were targeting his Kikuyu community during post election violence according to a diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks.
The president told Americans that he was worried of the violence and wanted his main challenger and leader of Orange Democratic Movement Raila Odinga to come out in public and call for an end to the violence. Interestingly, Kibaki doubted Raila wanted peace saying the Prime Minister was a man who “spoke two languages” and was an obstacle to dialogue.
The envoy said Gichugu MP Martha Karua, who by then was Justice and Constitutional Affairs Minister, was among Kibaki’s “hard liners” who attended the January 5 meeting.
Also in attendance were former Foreign Affairs Minister Raphael Tuju, suspended Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Thuita Mwangi, and former Kibaki advisor Stanley Murage.“In the January 5 meeting, Kibaki and his team focused on the need to end the post-election violence and their fear that Kikuyus were specifically being targeted,” the envoy wrote.
Kibaki also told US that his PNU side was not to blame for the violence that had engulfed the nation and shifted the blame to ODM.“Kibaki emphasized that the real problem at hand from his government's perspective is not the controversial presidential election result, but the violence that has ensued, and he said ending it was their primary focus. Kibaki pushed the point that Odinga and other ODM leaders need to come out and call for an end to the violence,” Ranneberger said.
The envoy said Karua conceded that while some of the post-election violence may have been spontaneous, it had been pre-planned for most parts of the country.“Kibaki echoed this point arguing that the youth are being paid to commit such acts. Tuju, a Luo, contended that ODM supporters were specifically targeting the Kikuyu, whom he said have exercised a lot of restraint up to now, suggesting that they could retaliate especially in areas like Nairobi where they are a majority,” Ranneberger added.
The envoy said Kibaki and his team held the position that ODM was using violence as blackmail. Ranneberger added that Frazer asked Kibaki and Raila to issue separate statements condemning violence, acknowledging there were real problems with the elections, and agreeing to dialogue.“Initially a joint statement was proposed and Kibaki was unopposed to it, but Karua and Tuju nixed the idea arguing that it would give the appearance of a co-presidency,” the ambassador added.
According to Ranneberger, Kibaki doubted if Raila was interested in dialogue and peace. “While Kibaki expressed doubt that Raila truly wanted peace and said he was a man who spoke in "two languages" - something he saw as a significant obstacle to dialogue,” Ranneberger added.
The cable further reveals that the US took Kibaki to task questioning why he named a half cabinet on January 7 barely a day before the arrival of the then African Union chairman and former Ghana President John Kufuor. Fraser told Kibaki that US was considering denouncing the half cabinet if the President did not take remedial actions. “Frazer met with him (Kibaki) that evening to express great disappointment and surprise at such action, particularly on the day before expected talks between ODM and PNU,” Ranneberger said in the cable.“She said the cabinet appointments were pre-emptive, that it seemed like Kibaki was taking the issue of cabinet positions off the negotiating table and was prepared to exclude ODM from any kind of coalition government,” added Ranneberger.
According to the cable, Frazer also took Kibaki to task for not issuing a statement on vote tallying irregularities while noting that Raila had honoured his commitment to condemn violence and call off rallies.
Ranneberger added that Kibaki argued that he was not pre-empting talks and that he only announced the partial cabinet to keep the government running saying it was only "logical" to have such a cabinet.“In the end, Kibaki said that he was open to changing cabinet positions if this was decided during talks with ODM, along with having the talks deal with a broader range of issues such as electoral and institutional reform,” added Ranneberger.
Ranneberger added a comment that President Kibaki and his team were “fixated on the post-election violence” and that they failed to truly own up to the fact that the flawed election results were the impetus to the crisis. “They seem almost oblivious to the vote tallying problems, treating it as a minor detail that can be brushed aside and dealt with through legal means,” said Ranneberger.“Kibaki seemed reasonable and could be influenced with a well-argued point; members of his team, like Martha Karua, were clearly more hardline in their positions and do not seem truly interested in dialogue with ODM,” wrote Ranneberger.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment