Muthaura said local tribunal will cause chaos- Wikileaks

Tuesday, 15 March 2011 00:04 BY FRANCIS MUREITHI

WARNING: Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura

Kenya risked being plunged into civil war if a local tribunal was established to try the 2007-08 post-election violence suspects, the Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura told the US embassy in 2009.
In a diplomatic cable sent to Washington by US ambassador Michael Ranneberger on June 26, 2009 Muthaura warned against creating such a tribunal hurriedly. “With respect to establishment of a Special Tribunal, Muthaura argued that moving too quickly could and even cause civil war,” Ranneberger wrote in a cable which has now been released by Wikileaks.
Muthaura explained that both President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga had pushed hard for the establishment of a special tribunal but their efforts were frustrated by Parliament which rejected a constitutional amendment bill in February 2009.
Even with Muthaura saying that both Kibaki and Raila were committed to creation of a local tribunal, Ranneberger posted a comment that their efforts could just have been a public relations gimmick and that behind the scenes they were frustrating creation of such a tribunal.“Note that Kibaki and Odinga did meet with Parliamentarians and were, extraordinarily, present in Parliament for the vote, but we have heard from multiple sources that this was largely window dressing without a strong behind-the-scenes push,” Ranneberger wrote after his one-on-one talk with Muthaura.
According to the cable, Muthaura explained that if the government failed to convince Parliament to pass the bill to establish a special tribunal, the second option was to create such a tribunal using the existing constitution and legal structure.
Ranneberger however objected to the second option saying the constitution needed to be amended to ensure independence of the special tribunal.
The envoy wrote that during the meeting, Muthaura admitted the implementation of the reform agenda was slow but blamed it on the wrangles within the grand coalition government. “Although arguing that progress is being made, he (Muthaura) blamed lack of faster progress on differences within the coalition that have obscured the reform agenda,” Rannerberger wrote.
He explained to Washington that Muthaura was blocking meetings of a special committee created in early 2009 to manage wrangles within the coalition. “We know that Muthaura does not want the committee to meet because he cannot control it,” Ranneberger wrote.“I urged that the coalition management committee be used to promote coalition coordination. The committee was established several months ago to promote coalition coordination, but has met only once,” he added.
Ranneberger wrote that Muthaura downplayed his request that the government replace Police Commissioner Hussein Ali as part of the police reforms.
According to the envoy, Muthaura's position was that police reforms were not about individuals and that the government was waiting for the Task Force on Police Reforms to complete its work and recommend the reforms needed.