Even before the Ocampo Six appear at the ICC, their supporters are already planning a massive homecoming party and rally for them. Close allies and supporters of Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto who will not be able to accompany them to the Hague have for the past week been meeting to plan the event.
At least 20 MPs have received visas to travel to the Netherlands. Another 25 are expected to get them early next week to accompany Uhuru and Ruto who are due to make their initial appearances before the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber judges.
Uhuru, Ruto, Tinderet MP Henry Kosgey, Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura, the Postmaster-General Hussein Ali and Kass FM journalist Joshua arap Sang will be appearing in court next week. Ruto, Kosgey and Sang will appear on Thursday while Uhuru, Muthaura and Ali will appear on Friday.
Local government assistant minister Lewis Nguyai is the chairman of the organising committee as he will not be travelling to the Hague. He and other committee members have been mobilising support from their colleagues in Parliament and within the political, religious and business circles as they make arrangements for what some of the MPs have described as "a heroes' welcoming party like no other." The party-rally will be held on the day the six are expected back home. This is likely to be Sunday April 10 or Monday April 11.
According to the tentative programme drawn up by the organising committee, at least one million Uhuru-Ruto supporters will be mobilised to receive the Ocampo Six on their arrival at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport and line the route from the airport to Uhuru Park.
The organisers say they want the reception to rival that accorded Stanley Matiba in 1992 when he returned from the UK where he had been taken for treatment on his release from detention (on Saba Saba Day, 1990) for demanding a multiparty system of government.
The organisers hope the Ocampo Six rally will be bigger than the reception accorded President Kibaki in the run-up to the 2002 when he returned home from the UK where he had gone for treatment following injuries suffered in a road accident at the Machakos turn-off. In both instances, hundreds of thousands of Kenyans thronged the airport and lined the route to receive the two men back home. The Ocampo Six rally organisers say they want to use the Matiba, Kibaki events as benchmarks of their celebrations.
Yesterday Nguyai confirmed he had opted out of the Hague trip so that he could steer the homecoming planning committee. Other members of the committee — Nithi MP Kareke Mbiuki and his Limuru colleague Peter Mwathi — said they expect the attendance at the rally to break the record set when President Kibaki, still in a wheelchair, was sworn in as President at Uhuru Park.“I can assure you that we will bring a million people who will march from JKIA to Uhuru Park on that day,” Mwathi said.
He said supporters of the Ocampo Six from all parts of the country will not be ferried to the JKIA or Uhuru Park but will voluntarily travel to the airport to receive the Ocampo Six before the rally.“The events of that day will change the political landscape of this country forever, you will see a people united in support of the six,” Mwathi added.
On his part, Mbiuki was confident that the reception and subsequent rally will be attended by a crowd "equivalent to the promulgation ceremony ( August 27, 2010) of the new constitution crowd."
Mbiuki said the rally will be symbolic as it will send a clear message of the political direction that the country will take in the next elections.“It will signify the grand march to State House by the Uhuru-Ruto team. That will be the message that will be made that day,” said Mbiuki, a close ally of the two.
A senior PNU Cabinet minister, who sought anonymity this early in the planning stages, confirmed receiving an invitation to attend the two events.“They are yet to agree on the date but have been keeping us posted with every single step they have taken for the rally,” the minister said.
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