By OLIVER MATHENGE omathenge@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Friday, March 23 2012 at 22:30
Posted Friday, March 23 2012 at 22:30
Central Kenya leaders set Uhuru Kenyatta on a collision course with the International Criminal Court, with a petition to postpone his impending trial for crimes against humanity.
In a declaration issued on Friday after a conference in Limuru, they sought to have the Kenyan cases at the Hague postponed until after the General Election.
They argued that the trial against presidential aspirants Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto and two others be held to a period after the next elections saying doing otherwise would deny Kenyans their right to “elect leaders of our choice.”
In hard-hitting statements at a meeting of the GEMA Cultural Association dubbed Limuru II, the gathering declared Mr Kenyatta the political leader of the community, and linked his prospects of standing as a presidential candidate to the ICC cases.
They blamed his predicament on alleged plots by Prime Minister Raila Odinga and and western countries, saying free, fair and peaceful elections depended on Mr Kenyatta being on the ballot.
“We petition the ICC to postpone the trial in the interest of having peaceful elections, to a period after the forthcoming General Elections.
“In support of this petition, GEMA commits itself to collect over 2 million signatures to support this appeal before the ICC and if necessary, to take this matter before the United Nations General Assembly for adjudication,” the leaders said after a day-long a meeting at Limuru’s Jumuiya Conference Centre.
Speakers asked Mr Kenyatta to provide direction on the political party the community would use for the elections.
The Deputy Prime Minister said he would report back on his party of choice within 30 days.
Energy minister Kiraitu Murungi and retired Archbishops Lawi Imathiu and Peter Njenga, co-chairs of GEMA, set the tone for the meeting with highly charged speeches urging the community to unite in the face of threats form domestic and foreign enemies.
Following the lead of the elders, Mr Kenyatta made a scathing attack on Mr Raila Odinga though he refrained himself from mentioning the PM by name.
“In 2007, there are those people who prepared Kenya for rigging claims by discrediting the ECK so that when they are defeated they know who to blame, the other day you saw the IEBC commissioners before they addressed a press conference talking of being intimidated.
“After the elections, they refused to go to court and instead called for mass action, you have heard what they called the courts the other day,” Mr Kenyatta said.
He declared that he was not afraid of facing the ICC judges and told off those, including the PM, who are declaring that he and the other suspects should be in jail.
The DPM said that regardless of the ICC process, he was out to offer leadership, not only for Central Kenya but the entire country.
Mr Kenyatta said that he did not have a problem with any community, but with only one man.
“My fight is not with a community but with one person and we all know who that man is,” said Mr Kenyatta in reference to Mr Odinga.
Retired Methodist Church Bishop Lawi Imathiu warned that the GEMA community reserves the right to vote for a presidential candidate.
“We are aware that some quarters in the West are unhappy with us as a country for having looked East for development partnerships particularly in the Kibaki era.
“Kenya is a sovereign State. Therefore, we shall exercise our freedom of choice and engage friends we choose to partner with in order to improve the standards of living of our people,” Dr Imathiu said.
He then turned his ire on Mr Odinga’s recent controversial statement dismissing the Court that ruled on the election date as fake:
“This kind of statement is from the same uncalled for and poisonous thinking that led to the 2007/8 post-election violence.
“As GEMA, we sincerely hope this particular statement is not a confirmation of intended repudiation of the rule of Law should its author lose his presidential bid in the forthcoming elections,” Bishop Imathiu said to wild cheers from the crowd.
He quoted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that anyone has a right to be elected.Energy Minister Kiraitu Murungi picked from the Gema elder saying that not all cases which start must end.
“Uhuru is in a political hospital and we want to apply for adjournment, postponement of the case, until the DPM is out of the hospital.
“I have studied international law and the ICC case is a political case which requires a political solution.
“There are people who know how powerful the DPM is and there are efforts employed to make sure Uhuru’s name is not on the ballot paper come 2013,” Mr Murungi said.
But it was assistant minister Cecily Mbarire who surprised many by advising the DPM who had at the time already left not to travel to The Hague for the trial.
Ms Mbarire described ICC is a “kichinjio (slaughterhouse)” which will eliminate Mr Kenyatta from the ballot box.
“Once he goes there, they will not allow him to come back and so we demand that he doesn’t go there and if he does, we go with him,” Ms Mbarire said.
Ms Mbarire statement was echoed by Embakasi MP Ferdinand Waititu who asked, “What if Uhuru goes to The Hague and doesn’t come back?”
The meeting was marred towards the end when when rowdy youth interrupted the meeting, demanding that former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga be allowed to address the gathering.
The chaos prompted many of the MPs to leave before addressing the gathering.
There were some conspicuous absentees, including Gichugu MP Martha Karua, Internal Security minister George Saitoti, Assistant Planning minister Peter Kenneth and former Kikuyu MP Paul Muite, all declared presidential candidates from the GEMA community.
Transport Minister Amos Kimunya brought apologies from Prof Saitoti, who was said to be in Kericho on official PNU party business.
“The days of one man or woman and one briefcase political parties are gone. It is time for few national parties.
“And as GEMA, it is time we support one national leader who will lead us from the front,” Energy Mr Murungi said before announcing that Mr Kenyatta was GEMA’s preferred leader.
The Waki report contained an envelop in which were the names of suspects who were deemed to have had the greatest responsibility in fanning the violence.The road to Hague started with the Waki commission which went round the country collecting views on the post-election violence.
The envelop was handed over to former UN secretary-general Koffi Annan.
ICC prosecutor Louis Moreno-Ocampo revealed the names in the envelop and started investigations, using the Waki report and that of the Kenya Human Rights Commission.
The suspects were soon summoned to the Hague to be told what they were charged with. They then went to Hague a second time for the confirmation of charges hearing.
Four of them were found to have a case to answer while two were freed
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