Saturday, March 17, 2012

Why Raila lost his cool in Hague debate


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By PETER LEFTIE pmutibo@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Friday, March 16  2012 at  22:30
Prime Minister Raila Odinga was reacting to attempts to link him to a plot to have President Kibaki investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC) when he launched scathing attacks against his opponents.

Mr Odinga’s handlers revealed that the PM was so infuriated by claims by allies of Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Eldoret North MP William Ruto that he unleashed one of his most vicious attacks on the two presidential hopefuls since he fell out with them.
Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto’s allies had alleged in Parliament that the Premier is part of aconspiracy involving the British Governmentto have President Kibaki arrested and charged with crimes relating to post-election violence.
“The invocation of President Kibaki’s name, in the PM’s view was meant to create a sense of anger and hopelessness among Kenyans, which could easily lead to chaos.
“He felt it was important to respond to this propaganda in a specific and strong manner. He will continue to do that,” said Mr Odinga’s spokesman Dennis Onyango.  
Scathing attack
The revelations follow Mr Odinga’s scathing attack on the two presidential hopefuls last weekend in which he bluntly stated that they ought to be in jail over crimes against humanity charges.
“Crimes against humanity are worse than murder. Yet these suspects remain free to traverse the country holding ‘prayer meetings’ – while Kenyan suspects of the lesser crime of murder conduct their prayers only behind the forbidding walls of Kamiti Maximum Security Prison,” said a hard hitting statement from the PM’s secretariat.
The document linking Mr Odinga to the plot to have President Kibaki charged at The Hague was tabled in Parliament by Yatta MP Charles Kilonzo.
The dossier, has since been dismissed by the British High Commission and Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang’ula as a forgery.
It had claimed that Mr Odinga would open the doors for the ICC to open charges against President Kibaki. It also stated that Mr Odinga would ensure Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto are arrested.
Previously known for his restrained approach to the heated debate on the ICC cases even in the face of allegations that he is behind charges facing Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto, Mr Odinga reacted furiously to the allegations, maintaining that the war crimes court had established the two had a case to answer. 
“Let us never forget that more than 1,000 innocent lives were lost in the post-election violence of 2008. Investigations were conducted and the Waki Commission compiled a list of suspected perpetrators that was handed over to the ICC, which made its own investigations.
“Preliminary hearings at the ICC found that the four suspects have a case to answer. This decision was made on the basis of evidence. The charges against them are the result,” Mr Odinga asserted. 
Mr Onyango stated that the PM had previously chosen to downplay the attacks levelled against him by Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto’s allies for the sake of tranquillity in the country.
"The PM has been very tolerant and measured in the face of wild and provocative allegations made against him in regard to the ICC cases. 



“He remained calm, not because he accepted the allegations, but he felt sanity needed to prevail in the face of the many issues the country is facing,” Mr Onyango explained.
Seeds of chaos
“But when the forged document was tabled, he felt there is a clique hell-bent in sowing the seeds of chaos at all costs.
“He felt a clique was working over time to fan ethnic emotions by inventing an enemy in the name of the UK and himself and that clique needed to be stopped by being told the truth,” Mr Onyango added.
In last weekend’s statement responding to the allegations, Mr Odinga’s secretariat distanced president Kibaki from the ICC investigation.
“President Kibaki’s name is included without any justification as part of a naked plot to gain public sympathy. Kenyans watched ICC proceedings closely and President Kibaki was mentioned nowhere as a perpetrator.
“In addition, prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has already stated that he has no evidence with which to charge President Kibaki,” the statement read.
In a second statement on the same subject, Mr Odinga claimed that the leaked document was aimed at laying ground for Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto to stop co-operating with the ICC.
Mr Ruto has since denied that he intends to stop co-operating with the ICC.
“We went to The Hague voluntarily even before the cases started. We are not about to find shortcuts to subvert justice,” he was quoted while accusing the PM of trying to whip up sentiments against the ICC suspects for political reasons.
Mr Ruto said Mr Odinga is “a dictator who did not believe in the rule of law”.
He added that had the PM been one of the accused facing charges over the violence, he would have been quick to condemn The Hague-based court.
“The ICC would not have been good had he (Raila) been judged,” Mr Ruto was quoted. “But now he is pushing for our arrests and jailing so that he has smooth sailing in his quest for the presidency.”
He maintained that Mr Odinga was the principal beneficiary of the post-election violence by securing a power-sharing deal after the dispute over the 2007 election’s presidential results.
"Raila does not believe in anything that does not favour him as he rides on rigged polls and unconstitutional means to leadership,” he said 
“It is the violence that rocked the country that transformed Raila from a presidential election loser to a Prime Minister and a co-principal.” 

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