Ruto, Uhuru use ICC to lock Raila out

Eldoret North MP William Ruto’s United Republican Party appeared to rule out the possibility of a pre-election coalition deal with Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s ODM by stating it will only do so with a party that shares its view on the International Criminal Court (ICC) issue.

Dujis MP Aden Duale, speaking for URP, told Saturday Nation that the party has laid down five irreducible benchmarks that it will use to choose a coalition partner, and that the ICC matter was fundamental.

“The party that we shall form a coalition with must be the party that understands the ICC equation since it is fundamental to the political process now and the future,” Mr Duale said.

The Dujis MP said the other consideration was the numbers a prospective coalition partner would bring to the table to ensure an “overwhelming first round win.”

“Since we already have 18 safe URP counties and about 80 constituencies in the Rift Valley, Coast and North Eastern, we shall only accept somebody who will bring at least 15 counties and 10 counties to ensure we easily sail through,” Mr Duale said.

Cocktail of meetings

The party’s latest decision to link the ICC cases to pre-election coalition negotiations particularly puts into doubt the outcome of the one Mr Ruto reportedly discussed at a past meeting with Mr Odinga at his Karen home in Nairobi recently.

It comes as other MPs allied to Mr Ruto the Saturday Nation spoke to indicated their deal with Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta was as good as done.

To seal the deal, a bonding retreat has been planned in Mombasa for elders from the Kikuyu and Kalenjin communities this week.

Mr Ruto and Mr Kenyatta are among four Kenyans facing crimes against humanity charges at The Hague-based court. The two were last week reported to have agreed on a joint ticket in the next elections which they consider to be “a referendum on The Hague process”.

On Friday, ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda concluded her five-day tour of Kenya during which she warned the court will not offer immunity to the suspects.

The ICC trials of the Kenyan suspects will begin on April 10 and 11, which coincides with the run-off date set by the electoral body IEBC.

Mr Duale said URP also considered the treatment of pastoralists as key in their choice of coalition partner, saying “both [Prime Minister] Raila Odinga and President Kibaki had failed.”

But the terse statement from one of Mr Ruto’s closest allies came even as it emerged Mr Odinga was still courting the URP leader.

Saturday Nation has established that as late as Wednesday, Mr Odinga dispatched senior ODM ministers and other leaders from within and outside the country to Mr Ruto with the message that his deal was the better option.

Lands minister James Orengo and a high-ranking official from a neighbouring country reportedly met Mr Ruto on Wednesday morning to prevail on him to support the PM.

Mr Odinga would in turn support Mr Ruto for the presidency in 2017, according to sources familiar with the proposals made by the Orengo team.

Mr Ruto and Mr Kenyatta reportedly agreed to reach out to other parties including Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper Democratic Movement, New Ford-Kenya led by Justice minister Eugene Wamalwa, Mr Najib Balala’s Republican Congress Party and Ford-People.

But the remarks attributed to Mr Musyoka’s ally Johnstone Muthama to the effect that the VP could work with Mr Odinga has thrown the coalition negotiations frenzy into more confusion four months to March 4, 2012 elections.

“If the two work together they will easily win. I had even warned them against splitting in the last poll,” Mr Muthama told a rally in Kang’undo on Thursday when he hosted Mr Odinga in his constituency.