Uhuru Kenyatta with Muslim brothers at State House after hosting them to break the fast (Iftar). Photo/PSCU
STATE HOUSE has been compelled to shift this year's Iftar dinner with the Muslim community after leaders in Nairobi and Mombasa threatened to boycott the annual event.
Sources familiar with the planning of the dinner intimated to the Star the ceremony was initially scheduled for either Nairobi or Mombasa, before being suspended at the last minute.
Muslim clerics are protesting over what they have termed discrimination and harassment against the community and have vehemently refused to be party to the planning of the dinner.
President Uhuru Kenyatta is now set to host the dinner at Kakamega State Lodge tomorrow evening.
But State House has downplayed the reports, insisting that the dinner was all along scheduled for Kakamega.
"There was no dinner scheduled here at State House," Manoah Esipisu, State House Spokesman, said in response to a story the Star exclusively reported on Wednesday.
"We have been planning this year's dinner for Kakamega," he added.
Esipisu spoke during a briefing with journalists at State House, Nairobi, on Wednesday.
According to the President's schedule, he will arrive in Kakamega this evening and return to Nairobi later tomorrow.
However, even with the hosting set for today in Kakamega, the event has run into further controversies, with leaders raising issues on the manner in which it has been organized.
Speaking to the Star yesterday, a number of Muslim leaders in the region said they will not attend the dinner because they had not received official invitations.
According to Abdi Wafula Swaleh, chairman, Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (Supkem), Western branch, his office did not receive a direct invite.
"Since Wednesday, our members have been receiving 'informal' calls from an official of the Council of Imams and Preachers of Kenya in the region, requesting them to attend, which I deem procedurally wrong," Swaleh said.
"For an event of such magnitude, we, Supkem, as an organization, think State House should have sent a direct official invite to us, or through our head office in Nairobi, then from there we will take the message down to our members. But we see something suspicious, with this indirect and informal dealing," he added, saying that he will mobilize his members not to attend the meeting unless they are given an official invite together with the full agenda and the list of other Muslim leaders from Western invited to the dinner.
"Going to such functions with no proper invitation and procedures means we will risk being used as rubber stamps," he said.
Asked what he wished to see including on the meeting's agenda, Swaleh said the President should address the community on the fate of seven Kenyans who were renditioned to Uganda four years ago and are still detained at Luzira Maximum Security Prison, as well the fate of those who were rounded up during Operation Usalama Watch and are still being held in police stations.
"Apart from just eating, the dinner provides an avenue where we must get the President's commitment to immediately stopping unnecessary harassment, arbitrary arrests and detention of Muslims and continued discrimination against Muslims when applying for travel and identification documents, among other concerns," he said.
CIPK national vice-chairman Abdalla Ateka, speaking from Kakamega, said all arrangements for the dinner had been made and the list of those who will attend the event compiled.
Ateka is reportedly mobilizing Muslim leaders in Western to attend on behalf of a Muslim Cabinet secretary whose attempts to have the dinner held in Nairobi or Mombasa failed when the leaders threatened to boycott it.
"We have invited leaders from Western and Nyanza regions and all have confirmed they will attend," he said.
He did not elaborate.
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