ICC: Uhuru takes TNA, URP team to Kikwete

By Peter Opiyo

The Hague case against four Kenyans featured at a meeting between Mr Uhuru Kenyatta and Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete a day before ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda arrives in Nairobi.

The Deputy Prime Minister flew to Tanzania to enlist Kikwete’s support for his presidential bid and asked the international community to allow Kenyans elect their leaders without interference. Uhuru, who alongside Eldoret North MP William Ruto, is fighting to succeed President Kibaki while saddled with serious crimes against humanity charges, led a delegation that visited Kikwete that included Justice Minister Eugene Wamalwa, who is variously talked about as his likely running mate.

It is believed the Kenyan delegation, buoyed by the fact that Kikwete enjoys good relations with top Western capitals, and having played a key role in the stabilisation of Kenya following the 2008 post-election violence, chose Kikwete to send a message to ICC on the importance of having them run for the sake of Kenya’s long-term stability and peaceful elections. 

It is significant that Uhuru flew out a fortnight after former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who brokered Kenya’s peace deal alongside Kikwete, was in Kenya with the message that an Uhuru or Ruto presidency would not augur well for Kenya in the eyes of the global community. Former Tanzania President Benjamin Mkapa, who worked on the peace agreement with Annan, was also in Kenya around that time, and it is believed his discussions with President Kibaki could have dwelt on the implication of ICC cases on the March 4, 2013 elections. 

Specifically, Uhuru’s delegation took issue with Annan’s remarks that electing one of the ICC accused President, would not sit well with other nations.

A statement from Uhuru’s Director of Communications Mr Munyori Buku entitled “Kenyans are masters of their own destiny” read in part: “President Kikwete called for the respect of the “decision of the people of Kenya”. He added Kenyans were the masters of their own destiny and must be allowed to elect their leaders without undue interference.

Buku went on: “The President pointed out that Africa would respect the decision Kenyans would make in the General Election in March next year.”

Kikwete hosted the delegation from Uhuru’s The National Alliance, Wamalwa’s New Ford Kenya and Ruto’s United Republican Party for a three-hour discussion at State House in Dar-es-Salaam. “Mr Kenyatta said his goal and that of like-minded leaders was to move the country forward in unity. To this end, he said, they were reaching out to leaders of other political parties,” reported Buku.

On his recent visit to Kenya, Annan said: “Of course there are implications that everyone needs to ponder over suspects running for presidency.” Immediately, his statement provoked Uhuru and Ruto who retorted it was time Annan kept off Kenya’s affairs.

Uhuru then said he had friends who have not raised an issue with his election as President. And this may have been the statement that paved way for his visit to Tanzania.

“We have no problem with our friends, but if they do not respect us, it is up to them. We have many friends to work with all over the world,” Uhuru said at a TNA meeting a week ago.

In Tanzania he is said to have repeated his comments to Kikwete, who said it was wrong for foreigners to interfere in Kenya’s elections.

Uhuru was also accompanied by Medical Services Assistant minister Kazungu Kambi (representing URP) and MPs Rachael Shebesh and Moses ole Sakuda and former MP Abdullahi Ibrahim Ali. Kenya’s High Commissioner to Tanzania, Mr Mutinda Mutiso was also present.

“Mr Uhuru was adamant and reiterated his public comments on Annan while Kikwete said people should be left to elect their leaders without interference,” said Wamalwa’s spokesman Mr Tony Gachoka.

At the meeting, Wamalwa is said to have promised to ask the Attorney General Githu Muigai to seek an interpretation of the Supreme Court of Chapter Six of the Constitution regarding integrity.

His argument is that elective positions are different from appointive ones and that precedents like the one that knocked off Mr Mumo Matemu as chairman of Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission as well as Ms Nancy Baraza, who resigned as Deputy Chief Justice, should not be used when the court finally handles the case involving Uhuru and Ruto.

Civil Society groups have moved to court to challenge the eligibility of the two to vie for the presidency while the CJ has said the two cases set a good precedent on integrity and were a trailblazer.

 “Mr Wamalwa made it clear that he will be asking the AG to ask the Supreme Court to interpret Chapter Six of the Constitution because he feels there is a difference between appointive and elective positions,” Mr Gachoka told The Standard in Nairobi.

The two camps are anxious that the Judiciary may use Matemu’s and Baraza’s cases as precedents to block the two from getting their names on the ballot paper.

Gachoka claimed Wamalwa accused Annan of treating Kenyans as if he were a “prefect” yet it was Kikwete who got the two sides to agree to a deal.

Ms Bensouda’s visit comes at a time Uhuru and Ruto are engaged in intensive campaigns for the presidency. The two, together with former Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Muthaura and Kass FM radio journalist Joshua Sang’ are accused by The Hague-based court of being behind crimes against humanity committed in the 2008 post-poll upheavals.

During her visit the Prosecutor will meet President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga and also travel to the Rift Valley to meet victims of the violence.

Phasiko Mochochoko, Head of the Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division of the ICC and Shamiso Mbizvo, Cooperation Adviser, will accompany Ms Bensouda.

In August, Ms Bensouda conceded some key witnesses in the Kenyan cases had been intimidated, compromised or threatened with death and execution, and feared this may undermine the two cases.