Why i am Innocent, Uhuru Kenyatta

Kenyan Deputy prime minister, Uhuru Kenyatta (R), listens to counsel from Jeremiah Kioni (L), and John Kiragu outside the ICC courts in the Hague. Pic by Lawrence Maingi, courtesy of The- Star

Posted  Wednesday, September 28  2011 

DEPUTY Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta will today take the stand at the International Criminal Court to protest his innocence of charges by ICC chief prosecutor Louis Moreno Ocampo. Uhuru will be his own witness before the Pre-Trial chamber judge Ekaterina Trendafilova to rebut charges of crimes against humanity following the violence after the December 27, 2007 presidential election.

 The Finance minister will rely heavily on a defence script prepared in advance with his local and international lawyers.

According to the defence seen by the Star, Uhuru will discount Ocampo’s claim that he was entrenched in PNU and therefore would fight to retain power. He will also deny claims that he was in a position to give directives to senior civil servants and refute allegations that he controlled Mungiki militia as alleged by Ocampo.
Last week, Ocampo told the court that Uhuru paid Sh3.3 million to every MP and Mungiki leader who agreed to coordinate attacks against ODM supporters at the height of the post-election violence. The prosecution claimed Uhuru's association with Mungiki dated back to the early 1990s when many Kikuyu politicians took a Mungiki oath.

The prosecution also claimed Uhuru and Civil Service boss Francis Muthaura organised meetings with Mungiki to coordinate attacks against ODM supporters in Nakuru and Naivasha. Uhuru is expected to tell the court today that he could not have planned the violence to keep PNU in power because he was not the party’s presidential candidate.

He will remind the court that he peacefully conceded defeat to Mwai Kibaki in the 2002 presidential elections despite having been backed by then President Daniel arap Moi. He will say that he did not enjoy the trappings of state power since he was a late defector into Kibaki’s PNU and a former official leader of the opposition. He will say that he was not in a position to meet Muthaura or Police Commissioner Gen Hussein Ali to hatch any plan as alleged by Ocampo.

Uhuru will also tell the court that the Hansard of the Waki Commission from various parts of the country did not mention him as a perpetrator of post-election violence but as a peace maker. He will argue that Kenya National Commission on Human Rights report that linked him to the post election violence relied on data collected mostly from the newspapers, television and the internet.

Uhuru will argue that statements linking him to Mungiki activities were contradictory. He will also discuss the evidence given to the Waki Commission by the National Security Intelligence Service on the planning of violence in Naivasha by Mungiki members and politicians. He will argue that the information only implicated two former MPs yet Uhuru was not a former MP and was not mentioned by the NSIS informants.

The minister will also impress upon the judges that the KNCHR did not collect information on his efforts to prevent retaliatory attacks. He is expected to provide the dates, venues, and exact statements and interviews he gave that were aired on radio at the time. “The prosecutor was mandated to conduct an investigation into the Kenyan situation but did not do so. Instead chose to rely on the reports of two commissions which themselves are not investigative bodies and whose final reports call for proper investigations,” Uhuru's defence reads in part.

The minister will at same time explain to the court how Mungiki in 2002 attempted to own him through a press release since he was a youthful candidate. He will say that he quickly repudiated that support and Mungiki held a demonstration in Nairobi to condemn him for rejecting them. He will also say that his campaign secretariat in 2002 rejected the approaches from Mungiki leaders asking to be nominated to run on a Kanu ticket for parliamentary and civic seats.

The minister will also refer to Monday's testimony by the Kilifi DC that the atrocities in Naivasha and Nakuru were retaliatory and motivated by a desire for revenge among the Kikuyu population whose kin had borne the brunt of ethnic cleansing in the Rift Valley, Nyanza and Western regions. He will explain that fleeing IDPs trickled into areas like Nakuru and Naivasha, bringing with them horrifying tales of violence that enraged the population. Uhuru is being represented by lawyers Steven Kay and Gillian Higgins.

Source: The-Star

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