WASHINGTON — The United States on Monday urged Kenya and its people to continue cooperating with the International Criminal Court (ICC) which ruled that four key Kenyans should be tried over post-election unrest.
“We believe accountability for the 2007-2008 post-election violence is critical to ensuring Kenya?s democracy, peace, and long-term stability,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.
The Hague-based ICC said Monday that charges of crimes against humanity had been confirmed against presidential candidates William Ruto and Uhuru Kenyatta over deadly unrest that erupted following a disputed 2007 presidential vote.
Ruto and Kenyatta are allies of Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki.
Two other Kenyans, radio host Joshua arap Sang, 36, and Francis Muthaura, 65, the head of Kenya’s civil service, will also face trial. Ruto and Sang were opposition supporters in 2007.
More than 1,100 people died in the post-election violence, shattering Kenya’s image as a beacon of regional stability. While Washington makes no judgment as to the innocence or guilt of the four suspects, it calls on Kenya to live up to the spirit of its new constitution “which embraces transparency, accountability and integrity,” Nuland said.
“We urge the Kenyan government, the people of Kenya, and the individuals involved to continue to cooperate fully with the ICC proceedings and to remain focused on Kenya?s future, especially through implementation of the reform agenda,” Nuland said.
“The United States is committed to continuing to support Kenya’s ambitious reform process as Kenya looks ahead to its first national elections under the new constitution,” Nuland said.
Associated Press
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The US is behind the news. Kibaki and Co. have already hit the road with well laid out plans to circumvent, derail, scuttle, trash, and sabotage the ICC process. It was not a spontaneous swift reaction by the look of it; it was in the making for some time.
Kibaki has fished out from his kitchen freezer the much globally discredited and laughed at ‘shuttle diplomacy’ spearheaded by his VP, a.k.a. VIPER, to rubbish the ICC confirmation hearings. Not a single head of state/govt, even the tin-pot dictators, save for the then withering Gaddafi supported his nefarious plans.
The AG, a Kibaki man to boot, had been entrusted with cobbling up a “legal panel”, whatever it means, to advise the govt on the course of action responding to the ICC verdict. The team was ready in hours! The plan had been perfected months befor, for sure.
The AG, the DPP and the out-going Police Commissioner who hopes to manipulate the selection panel to make his come back, all Kibaki die-hards have constituted themselves into an ‘agency’ as a newspaper put it, to study and dispense expeditiously with the 5000+ cases pending in courts against the middle and lower level perpetrators of the PEV of 2007/8. One can imagine how their efforts will bear fruits and to whose advantage!
The AG has categorically stated that the govt has no intention of requiring Uhuru Kenyatta and Ambassador Muthaura, the two of the master perpetrators of the PEV related genocide, forced translocation, rape and other crimes against humanity to resign, or at least to step down voluntarily.
His warped logic is that they are charged by the ICC in their personal capacities, and not as state officers! Then how come this poor country that can’t feed millions of her hungry citizens or afford to provide minimum health care or repair dilapidated infrastructure like roads, spent 35 million shillings on a much laughed at, discredited, and maligned bail out plan, derisively known as ‘Kibaki’s Shuttle Diplomacy’, spearheaded by hos VP a.k.a. VIPER? How come that the govt is planning to foot the accommodation, subsistence and legal bills of the accused?
There is every indication that Kibaki is taking us to a narrow gully from which we as a nation may not be extricated easily. Kenya govt is on the way to have the dubious distinction of allowing a a defendant at the ICC present himself as a presidential candidate, and another one advising the president on state and other matters. Nothing short of an east-African version of the Arab Spring can save us from this evil predicament.
Kibaki’s dictionaries do not have the entry – ‘legacy’. He does not give a damn even if the word does exist. He is so egotistic, selfish, self-centered, tribalistic and devoid of any benevolent human feelings such as empathy, sympathy, gratitude, and most certainly shame when it comes to guilty conscience about a mistake committed, and one that animals are not endowed with. An animal can’t blush, they say!
Kibaki will gleefully retire to his new Sh.500 million palace to enjoy his sunset years, probably with a permanently sedated former first lady, under protection of an international criminal, while molten brimstone rain on other pumpavu-chicken-shit-bure-kabisa- Kenyans!.
Kenyans are tired of empty talk from Washington .Why should Kenya Government comply and work with the ICC which is taking The Kikuyu King(heir to the throne) to Hague Jails for unknown many years .Washington has failed miserably to tame Impunity in Kenya.The same Washington was the first government to recognize a rigged election of 2007 .When will the USA govt wake-up and smell the coffee?
Kibaki and his Ruling -class government has found a true darling from the great Dragon that is China and no longer fears or need the Western opportunists who will abandon their long friends in the hour of need.
Yes, Salomon, I couldn’t have put it more aptly.
It is so amusing to read comments by fellow Kenyans that refuse to acknowledge or even dare believe that Kenya is divided into two, not as they would like to believe in 42 different tribes. Kenya is for all purposes divided into the rich wealthy ruling class and the rest of us. This ruling class is not defined nor bound by tribe but by position of affluence and privilege in Kenya’s social structure. You may share the same language and culture but live in different worlds, furthermore they do not have the slightest empathy for those not of their select circle. Unfortunately the blind incurable infinity to tribal sentiment that has been deliberately natured in the majority of Kenyans ensures that change every suffering Kenyan cries out for will never see the light of day. The saddest part of it all is that many Kenyans actually have a deep-seated belief that having one of their fellow tribe mates in State House translates to accrued dividends in form of employment opportunities, allocation of resources and the general wellbeing of their ethnic community. However, the truth dawns when all they get are the crumbs that fall of the table as the privileged gorge themselves on the wealth that belongs to us all. This is the painful lesson the Kikuyu IDP’s have learnt and others will learn with time. Kenyans may be lead into thinking that there are gains from pursing the politics of tribal since government resources would be allocated to “their” areas in form of schools, hospitals, airports and employment. The fact is that this is just a smoke screen since these resources require maintenance and financial nurturing, but how is this possible when the funds required to do so go towards building mansions for and the majestic lifestyles of the ruling class? Hospitals will always be without medicines; produce will continue to rot on farms due to poorly built infrastructure and schools will always lack the facilities they need. Of what advantage is the tribal mate in State House when a loved one lies dying for lack of basic medical care? The ruling class will continue to travel abroad for medical attention; send their children to private schools locally; send their children abroad for further education; secure the best employment opportunities for their families, extended families and friends; buy commodities and food stuff produced abroad, comfortable lives that every Kenyan has a right too. The implanted fear of the other tribe and ingrained tribal blame game played by the ruling class to explain why Kenyans continue to live in abject poverty favors no other than those disseminating this disinformation. What ails us even more is the fact that there are many educated Kenyans that stand willing and ready to join the ranks of these parasites and preserve the status quo, since they feel entitled to a life of comfort at the expense of the illiterate masses for the time and effort put in school. These kinds of people have nothing to offer Kenya and serve only to keep us in chains and confused as they flood us with their tribal politics as they contemplate and savor thoughts of leading lives of privilege.