No other Kenyan will face the ICC, Uhuru Kenyatta vows

Sunday, April 17, 2016

President Uhuru and DP Ruto lead kenyans in prayers at Afraha StadiumPHOTO/PSCU

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Kenya will not allow any of its citizens to be tried at the ICC, President Uhuru Kenyatta has said.

He says the country will henceforth use local legal mechanisms to solve its problems.

"Sisi hiyo chapta tumefunga, hakuna pahali pengine tunaenda na hakuna mtu mwingine tutaruhusu apelekwe pahali popote". (We have closed that chapter, we cannot allow any other person to be taken anywhere)

This implies that the government will not hand over to the ICC three Kenyans wanted to answer to charges of witness interference in the collapsed Kenyan cases.

The three are; Journalist Walter Barasa, Lawyer Paul Gicheru and Phillip Bett.

ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda had applied for the extradition of the three in relation to the offence which carries a maximum of a five year jail term.

The president said the government will not allow the international court to continue "tormenting innocent Kenyans".

"Tuna makoti yetu hapa, mimi sitaki kuona mkenya mwingine akitembea ile njia tume tembea. Kama tuko na maneno yetu suluhu ni hapa, wale wakikuja kututafuta wajue huko haturudi tena."

(We have our courts here, I don’t want to see any Kenyan take the route we have traveled. If we have issues, we have the solution here at home. If they come for us we will tell them we are not going back) Uhuru said.

The President was speaking on Saturday while leading thousands of Jubilee supporters, politicians and religious leaders at a thanksgiving rally at Nakuru's Afraha Studium.

The rally was also attended by Deputy President William Ruto, Journalist Joshua Sang, former ODM national chairman Henry Kosgey, former Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura, and former Police Boss Mohammed Hussein Ali, who were part of the 'Ocampo Six'.

Speaking at the same event, Deputy President William Ruto stressed that the government will ensure all post election violence victims are fully compensated.

"It is our responsibility, we will not be coerced. We will not be persuaded. We will assume that responsibility and make sure that we reduce the pain and the lose they went through," he said.

The Nakuru event was criticized by the opposition with CORD leader Raila Odinga terming it a mockery to PEV victims and a 'dance on their graves'.

'As a nation there is nothing to celebrate about, we have many people who we still need to condole and reparate and a national sense of justice that needs to be reconfirmed.,”
Raila said in a statement sent from France on Friday.

The opposition held a parallel rally at Kibera Laini Saba grounds although all the three principals failed to attend.

It has however said it will hold another rally next Saturday at the Kamukunji grounds that will be attended by all the Principals.

An estimated 1,500 people died in the 2007/8 post election violence while up to 600,000 people were displaced from their homes, many of them in the Rift Valley.

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