THE DAY OF RECKONING

The jobs of at least six ministers, five MPs and two top civil servants may have been put on the line on Friday.

Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan received a sealed envelope listing their names as among those who had helped to plan the post-election violence, which left 1,133 people dead and hundreds of thousands homeless.

It emerged that as soon as a tribunal is formed to try those accused of aiding the violence, and the magical envelope is opened, the named suspects face immediate arrest.

Like murder suspects, they are likely to be thrown into jail and released only if they are cleared.

The Nation has been told that those likely to end up in the dock include what is believed to be a Who’s Who of Kenya’s political elite; most of them household names.

The list is also thought to include seven former MPs plus prominent businessmen from Rift Valley and Central provinces.

The list was prepared by the Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence chaired by Mr Justice Philip Waki and given first to President Kibaki on Wednesday.

Mr Annan received the list as questions arose over a State House meeting said by the Waki report to have been held to plan the funding of attacks by Mungiki.

The report suggests some meetings were held in the run up to the General Election and others following raids on Kikuyu households in the Rift Valley.

Government spokesman Alfred Mutua maintained that no such meeting took place. Dr Mutua said that at no time did President Kibaki meet Mungiki in State House or anywhere else.

“We are puzzled by these allegations. The Naivasha attacks were, to our understanding, retaliatory attacks. How can meetings purported in the report to have occurred before the General Election have planned for revenge of violence that had not yet occurred?” he asked.

The Waki report refers to two separate meetings, one in State House and another in Nairobi Safari Club.

The Waki commission ruled that the Naivasha attacks between January 27 and 30 were planned and executed by Mungiki members supported by political and business leaders.

“The Commission has evidence that Government and political leaders in Nairobi, including key office holders at the highest level of government, may have directly participated in the preparation of the attacks,” states the Waki report.

“Central to that planning were two meetings held in State House and Nairobi Safari Club in the run up to the election with the involvement of senior members of the Government and other prominent Kikuyu personalities,” it says.