Kilonzo asks Kibaki and Raila to resign over Bill defeat

President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga should step down for failing to rally MPs to pass a law to create a tribunal to try poll chaos suspects, said Mutula Kilonzo.

The Nairobi Metropolitan minister said the two signed an agreement giving an undertaking to create a local tribunal but had failed.

Mr Kilonzo also queried why Cabinet ministers, who had approved the creation of a special tribunal, could turn around and dismiss it on the floor of the House using proxies. According to him, the ministers had no respect or confidence in the leadership of the two principals.

Mr Kilonzo said the fact that MPs defeated the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill 2009 showed that they were operating in a vacuum.

Unable to lead

“The two principals should resign because they are unable to lead … By defeating the government Bill it means that the MPs are operating in a vacuum … they have no leaders,” he told the Nation.

And the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) said the government was not serious in ending impunity and was merely playing a “ping pong game”.

LSK chairman Okong’o Omogeni said the secret list should now be handed over to the International Criminal Court since Parliament had failed to fulfil the Waki recommendation that a special tribunal be in place after 45 days of signing of the agreement by partners in the coalition.

“The special prosecutor should analyse information he receives from Mr Annan and proceed with investigations and if he finds sufficient evidence that crimes against humanity were committed then he should proceed to indict the suspects,” the LSK boss added.

However, the government put up a brave face despite the loss, with spokesman Alfred Mutua saying the government respects the decision and the supremacy of Parliament.

“The government assures Kenyans that there is not going to be a vacuum in dealing with the issue of post-election violence,” Dr Mutua said. This is despite the fact that so far no one has been successfully prosecuted for either organising, perpetrating or financing the post-election violence.

Mr Kilonzo said there was nowhere in the world where a government publishes a Constitutional Amendment Bill then allows its ministers to oppose it. “Why can’t the two principals step in and rally their MPs as they did when we entrenched the National Accord in the Constitution?”

He wondered why MPs adopted the Waki report and later refused to entrench a law to create the special tribunal. “Why did the MPs adopt the report in the first place? It defeats any reason to adopt a report and fail to do what it asks you to do,” he said.

Mr Kilonzo said the coalition now only existed on paper because it had failed to pass the Bill in Parliament.

Law and order

Mr Kilonzo said the action by MPs had shown that Kenya had no law and order because it could not apply the Constitution on its citizens. “This is not only the surrender of our sovereignty, it is much worse,” he spoke after the Bill was defeated.

The minister said Kenya was now worse than Rwanda and other countries where coups have taken place because the country had a Constitution but had failed to apply it.

“This means (President) Kibaki and Raila have refused to stand by the Constitution of the country,” he added. He said land reforms and the constitution review would be affected by the move and any further negotiations would be affected.