Muthaura disowns plot to disrupt Raila Meru visit

The head of the Civil Service Francis Muthaura has distanced himself from a plot to disrupt a planned visit to Meru by Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

Mr Muthaura said there were plans to portray him as the sponsor of the scheme to interrupt Mr Odinga's weekend visit.

Addressing a news conference, Mr Muthaura said there was a manipulated video clip with his voice and claimed that youths had been given T-shirts to wear during the planned demonstration.

“I want to make it very clear that I am not party to these primitive behaviours and I appeal to all Kenyans who may have been approached to join into such reckless activities to dismiss them,” said Mr Muthaura.

Displaying one T-shirt to the media, Mr Muthaura said he had alerted the police and the provincial administration to be vigilant.

On the front of the T-shirts is a photo of the civil service boss with his name printed in bold and on the back are the words: "Our role model".

“There are persons who have engineered a plot to tarnish my name and to take advantage of my current situation,” Mr Muthaura said while referring to his pending case with the International Criminal Court over the 2007/2008 post-election violence.

The Civil Service head expressed concern that the issue was aimed at making him seem to be supporting activities associated to organised criminal groups.

“The information I now have is that these T-shirts are going to be used by an organised group to disrupt the planned trip to Meru by the Prime Minister,” Mr Muthaura said during the weekly government briefing government spokesman Dr Alfred Mutua.

Mr Muthaura said that the person who was circulating the “manufactured tape” had approached him pretending to be a student leader in early January. He added that the unnamed person asked him to support a demonstration that they were organising in his support.

“I told him that such a demonstration would injure my standing in the eyes of the ICC and therefore could not support it. I am also aware that this person taped the conversation I had with him and which has been edited in a manner to put me in a bad light,” said Mr Muthaura.

He added that the “manufactured recording” was now being traded and circulated to interested parties. He said that he had learnt about the matter after he discovered that a number of MPs had the recording and “questions were now being asked".

He added that the same person dropped off the T-shirt he displayed in his office. The said person whose identity still remains a mystery is suspected to have used money given to him by Mr Muthaura in support of the association he represented.

“I gave the person a substantial amount of money. This we do when we meet students either for lunch or fare,” Mr Muthaura said declining to state the amount given.

On December 15 last year, Mr Moreno-Ocampo named Mr Muthaura, Deputy PM Uhuru Kenyatta, MPs William Ruto and Henry Kosgey, Postmaster General Hussein Ali and journalist Joshua arap Sang as the key perpetrators of the post-poll chaos.