Politics
Former MP pleads innocence against war crimes
Former Naivasha MP Jayne Kihara. Last year’s post-election violence claimed an estimated 1,133 lives and displaced about 350,000 others. The Waki Commission probed the chaos and came up with a list of suspected perpetrators which it handed to the ICC. Former Naivasha MP Jayne Kihara suspects that she is named. Photo/FILE
Posted Friday, December 4 2009 at 22:00
In Summary
- With every passing day bringing JAYNE KIHARA closer to trial at The Hague over the post-election killings in her Naivasha constituency – or so she strongly believes – the former MP has become the first probable Waki List suspect to publicly express fear of international prosecution.
She says that for the past year, she has tried to reach Internal Security minister George Saitoti, Attorney General Amos Wako and the director of Intelligence without success. “I am shocked that nobody wants to listen to me.”
Mr Ocampo has pointed out that the Naivasha, Kiambaa, Kisumu and Nakuru killings will be his major points of focus in the investigations.
Mr Kihara says she was in Nairobi when the January 27 attacks took place. She says she only visited Naivasha twice at the time — on January 4 to pick election results for a court petition and on January 20 for a monthly rotary club meeting.
Mrs Kihara spoke two weeks after Mr Ocampo put out an appeal for witnesses and victims to volunteer evidence to help him solidify his case before a three-judge bench assessing the Kenyan matter.
The Waki commission was told that the violence that broke out on January 27, 2008 in Naivasha was as a result of a growing bitterness caused by the massive arrivals of IDPs from the North Rift.
It said the displaced families brought painful personal stories of ordeals experienced in places from where they had fled and pointed an accusing finger at the Kalenjin, Luo and Luhya.
According to the commission, the National Security Intelligence Service had information as early as January 3, that two former MPs from the Kikuyu community were negotiating with the Mungiki to stage revenge attacks.
Media investigations indicate that Mr Ocampo is zeroing in on four major suspects and the fiery Naivasha politician reckons she could be one of them.
The Waki commission presented 10 names of politicians and business people suspected to bear the greatest responsibility for the mayhem to Mr Ocampo. She reckons that if the commission accepted the KNCHR evidence, then is possible that her name could be among those presented to Mr Ocampo for further investigations.
In the report, the human rights agency alleged that she bought machetes from Kubwa Supermarket and gave out money to gangs involved in attacks.
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