How Ocampo read secret list in State House

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo read out the names of the Hague Six to President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga at a State House meeting two weeks before his public announcement, it was revealed on Friday.

Mr Kibaki, who was flanked by Prime Minister Raila Odinga and a few members of the Cabinet, was visibly startled when he heard the name of his close confidant and secretary to the Cabinet Francis Muthaura, the Saturday Nation has learnt.

Mr Odinga was also reportedly angered by the inclusion of Industrialisation minister Henry Kosgey’s name.

According to a source who cannot be named because of the oath of secrecy, the December 1 meeting was attended by members of a special Cabinet committee on the International Criminal Court chaired by Internal Security Minister Prof George Saitoti.

The other members are Lands Minister James |Orengo, Constitutional Affairs Minister Mutula Kilonzo, Immigration Minister Otieno Kajwang, Permanent Secretary in the PM’s Office Mohammed Isahakia, Internal Security Permanent Secretary Amos Kimemia and Head of Public Service Francis Muthaura.

Details of that and subsequent meetings between Mr Kibaki, Mr Raila and members of the Cabinet in which attempts were made to postpone Mr Ocampo’s announcement are carried in a special report in The EastAfrican weekly newspaper which goes on sale on Saturday.

The picture emerged of a president and prime minister seeking to forestall the political fallout that has split the cabinet and exposed deep political fissures that will have direct bearing on day-to-day management of state affairs and the shifting alliances ahead of the 2012 elections.

The president and the prime minister are now, even if indirectly, at the centre of damage-control efforts that are seeing frantic efforts to get Kenya off the ICC spotlight and limit the political reverberations that have shifted the ground under their feet.

The government was shaken by the release of Mr Ocampo’s list, and more so in that both the principals were badly hit by the naming of key lieutenants on the respective wings of the coalition.

The reaction in Parliament and elsewhere in the wake of the announcement indicated ministers, MPs and other key leaders ignoring the president and the prime minister to come out in defence of colleagues they felt had been unfairly targeted.

There were clear signs that the President and the PM were working together to limit the damage in their political camps. The government statement read by Mr Odinga, in tandem with the president’s statements the previous day, also repeated that public servants in the list would retain their jobs since they had not been indicted but were just suspects under investigation.

That is a departure from established norms that President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga seem to have agreed on early as part of the damage limitation exercise.

Foreign minister Moses Wetang’ula and his PS Thuita Mwangi had not been charged with any offence when they stepped aside over the Tokyo embassy scandal recently.

Earlier, under the old constitution, cabinet ministers Kiraitu Murungi, George Saitoti, David Mwiraria and Amos Kimunya all stepped aside over various corruption allegations without waiting to be charged. All were subsequently reinstated after being cleared.

Therefore it is clear that there is something about these specific cases that have seen President Kibaki and Prime Minister Odinga close ranks in an effort to limit the political fallout.

If the mood seen in Parliament on various press conferences is anything to go by, it is as if their two principals were being accused by their respective loyalists of abandoning key allies to The Hague mechanism.

While there had been a lot of rumours doing the rounds on the identity of those to be named, most of the focus was on William Ruto on Mr Odinga’s ODM side and on Mr Uhuru Kenyatta on the President Kibaki’s PNU side.

Both principals were shocked that it turned out also to contain close political allies and confidants who they had no clue were high on Mr Ocampo’s radar — Industrialisation minister and ODM chairman Henry Kosgey and Public Service boss and Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Muthaura.

It is now emerging that the president and the prime minister together with a select number of cabinet ministers had been given a sneak peek at the list a fortnight before Mr Ocampo made his announcement.

That was at the beginning of December when Mr Ocampo and former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan visited the country for the review conference on the national dialogue and reconciliation process.

That was also when a deal may have been struck to limit the political fallout by Mr Ocampo going for summonses against those on his list rather than warrants of arrest.

The advance knowledge is what might have informed Mr Odinga’s surprise comments at the conference opening when he stated that the push to punish perpetrators of the post-election violence must not take precedence over the need to act on the actual trigger of the violence – those, he said, who mismanaged the 2007 elections.

As Mr Ocampo was finally making his announcement at The Hague on Tuesday just after lunchtime, Mr Odinga was in neighbouring Uganda as a guest on President Yoweri Museveni’s election campaign convoy.

The visit raised eyebrows in Uganda as local papers wondered whether President Museveni was enlisting foreign help for his re-election campaign.

In Kenya Mr Odinga was a notably missing as the maelstrom swirled around Mr Ocampo’s announcement, only coming into the picture on Thursday with the official government statement in Parliament following a long meeting with President Kibaki.

In the immediate aftermath of release of the ICC list on Wednesday, President Kibaki came out with a carefully-worded statement, the main import of which was that those of the Ocampo Six who were public servants would not be required to vacate office.

President Kibaki’s reasoning was that the six had not yet been formally charged with any crimes, leave alone being found guilty, and were only under investigation. He said that they must be deemed innocent and therefore any calls for their removal from public office were premature.

Those holding office in the list are Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Industrialisation minister Henry Kosgey, Public Service head Francis Muthaura and former Police Commissioner Hussein Ali, who is now the Postmaster General.

Also in the list is Eldoret North MP William Ruto who is actually the minister for Higher Education, but was forced to step aside pending conclusion of corruption case. The sixth suspect, Mr Joshua Sang, is a broadcaster with the controversial Kalenjin-language radio station Kass FM.

Obviously in the back of President Kibaki’s mind was the recent trend where public officers facing corruption or other criminal investigations have been forced to step aside by public clamour, the latest victims being Mr Ruto and Foreign minister Moses Wetang’ula together with his Permanent Secretary Thuita Mwangi.

Also in the crosshairs of parliamentary and anti-corruption authority probes are Mr Kosgey and Water minister Charity Ngilu.

The president might have wanted to contain the political fallout with his assurances that nobody would be forced out of office, as well as indications that the Government was still keen on the establishment of a local tribunal.

Dealing with the political fallout also seemed key on Mr Odinga’s mind when he addressed the House on Thursday afternoon.

He came into a charged chamber that had been debating Chepalangu MP Isaac Ruto’s Motion calling for Kenya’s withdrawal from the ICC in retaliation to Mr Ocampo’s action.

The mood in the House indicated strong backing for the Motion, particularly from Mr Odinga’s disgruntled former ODM allies in Mr William Ruto’s Rift Valley constituency; and from President Kibaki’s own central Kenya backyard where MPs are fanning emotions over the inclusion of Mr Kenyatta and Mr Muthaura in the Ocampo list.

The ICC prosecutor has in that regard helped fan a wave of resentment from President from his own political backyard, as seen with the number of central Kenya MPs teaming up with the Rift Valley counterparts.

Some comments are particularly telling. During the debate on Mr Isaac Ruto’s motion, Public Health minister Beth Mugo pointedly wondered whether the government was abdicating its responsibilities by allowing Kenyan national to be turned over to The Hague. Mrs Mugo wanted the government to take the lead in withdrawing Kenya from the ICC.

Environment minister John Michuki spoke in much the same vein the previous day in the wake of Mr Ocampo’s announcement.

He challenged the government to state whether it had surrendered Kenyan sovereignty to a foreign process.

That the two cabinet ministers — and a large number of other ministers and assistant ministers — could ignore the simple fact that they are the government and speak thus is a direct challenge to President Kibaki from his own wing of the coalition and from his central Kenya base.

This is beside the fact that Mrs Mugo is Mr Kenyatta’s cousin and was understandably emotive; while Mr Michuki has recently lobbied strongly for Mr Kenyatta to be recognised as the new Kikuyu political supremo in post-Kibaki dispensation.

The government statement issued by Mr Odinga dealt at length on the background leading up to Mr Ocampo’s list; the main point being that The Hague became the only option after MPs themselves killed various attempts at a local tribunal.

Mr Odinga also took time out from his written brief to hit back at Mr Isaac Ruto and other MPs in the emerging Kalenjin-Kikuyu bloc who had been full insinuations that he must have had something to do with the Ocampo list.

The two principals have powerful constituencies to placate and have found themselves in situations where key blocs on their respective wings are in rebellious mood and literally accusing them of hanging their friends out to dry.

For President Kibaki the consequences might not be too severe as he is already on his final term, but he still would not want to be rendered irrelevant by a rebellion in is camp as he works towards securing a lasting legacy – he delivered on enactment of the new constitution and is now focused on implementation.

For Mr Odinga there is everything to lose if things go awry.

The ODM leader stands as opinion poll favourite to succeed President Kibaki, but Kenya’s fickle politics and the building and re-building of alliances do not need further complications from the Ocampo list.