PNU cries foul over Ocampo probe

The PNU coalition on Friday cast aspersions on the International Criminal Court investigations into the country’s post-election violence, saying they are targeting the Kikuyu community.

Its MPs further vowed to debate the ICC work in Parliament and lobby Kenyans to reject it for allegedly involving itself in partisan politics instead of ensuring justice.

An MP tabled a document during the PNU coalition meeting allegedly from the United Nations to the ICC on the situation in Kenya during the two months of the violence, which accused the outlawed Mungiki sect of having participated in the chaos.

The meeting was held at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre in Nairobi on Friday.

But in a quick rejoinder, an ICC official, Ms Patricia O’Brien, who spoke from Uganda, dismissed the report, saying all of the court’s documents are posted on its website.

Central Kenya Parliamentary Group chairman Ephraim Maina and MPs Jamleck Kamau, Simon Mbugua, Kareke Mbiuki and Ferdinand Waititu said the report was being used by the ICC in its investigations and that it targets the country’s most populous community.

Nail some people

“The ICC is being used for political reasons and Kenyans should not expect any justice from it,” Mr Maina said. Mr Kamau said that the court was also being used to “nail some people before the 2012 elections”.

The MPs were mainly angered by a section of the report that says much of the 2007 chaos was initiated by ethnically-centred gangs such as the Mungiki, drawn from the Kikuyu and paid by politicians or business people for attacks, intimidation or self-defence.

The report, dated September 8, reads: “Youth gangs, as tools of violence, must be dismantled, and their provincial and national sponsors held accountable, with particular attention given to the risk of violent actions by the Mungiki to pre-empt loss of Kikuyu influence,” it said.

It says Kikuyu-based gangs killed at least 34 people thought to be Luo and other non-Kikuyus in Naivasha and forcibly displaced thousands of people.

Other gangs named in the report are the Taliban and Baghdad Boys associated with the Luo, the Sabaot Land Defence Force and the Chikororo (Kisii).

The ICC is seeking government security documents to authenticate intelligence reports received by the Waki Commission that investigated the violence.

The reports, according to the commission, showed that the violence was planned and financed by politicians and business leaders.

The government has refused to disclose the information in total, generating concerns that it may edit them to make them contradict what the ICC is holding.

The MPs were also unhappy with the report for stating that police violence was ethnically-based “because it was typically targeted at supporters of the opposition, who largely comprise non-Kikuyu”.

The report said State authorities transferred non-Kikuyu police officers and other security personnel from their posts and replaced them with Kikuyus so that they could implement government instructions “intended to protect certain ethnic groups above others”.

The report further said there were widespread perceptions that Kikuyu-led governments have unfairly enriched the community at the expense of other Kenyans.

PNU chairman George Saitoti said an MP raised the ICC issue at the meeting at the KICC and that it was decided that he should verify whether the document is authentic.

“I have been mandated to have the document scrutinised to determine its authenticity,” Prof Saitoti said.

Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka said there were concerns about the ICC investigations.

“There is also concern at what stage does the matter of national sovereignty stand?” he said, adding that provincial administrators who are to appear before the court officials require legal representation.

He said Chief Justice is also required to appoint two judges to oversee the ICC investigations.