State House and city club linked to chaos

ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has named State House and Nairobi Club as the venues where planning meetings were held for revenge attacks in Naivasha and Nakuru during the 2008 post-election chaos.

The meetings, he argues, in the amended evidence he filed with the Pre-Trial Chamber last Friday, were attended by Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo has also reduced by a month the period which he says the two and Postmaster General Hussein Ali committed the crimes.

In his first version of evidence, the prosecutor said the crimes were committed between December 30, 2007 and February 28, 2008.

He has now reduced this period to end on January 31, 2008. The prosecutor now specifies that a meeting between Mr Kenyatta, Mr Muthaura and Mungiki, held on December 30, 2007, was at State House. Previously, he said that the meeting was held in Nairobi without giving the exact location.

Mr Moreno-Ocampo also gives Nairobi Members’ Club as the location of a meeting held on January 3, 2008.

He says that during the meeting Mr Kenyatta and Mr Muthaura enlisted the services of Mungiki leaders and concluded plans for revenge attacks in the Rift Valley.

The prosecutor says that Mr Muthaura requested Mungiki leaders to deploy their members to the Rift Valley to carry out retaliatory attacks.

The three suspects are scheduled to appear at The Hague from September 21 for their confirmation of charges hearings.