We can’t be at Hague at same time: Uhuru

President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto at Ruiru municipal stadium in Kiambu on 8th September 2013. Photo/ANN KAMONI

What you need to know:

  • Leaders say one of them must remain home to run affairs of the government

President Uhuru Kenyatta has said that he cannot be out of the country on trial over charges of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court at the same time with his deputy, Mr William Ruto.

President Kenyatta said their legal teams were working hard to ensure that at least one of them is in the country running the affairs of the government during the trials at The Hague.

He spoke on Sunda at Ruiru Stadium in Kiambu County just two days before The Hague trials begin.

Mr Kenyatta asked all Kenyans to take charge of the country’s destiny.
At another function, he and Mr Ruto laid the foundation stone of the headquarters of the Africa Gospel Church on Ngong Road in Nairobi.

President Kenyatta told the occasion: “We have a vision of taking the whole nation, the whole country Kenya, all 42 million of us forward and we have a message that is based on the gospel, a message of peace, prosperity for all 42 million of us.”

“But it is going to take more. It is not just the President, not the Deputy President nor the Cabinet, nor Parliament but all 42 million of us who have the responsibility to help us transform this nation. If everybody played their part, indeed change can happen and we can transform our society and we can move this nation.”

And in an indirect reference to the ICC trial facing them, Mr Kenyatta thanked Kenyans for their prayers.

“The world is full of challenges but God has never put a challenge before anyone that he cannot surmount. We believe strongly that with God in control, we will surmount the challenges that we have and continue with our march to putting in place the vision that we have for this great nation Kenya.”

“I want to say thank you for those prayers that you have offered for my deputy and myself. Please continue praying.”

Mr Ruto’s case trial starts on Tuesday while Mr Kenyatta’s start on November 12. The two, alongside radio journalist Joshua arap Sang, are accused of crimes against humanity which the ICC prosecutors argue were committed during the 2008 post-election violence in which 1,133 people died and more than 600,000 were displaced. The three insist they had no hand in the atrocities.

Mr Ruto called on Kenyans to stop the dependency mentality and build the country by paying taxes and their own churches or religious centres by giving alms. “I think Jesus approves that we pay taxes to government the same way he approves that we give generously to the furtherance of the word of God.”

He added: “I think it has reached a time that, as Kenyans, we must roll up our sleeves and tighten our belts and shape our destiny by funding our church and nation.”

Mr Ruto was not directly referring to any form of taxation, but his comments came on the backdrop of a new VAT Act that was implemented from last week. It has slapped a 16 per cent charge on goods that were previously tax exempt.

The two leaders said the church offered the best basis on which national unity should be achieved.

“Nations are built on the back of societies: The moral fabric and the religious base that gives us what a society and a nation becomes.

“Leaders of this country have been raised, in one way or another, by different religious denominations. We owe a debt of gratitude to our churches for what they have done,” added Mr Ruto.

The church, which has been in existence in Kenya for the past 86 years, as originally headquatred in Kericho, where it started, before moving to Nairobi. The church’s head Reverend Robert Lang’at presided over the function in which he prayed for the two to go through the ICC cases.