Kenyans in US to hold demo against ICC plan

‘‘We’ll push for a veto of the motion seeking to delay justice for post-election violence victims,” Daphne Ogega, demo organiser

Kenyans in America plan to protest outside the UN offices in New York against the campaign to defer the country’s post-election violence cases.

The demonstrations will be staged at a time Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka will be meeting UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday in a bid to convince him to support the deferral of the violence cases for a year.

The protesters will express their backing for the speedy conclusion of the cases at The Hague and deposit a petition against the deferral campaign with members of the UN Security Council.

“We’ll push for a veto of the motion seeking to delay justice for post-election violence victims. Kenyans in the diaspora stand with their brothers and sisters in Kenya,” said New Jersey-based Daphne Ogega, one of the organisers.

According to Ms Ogega, a representative of the New Jersey/New York-based “Kenyans for Change” lobby, arrangements are in place to have as many protesters taking part in the today’s demo. They have printed T-shirts for the protest.

On Monday, the group launched a well-received campaign on social websites such as Facebook, appealing to Kenyans in the US to meet at the UN headquarters at 9am on Tuesday (5pm East Africa time) for the protest.

“Our message will be to the UN secretary-general in regards to Mr Musyoka’s propaganda of ICC deferral. We all agree The Hague is the best option for Kenyans The government should not spend taxpayers’ money to shield post-election violence suspects,” she said.

Mr Gathu Francis, said money spent in the campaign should be used to resettle the violence victims.

“I support this move. We want to see the wheels of justice rolling,” said Ms Anyango Poda who plans to attend the protest march.

"We must speak for those who can’t speak for themselves, stand for the helpless, march for the weak and ultimately listen to the many who were inflicted,” added Mr Walter Ogega.

Mr Musyoka is leading a seven-member team of ministers appointed by President Kibaki last week to lobby the UN Security Council members to back its bid for a deferral of the ICC cases.

The VP, is expected to meet Mr Ban today and US officials on Wednesday and return home on Thursday.

Trade minister Chirau Mwakwere is in Bosnia and Lebanon while Agriculture minister Sally Kosgei and East African Community’s Hellen Sambili are headed to Brazil.

The other special envoys are Internal Security minister George Saitoti, Nairobi Metropolitan minister Njeru Githae and Foreign Affairs assistant minister Charles Onyonka.

The Vice-President’s spokesman, Mr Kaplich Barsito, said deferral of ICC cases for a year is needed to give a local judicial process a chance following reforms arising from the new Constitution.

Mr Barsito said the special envoys would argue the ICC process could affect Kenya’s fragile stability.