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Uhuru proclaims innocence

NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 15 – Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta has brushed off International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Louis Moreno- Ocampo’s claims that he was among the masterminds of the post 2007 election skirmishes and said he is an innocent man.

Mr Kenyatta said on Wednesday afternoon that his conscience was clear.

“My conscience has been clear and will always be clear that I have committed no crime,” he emphasised.

Click below to listen to Uhuru

 

“We did help desperate Kenyans to get tents over their heads, clothes and food in their stomachs. This I would do again,” the DPM said.

 

He said his record spoke for itself including ensuring a peaceful transition of power in 2002 when he lost to President Mwai Kibaki.

 

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“I stood before you and asked for peace at that potentially turbulent time in our history,” he said.

 

“Today I stand before you. I urge all Kenyans to remain peaceful and calm. We await the decision of the judges which I hope will be free and fair.”

 

Mr Kenyatta complained that he had been named as a suspect, yet he had not been informed nor asked to respond to any allegations prior to any findings made against him despite the three investigations done by the Kenya National Human Rights Commission, Waki Commission and the ICC.

 

”I also welcome the chance to present my case and to prove my own innocence and to end the unnecessary speculation and innuendo that has been peddled over the years,” he stated.

 

He was addressing a Press Conference flanked by Cabinet Ministers from the Mt Kenya region who included Kiraitu Murungi, Beth Mugo, John Michuki, Esther Murugi and Amos Kimunya who all supported him.

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Mr Murungi accused the ICC Prosecutor of going contrary to the fundamental rights of the suspects both under local and international law.

 

“This is what Ocampo was trying to do, he knows he has a hopeless case before the Hague and therefore he wants these people tried by the media. He wants these people prosecuted and convicted by the media,” he said.

 

He vowed that they would do everything possible to support Mr Kenyatta, whom they believe was wrongly accused, both morally and materially for his defense in The Hague.

 

Mrs Mugo and Mr Michuki also defended the DPM accusing Mr Ocampo of trying to remove candidates thought to be popular for 2012.

 

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“Ocampo has paid Journalists to go to Europe, hired satellites and from that point he has politicised what we thought was a case to pursue justice,” Mr Michuki said.

 

“None of those who called mass action or those who called the people to fight which led to the killings is on the list and that shows Ocampo’s agenda has nothing to do with justice,” Mrs Mugo said.

 

 

 

Special Programmes Minister Esther Murugi on the other hand accused Mr Ocampo of “looking for fame in the wrong way.”

 

“That list is not worth the paper it is written on, I think it should just be thrown away…..the people who should be on the list went down the streets, shouting haki yetu, saying without this there will be no peace and those are the people we expect to be on that list….so I do not know what this gentleman Ocampo is looking for,” she said.

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“These events took place in the full view of Kenyans and we know what we saw, Ocampo was not here we don’t know what he saw, so let us be fair and if justice is to prevail let it be founded on truth rather than politics of finishing one another for political survival,” Mr Kimunya said.

 

Mr Kenyatta was among five other prominent Kenyans named by the ICC prosecutor as the masterminds of the post 2007 election violence.

 

The others mentioned in Ocampo’s list were Henry Kosgey, Francis Muthaura, Major Gen. Hussein Ali, William Ruto and Radio presenter Joshua Arap Sang.

 

 (Video courtesy K24)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVROGtM-kB0

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