NAIROBI, Kenya Apr 21- The government on Thursday dismissed reports that President Mwai Kibaki intends to seek a third term in office during next year’s general election.
Government Spokesman Dr Alfred Mutua said the reports published in a section of the media are “cheap propaganda.”
“President Mwai Kibaki does not intend to run for re-election, contrary to sensational and manufactured media reports,” a statement posted on the Government Spokesman’s website said.
He said: “The President has served this country for most of his life and worked hard to ensure passage and adoption of a new Constitution, which does not allow a person to serve more than two terms.”
The government’s statement was a response to reports published in a section of the print media that some forces in the government were hatching a plot to have the President run for a third term in office. The newspaper had quoted unnamed sources.
”The Government wishes Wananchi to know that there are no plans being hatched anywhere to extend the President\’s term and media reports to that effect are cheap propaganda and an example of sections of Kenyan media that have become rogue,” the statement reads in part.
President Kibaki was first elected to office in 2002 and vied for a second term in 2007 in a hotly contested poll which Prime Minister Raila Odinga claimed he was robbed of victory.
The stalemate degenerated to the worst violence in the country that claimed the lives of some 1500 people and displaced more than 500,000 others.
Property worth millions of shillings were destroyed at the time before the crisis was successfully mediated by former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan who convinced the two leaders to agree on a power sharing arrangement that ended with Mr Kibaki being the President and Mr Odinga Prime Minister.
The two later formed a commission of inquiry headed by Judge Philip Waki to investigate the cause of the violence.
The commission completed its task and handed over its report to the President and Mr Annan who later handed it to the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo.
The report names several key leaders in the country as having been organisers and financiers of the post election violence.
Mr Ocampo later said he had carried out further investigations and concluded that five key leaders and a radio journalist were responsible for masterminding the violence and has since filed judicial proceedings against them at the ICC in The Hague.
Those he wants charged for alleged roles in masterminding the chaos include Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Head of the Civil Service Ambassador Francis Muthaura and former Police Commissioner Hussein Ali.
Others are suspended Higher Education Minister William Ruto, Tinderet MP Henry Kosgey and Kass FM Radio Presenter Joshua arap Sang.
The six individuals made an initial appearance at The Hague court on April 7 and 8 respectively during which charges they are facing were formally read to them.
Some of the war crimes charges they are facing include murder, rape and forcible transfer of the population.
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