NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 9 – The British High Commission in Nairobi has dismissed as false allegations made in Parliament on Thursday accusing the UK of conspiring to have President Mwai Kibaki face trial at the ICC over the post election violence.
A statement from the High Commission said documents containing the allegations which were tabled in Parliament by MPs were not genuine.
“The British High Commission presents its compliments to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kenya and has the honour to convey its concerns about allegations made in the Kenyan Parliament on 8 March against the United Kingdom.
The policy of Her Majesty’s Government is not to comment on leaked documents. However, having seen copies of the documents in question, we would like to assure the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that these are not genuine. Evidence of this includes both the misleading and implausible content and a plethora of spelling and grammatical mistakes,” the statement said.
The High Commission termed the allegations made in Parliament by Yatta Member of Parliament Charles Kilonzo as a smear campaign.
On Thursday, Kilonzo sensationally claimed that European countries led by the United Kingdom had conspired to have President Kibaki indicted by the ICC over the 2008 post-election violence.
Kilonzo said the conspiracy also involves getting presidential candidates Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto arrested when they appear before the ICC for the mention of their case which has been set for trial.
“We are concerned that this is a smear campaign which aims to destabilise our bilateral relations and to damage the political atmosphere ahead of the Kenyan elections,” the statement from the High Commission said.
It said the UK “has no interest in any particular outcome in the General Election and is not backing any particular candidates or parties.”
“We support transparent, credible, peaceful elections which produce results that the people of Kenya, of whatever political persuasion, accept as the legitimate expression of the will of the people. We are and will remain non partisan,” it added.
The MP had claimed that the recent visit by UK Foreign Secretary William Hague was part of the larger scheme.
“With all indications that the two Ocampo guests bearing presidential ambitions and their groupings are likely to be a strong team, the way forward is to push for their detentions during the mention at the court on the pretext that they are security threats through public utterance in the political and prayer alliances,” Kilonzo said when reading part of the document that he alleged had emanated from an officer named Chloe Hamborg at the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).
The document disowned by the British High Commission bears the logo of the FCO and is also marked ‘Restricted’.
The MPs were also incensed by the suggestion that President Mwai Kibaki was under investigation over the violence that saw more than 1,300 Kenyans killed and over 500,000 others uprooted from the homes.
“The arrest warrant would assist the ongoing investigations of President Kibaki. It would diminish the chances of Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto ascending to State House and would increase the chances of Kibaki being indicted as a former Head of State. This may be possible with Raila presidency,” the document says.
The MPs claimed that the UK leadership had taken sides in Kenya’s succession politics.
Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula told the House that they could not discuss the report as it was against House rules, an argument that was supported by Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim.
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