NAIROBI,KENYA: Jubilee Alliance presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta has said there will be no power vacuum when he attends trials before the International Criminal Court at The Hague should he be elected president.
Uhuru, during an interview with Aljazeera, said Kenya is not a banana republic and has institutions that will ensure the government is run when he and his running mate William Ruto are at The Hague.
“Even as we continue to face these charges we will still continue to appear. There is absolutely no power vacuum because one thing that people always tend to forget is that Kenya is not a banana republic. Kenya is a country that actually has really firm and clear institutions in place that would allow … so consequently the system and the state will continue to run regardless of the court, the two are not interlinked,” he said.
The Deputy Prime Minister said ICC has a purpose but his election would mean that Kenyans question the process that landed them at The Hague.
“I am not saying that international justice doesn’t have a purpose .… But if Kenyans do vote for us, it will mean that Kenyans themselves have questioned the process that has landed us at the International Criminal Court. But that does not mean that we will cease to cooperate because as I have said most importantly we understand and recognise the rule of law,” he said.
Uhuru Kenyatta and Ruto are due to stand trial for crimes against humanity at the ICC in April, just a month after the vote for allegedly stoking the violence last time around.
The ICC accuses Kenyatta of playing a role in mobilising, arming, coordinating attacks against Raila Odinga’s supporters in 2007, charges he has always denied.
Kenya’s disputed presidential vote of 2007 erupted into an ethnic conflict that left more than 1,200 people dead and 600,000 displaced.
The violence resulted in images that shocked the world and that no Kenyan wants to see again.
In 2008, a coalition government between the rival candidates Mwai Kibaki and Raila put a lid on the tensions.
Watch Uhuru’s Interview
Source:standardmedia.co.ke
