Is history repeating itself as Uhuru Kenyatta, like father, faces trial.
As the trials of Kenya’ยยs president and his deputy unfold at The Hague, central Kenya residents say they are amazed at the case’ยยs similarity with one that took place 61 years ago.
Elders who lived through the trial of Jomo Kenyatta, President Uhuru Kenyattaรขยยs father, which was held in a remote makeshift court in Kapenguria, say they are amazed at the similarities between the predicament facing father and son, six decades apart.
They recalled how the whole of Mt Kenya region, like the rest of the country, was plunged into darkness and despair when Kenyatta was arrested on the night of October 20, 1952.
รขยยThere was a dark cloud hanging over the country. People talked in whispers. Although I was only six years old, I could sense the fear and desperation hanging on our land,รขยย Isack Kimani recalls.
Gitu Kahengeri, Mau Mau War Veterans Association chairman, says during the trials, unlike today when Kenyans are watching streamed videos from The Hague, they had to wait to get an update of the matter from the defence lawyers.
รย รขยยThere was a lot of security and you could not attend the court. We were not even allowed to go past Nakuru so we would wait for the lawyers to come back and inform us of the last hearing,รขยย he explains.
To many in the region, The Hague today is like Kapenguria then, for it is not accessible to ordinary people.
At that time, Kahengeri says Kenyatta did not have enough money to pay for good lawyers to defend him in the case.
รขยยWe were contributing money and some would give 5 cents, others 10 cents to pay for good lawyers. Kenyans portrayed a lot of solidarity just like they have done with his son,รขยย says the independence war veteran.
Voted for a suspect
But despite the tag given to Kenyatta as a leader unto death and darkness by colonial judge Thacker, Kenyans still elected him in absentia.
This, Kahengeri says, happened to Uhuru too, who was elected president despite the crimes against humanity charges preferred against him at The Hague.
รขยยThey voted for him knowing he is a suspect because they believe he is innocent just like we did not believe that Kenyatta was a criminal,รขยย Kahengeri says.
We are lucky now that we can actually monitor the proceedings live from The Hague on television. People who had access to the lawyer representing Kenyatta would communicate the proceedings, which spread throughout Kenya,รขยย Kimani adds.
However, loyalists who had radios monitored the proceedings from the comfort of their sitting rooms.
But just like some Kenyans today want Uhuru to continue being tried at The Hague and even wish he is found guilty, there were those who wanted Kenyatta to be jailed for long.
รขยยOne chief, Njiiri wa Kigo from Location Three, now known as Ruchu in Kandara, Murangรขยยa County, was overjoyed when Kenyatta was convicted,รขยย says Kahengeri.
Kigo, one of the few who had access to a radio was, however, outraged when the same radio later announced that Kenyatta would be released.
Kenyatta family
รขยยKenya gaka githi ndwanjirire ati Kenyatta ndakoima njera na riu wandira magego at ni ararekio.รขยย
(You damn thing! Are you not the one who told me that Kenyatta would rot in jail and now you have the guts to tell me he will be released?รขยย), thundered Kigo as he whacked his transistor radio.
And to the Kenyatta family, the prosecution of the former presidentรขยยs son Uhuru is too great a pain to bear.
In April 2011, Ngengi Muigai, a close relative of Uhuru drew parallels between his charges at theย ICCand the trial, jailing and unlawful detention of his father by the British colonial government.
How much can a wife and a mother bear? Her (Mama Nginaรขยยs) husbandรขยยs tribulations from the British colonialists and now her son from the neo-colonialists!รขยย said Ngengi.
Mama Ngina had said at the same venue: รขยยIรขยยm sure Uhuru, Ruto and the rest will go to The Hague and come back so that we can proceed with nation building.
She said this on the day she laid hands on both her son and Ruto as she prayed for their safe return from The Hague.
She said the charges facing her son and his co-suspects were the work of neo-colonialists and urged Kenyans to stand by Uhuru and resist just like they had resisted the British colonial rule.
รขยยThe colonialists gave us problems and it is now clear they have never relented,รขยย said the former First Lady.
She said one day the truth behind the 2007 post-election violence would come out.
รขยยWhatever is done in the dark will come to light,รขยย she said.
Kenyatta was arrested in October and indicted with five others on charges of รขยยmanaging and being a memberรขยย of the Mau Mau, a radical anti-colonial movement engaged in the rebellion.
Six suspects
His co-accused were Bildad Kaggia, Kungรขยยu Karumba, Fred Kubai, Paul Ngei, and Achiengรขยย Oneko, who were to be known as the Kapenguria Six.
Like in the Kapenguria trial, theย ICCย case indicted six suspects as the brains behind the turmoil which rocked the country in 2008.
The script almost reads the same when former International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo named five other suspects alongside Uhuru in 2011.
The number of persons facingย ICCย charges have now reduced to three after the court dismissed the allegations against the others.
Source-standardmedia.co.ke
Uhuru Trial Stirs Memory of Kenyatta Sentencing
Uhuru Trial Stirs Memory of Kenyatta Sentencing
