KENYAN POLITICIANS are raising millions to fund the expenses of colleagues accused of war crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
A group of MPs from central Kenya has set up a legal defence fund to raise at least KSH500 million (€4.7 million) to support each of the six suspected organisers of 2007-2008’s post-election violence.
“If five million Kenyans contribute even 100 shillings each, we’ll be there,” said minister for energy Kiraitu Murungi. “So let’s not think about the few rich people contributing to this process. We want the ordinary Kenyan, who really cares about this country.”
Last week, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, named six suspects associated with the election violence of three years ago which left at least 1,200 dead and thousands displaced.
Among them are finance minister and deputy prime minister Uhuru Kenyatta and Francis Kirimi Muthaura, a close confident of President Mwai Kibaki and top civil servant. Both are accused of ordering the security services into action. Mr Kenyatta is also accused of allowing the Mungiki, a violent sect of the majority Kikuyu tribe, to target the Luo tribe of opposition leader Raila Odinga.
Already, several MPs have called for Kenya to leave the Rome Statute that created the ICC, with others calling for a local tribunal to try suspects, a move condemned by church leaders as an attempt to frustrate the ICC.
The National Council of Churches of Kenya urged political leaders to support the ICC, reminding them that thousands of Kenyans remain in makeshift camps around the country after being forced to leave their homes.
Meanwhile, civil society organisations expressed surprise at the moves by MPs to raise money for their colleagues, especially when many of them are much better off that ordinary Kenyans.
Mr Kenyatta, for example, has made it publicly known that he is worth $10 million (€7.6 million). Kenyan parliamentarians voted in July to give themselves a pay rise of 240,000 KSH, bringing their salary to 1,091,000 KSH a month. The minimum wage in cities is about €70.
“I get the sense that they are trying to express their solidarity with Kenyatta and the others,” said Mwalimu Mati of corruption watchdog Mars Group Kenya. “They are probably trying to whip up emotion . . . I don’t think it is working.”