MPs condemn move to look into Waki report

Two Nominated MPs from Opposition Cord have condemned the move by Jubilee MPs to form a parliamentary team to look into the Waki report into the 2007 poll violence.

ODM’s Isaac Mwaura and Robert Mutemi of Wiper Party have termed formation of the 15 member committee as untimely saying the MPs are compromised in their quest.

Speaking in Githurai, the MPs said the move that came over 5 years after Kenya took the poll chaos cases to The Hague will not save Deputy President William Ruto from the International Criminal Court (ICC), but open old wounds.

However, Parliament Majority Leader Aden Duale argues the committee will compel Waki to give evidence to counter claims of witness coaching and evidence tampering by some.

In February, the ICC admitted as evidence the Waki commission’s report that investigated post-election violence.

The trial chamber judges stated that it finds the document relevant particularly to the background of the case.

The Waki commission’s document formed the basis of the Kenyan ICC cases following the commission’s recommendation for the trial of those listed in the infamous Waki envelope.

Gatundu South Member of Parliament Moses Kuria has of late been on the loose naming witnesses he allegedly helped procure for the Kliegler and Waki commissions that were investigating the 2007/08 post-election violence that saw at least 1,300 people lose their lives and over 600,000 others forced out of their homes.

Kuria has persistently said that the Deputy President William Ruto and journalist Joshua Arap Sang were fixed by Narc Kenya leader Martha Karua and himself from the Party of National Unity (PNU) wing and CORD leader Raila Odinga and Senator Anyang Ny’ong’o from the ODM wing.

During an interview on Citizen TV’s #TheBigQuestion Tuesday night, Kuria apologized to Kenyans for fixing Ruto and Sang at the ICC. He said that he was remorseful for the role he played in procuring witnesses that were used to implicate Ruto and Sang at the ICC.

He also disclosed that the witnesses who were used to prepare the Waki and Kriegler report were paid as low as Ksh 2,000 to record statements.

Kuria has been at the centre of a heated debate with CORD luminary Raila Odinga and Narc-Kenya party leader Martha Karua after he linked the two to the on-going cases against William Ruto.

“We all know the violence experienced in 2007 came about because of political differences between PNU and ODM over the contested elections,” said Moses Kuria.

“Both ODM, led by their party leader Raila Odinga and Kisumu Senator Anyang Nyong’o, and PNU, led by myself and Martha Karua, sent letters to the ICC with names of individuals suspected to be behind the violence.”

He accused Raila and Kisumu Senator Anyang Nyong’o of writing a letter to the UN Security Council opposing the deferral of the cases and advising that the suspects be tried at the ICC in The Hague.