Sunday, November 24, 2013
Senate Majority Leader Kithure Kindiki now says that Jubilee
leaders will push President Kenyatta to cancel the arrangement in which
British military trains in Kenya to protest UK’s stand on the ICC
deferral bid.
Under the 50-year military co-operation, Kenya allows Britain to train its troops in Laikipia.
“Imagine
having over 10,000 armed security officers stationed in your country,
this can be a security threat and if the two countries are reading from
different scripts, we are justified to kick them out,” he told the
Sunday Nation.
The government could decide to use the
annual permit for British troops to train in Kenya as a bargaining chip
to get London to support its quest for immunity from prosecution of
President Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto. The two are facing
charges of crimes against humanity at the Hague-based ICC.
After
the United Nations Security Council turned down the deferral request
last week, the government has now adopted a bullish approach to force
their way.
The campaign spearheaded by President
Kenyatta’s political lieutenants is meant to force three security
council members — US, UK and France — to reconsider their stand.
Jubilee coalition members are also pressing for the withdrawal of KDF soldiers from Somalia.
“A
country like France should have voted in favour of our request because
one of the reasons our troops went into Somalia was after a French
national was kidnapped in Mombasa but their stand calls for us to change
tact,” he said.
Nominated MP Johnson Sakaja said they have read “ill-motive and bad faith” from Britain’s stand.
“The
past few days have given us an opportunity to re-evaluate our foreign
policy, which should based on mutual interest,” he said.
Senator
Zipporah Kittony supports the review of foreign policy. “We are
pressing this button because we are convinced that there is a hidden
agenda in this whole ICC thing. I attended the UN Security Council in
New York and could sense there is a hidden agenda, I almost stormed out
in protest,” she said.
House Majority Leader Aden Duale
says the US has no moral authority to judge Kenyan leaders, because
America has committed some of worst human rights violations in military
interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But Deputy
Minority Leader Jakoyo Midiwo, a fiery critic of the government advises
President Kenyatta to turn a deaf ear to this advice from his
lieutenants.
“It is going to be mistake of monumental
proportion is he heeds to their calls. Such will fail and will be
totally counterproductive. How can a government that can hardly feed its
people imagine of intimidating the West?” he posed
He said pulling KDF soldiers from Somalia will only serve to jeopardise Kenya’s national security not the US’s or Britain’s.
He
also warned of a massive economic disaster if Kenya wages war on the
West. “When you say that you want to look East, you must first consider
minor but important facts like: Britain is a key importer of our tea.
Where will we sell the tea? These people are being myopic. Politically,
it may be the right move but economically it’s suicidal,” he said.
But Mr Kindiki plays down the thought that any tussle with the West might create an economic tinderbox for Kenya’s economy.
“I
know somebody make us believe that there will be dire consequences,
the correct position is our balance of trade with some of these
countries is hugely skewed in their favour,” he says.