Laikipia Governor Ndiritu Muriithi during a past press briefing. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]
Laikipia Governor Ndiritu Muriithi has appealed to MPs to reject Kenya-British military training agreement and demand for justice over the 2012 murder of Agnes Wanjiru.
Mr Muriithi said life of a single Kenyan outweighs the economic benefits of having the UK forces in Nanyuki.
The county boss said locals want to see justice served and will not be hoodwinked by material benefits.
He asked National Assembly Defence and Foreign Relations committee to make good their threat and not renew the military training pact until the murder suspects are brought to the country and prosecuted.
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“As Kenyans, all we want is justice. We don’t want to be hoodwinked. We want our military to stand with us not with the bully,” said Muriithi.
He accused Defence Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa of allegedly siding with the British forces in the matter.
“Our CS for defence is failing us. We even doubt Eugene’s allegiance. He should tell us if he serves the interest of the UK,” he added.
The governor made the remarks on a day locals held demonstrations in Nanyuki to demand action against the murder suspects.
On Tuesday, lawmakers threatened to shoot down Kenya-British military agreement unless suspects in the matter are surrendered and prosecuted under the Kenyan law.
Existing agreement lapsed and the National Assembly is required to renew it for five years.
According to the agreement, visiting forces are subject to the laws of the host country.
Parliamentary legal team in a brief to the Committee on Criminal Jurisdiction on the previous treaty states that “visiting forces shall be subject to abide by and respect the Constitution, laws and regulations of the host nation at all times.”
The agreement states that relevant authorities of the host nation shall have jurisdiction over any member of the visiting forces.
“The Service Authorities of the Sending Nation shall have the right to exercise within the territory of the host nation or on board any vessel or aircraft of the host nation all criminal and disciplinary jurisdiction conferred on them by the law of the sending nation over visiting forces,” states the brief.
The Service Authorities of the sending nation shall only have jurisdiction over a member of the visiting forces if the offence is solely against the property or security of the visiting forces or the sending nation.
Mandera North MP Bashir Abdullahi said the House will only consider the agreement after the suspects are brought to book.
“We have this draft agreement between Kenya and UK. We have a long-standing relation with the UK. We are looking at an agreement that has lapsed and requires renewal. Unfortunately, when we are about to do the renewal this subject of Agnes Wanjiru comes up,” said Abdullahi.
“Until we have concrete evidence to suggest that the Kenyan government is looking into this matter and the culprit will be brought to book under the Kenyan justice system, only then we will we append our signature on the defence cooperation pact," he added.
