NCCK asks Kibaki and Raila to dissolve government

By Maseme Machuka

President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga have been asked to dissolve government and resign following the debacle over prosecution of post election violence suspects.

The National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK) termed Cabinet’s decision to recommend the truth commission to settle the post poll chaos as an "act of subverting justice and indicative of a country that is regressing into a failed state."

NCCK’s Secretary General Peter Karanja said the Government’s handling of post poll aftermath is shocking.

"Despite assurances by the President that he will address transitional justice, famine, ethnicity, unemployment, insecurity, constitutional reforms, and governance, the issues have not been addressed," he said.

He pointed out that President Kibaki has been in office for seven years and wondered what he could achieve in the next two years.

"In our assessment, we have found that at the heart of the problems bedevilling our country is a culture of impunity founded on unbridled selfishness and greed of the political leadership," he said.

By suggesting that post poll suspects should be handled by TJRC and our courts, said Karanja, is tantamount to systematic subversion of the rule of law.

Betrayed Kenyans

"Mr President and Prime Minister, it will be recorded in history that it was during your time that leadership failed and betrayed Kenyans. Upon your hands and consciences will be tears and pains of all Kenyans who suffer due to your failure to defend justice and stand up for this nation," added Karanja.

The NCCK spokesman was accompanied by Chairman Rev Charles Kibicho and Secretary Olive Kisaka.

The umbrella body for churches urged the President and the PM to stop acting to the whims of some political leaders, who he said have held them hostage. "You have allowed others to manipulate you, just as you manipulated them. Your admission that the Judiciary, police and investigative arms of Government are incompetent is confirmation that Kenya is close to becoming a failed state," said the cleric.