DP William Ruto says Jubilee will rise above fall of deferral bid at UNSC

BY NIKKO TANUI

KERICHO, KENYA: Deputy President William Ruto has said the move by the United Nations Security Council to reject a deferment request for trial against him and President Uhuru Kenyatta was not a “surprise” and that the Jubilee government will rise above the setback.

Speaking in Litein, Kericho County during the homecoming ceremony of Bureti Constituency Member of Parliament Leonard Sang, Ruto said: “We are used to making difficult decisions in difficult situations. What happened yesterday (Friday) is not out of the ordinary. We know what to do to take our country forward because adversity is the mother of all invention. When we were forming Jubilee government we were not taking chances and we know what to do and we have not gone against what we planned to do for Kenyans.”

Over 30 Members of Parliament, four senators and two governors allied to Jubilee coalition who accompanied him also reacted angrily to the United Nations Security Council’s rejection of Africa Union’s attempt to delay by a year trials against President Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto.

The leaders slammed the eight United Nations Security Council members, led by the United States (US) United Kingdom (UK) and France who abstained from the vote saying their action was a an ‘act of cowardice’ and Kenya now know whose its friends are.

Nairobi County Women Representative Rachael Shebesh who also sits at the Panafrican Parliament led the onslaught. She said Kenya is a respectable county which leads the war against terrorism and it was an act of betrayal for the United States and United Kingdom to have abstained from taking a vote for the Kenyan cases to be deferred.

“We are very bitter by the United Nations Security Council resolution yesterday,   the United States, United Kingdom, France and the other countries which abstained from taking a vote should not have taken the cowardly route. If you abstain from taking a vote you are a coward and you are not helping us in anyway. We now know who our friends and enemies are,” Shebesh said.

Shebesh pointed out that President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto had not refused to go to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to answer to the charges against them at the Hague based court and it was height of distrust by the United Nations Security Council to deny them a deferral of their cases.

“We were not asking for gold or favours, Kenya was simply asking for the deferral of the cases so that the President and the Deputy President could finish laying down the structures of their young government,” Shebesh added.

Majority party leader, Aden Duale said the events at the United Nations Security Council had revealed that the ICC cases against Jubilee leaders had “local” and international “investors”.

“Those who abstained from taking a vote to support the Kenyan deferral bid were international investors.  The futile efforts to stop President Uhuru Kenyatta and the Deputy President William Ruto from ascending to power so that someone else could take the reins of power were set in motion by former United Nations Secretary General Koffi Anan,” Daule claimed.

He wondered how countries that refer themselves as “Super Powers” could fail to take a stand on a “simple” matter.

“They call themselves super powers but they absconded from taking a vote to make it clear whether they support deferral of Kenyan cases or not.  China, Russia voted to approve the move. Why didn’t the British, United States and France take a vote to state clearly state their stand?,” Daule said.

Daule said Kenya had since known who its friends are at the United Nations Security Council and the rest can look for business elsewhere.

“Kenyan now knows who its friends are and who we can do business with and our enemies can look for business elsewhere,” Duale said.

He said article 16 of the Rome Statute allowed the county as one of its signatories to seek deferral of its cases and wondered why the some countries led by United States had abstained from taking the vote and termed the ICC as court used to “Colonize” Africa the western nations.

“How many people has America killed in Iraq, Palestine, Syria and other counties? That is why Saudi Arabia refused to take its position at the United Nations Security Council,” the Garisa town MP said.