Friday, October 31, 2008
Story by: By Edwin Mutai
THE buck on the post-election violence stops with President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Water minister Charity Ngilu has said. Ngilu exonerated those she described as small fish who have been linked to the planning, financing and execution of the violence by the Waki report, saying Kibaki, Raila and Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka were to blame for the same.
Ngilu added that although "all of us played a role in the mayhem, the top leaders are squarely to blame since they were contestants in the disputed 2007 presidential election". "If I fought, I was not fighting my war. If you fought, you were fighting their war. The war of Kibaki or Raila," said the minister.
Raila Odinga inspecting a guard of honor mounted by ODM youth wingers in Rift Valley. (Photo by Daily Nation, Nairobi)
While challenging the two to explain their roles in the violence, Ngilu said leaders must now learn to speak the truth. "We can’t have scapegoats. Me like others played a role and each one of us must carry our own cross. I was an ODM Pentagon member and I cannot cheat anybody we did not call for mass action. But what is mass action? Is mass action a Saturday afternoon romance? Why are you looking for small people? We must be honest," charged Ngilu.
Speaking on Tuesday night during a fund-raising for the Grand National Union (GNU) led by her Assistant Mwangi Kiunjuri, Ngilu said she could not contradict the position taken by GNU to call for full implementation of the report.
But speaking at the same venue, Sports and Youth Affairs Assistant minister Kabando wa Kabando said he was ready to face either the local tribunal or the Hague if he played any role in the violence. Kabando said the financiers, planners and executors of the violence should not be lumped together with people who were defending themselves from the killers.
http://kenyatimesonline.com/content.asp?catid=2&articleId=2483
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