International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has alleged that President Uhuru Kenyatta was involved in the killing of various senior Mungiki leaders to silence the group and cover-up his guilt.
In a confidential ex-parte filing of July 11 available to the prosecution and the Kenyan Government only, but which was made public on July 29, the prosecution adds that Maina Njenga, as head of the Mungiki movement whose members spearheaded the violence, received payments from Mr Kenyatta after he was released from prison in October 2009.
“He (Maina Njenga) was not released from prison until October 2009 and any transfers of money to him are likely to have occurred after this date,” argues Ms Bensouda in the July 11 submission to justify the June 1, 2007 and December 15, 2010 time frame for the records that she seeks.
President Kenyatta strenuously denied links with the outlawed Mungiki sect in his sworn testimony during the pre-trial hearings in 2011.
“To be a commander or anything in Mungiki, first of all I would have to be a member, and I have never been a member of Mungiki,” he had told the court during the pre-trial hearing when his lead defence counsel, Stephen Kay, led him in his evidence. “I have never mobilised or tasked Mungiki for any activity whatsoever.”
In his testimony at the pre-trial hearings, Mr Kenyatta, then Deputy Prime Minister also denied attending any Mungiki meetings as alleged by former ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo.
The prosecution further alleges that theUhuru later footed the funeral costs of a number of Mungiki leaders as well as that of Mr Njenga’s wife, Ms Virginia Nyakio, who was shot and killed in January 2010. The trial of President Kenyatta is highly dependent on the government providing the records requested by the prosecution after certain key witnesses were withdrawn or recanted their testimonies. The Chambers has tentatively set October 7 as the opening date of the trial.