{UAH} Ruto defence accuses Kibaki of betrayal - Politics - nation.co.ke
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Ruto defence accuses Kibaki of betrayal - Politics
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Deputy President William Ruto Thursday accused former president Mwai Kibaki of betrayal and sowing seeds of discord by allowing ethnicity and corruption to permeate his government, leading to a vote of resentment in 2007.
Mr Ruto's defence said the former president betrayed the high hopes Kenyans had in the Narc administration when they overwhelmingly voted for him in 2002, only for him to fail to tackle corruption and ethnicity.
Defence counsel David Hooper, who was cross-examining prosecution witness 268, said the former president also interfered with the electoral process, starting as early as 2007 when he appointed individuals who could help him retain power to the defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya.
Mr Hooper cited the promises which the Narc administration failed to fulfil, including the pledge to change the constitution — a key plank of the 2002 Kibaki campaign — by turning his back against devolution of power.
He further said Mr Kibaki betrayed the memorandum of understanding he had entered into with Liberal Democratic Party leader Raila Odinga to serve one term, then support the latter for the presidency.
Mr Hooper said once Mr Kibaki got into State House, he refused to honour part of the agreement to create the position of Prime Minister that would have been occupied by Mr Odinga.
"In terms of constitutional reforms, the essential idea was that the constitution would be amended to reduce power of the president," said Mr Hooper, adding that the victory Narc secured in 2002 was based on these promises of a better future.
"What happened subsequently was reneging on the promises he had made. Is that right?" he asked the witness, who responded in the affirmative.
Instead of fulfilling the constitutional reforms Narc had promised, Mr Hooper said, the former president went on to water down the very proposals that had been put forward, leading to the emergence of the Orange movement against the draft constitution in 2005.
Mr Hooper said even in the 2005 referendum, the people who voted for the draft constitution, which was defeated, were mainly from Mr Kibaki's Central Province backyard.
After the referendum in 2005, Mr Hooper said, Mr Kibaki remained mainly with officials from his Kikuyu community, who surrounded him.
The lawyer said the 2005 referendum period also coincided with the time people from non-Kikuyu ethnic groups were being sacked from the civil service, the police and the armed forces.
http://www.nation.co.ke/news/politics/Ruto-defence-accuses--Kibaki-of-betrayal-/-/1064/2055492/-/p0k7tz/-/index.html
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