Kenya’s finance minister quits post after indictment

Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya’s finance minister and presidential hopeful, has resigned from his ministerial post, three days after he was indicted for crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Mr Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s founding president and one of the country’s richest men, is charged along with Francis Muthaura, the civil service chief, with organising a militia that killed and raped members of a rival tribe in the Rift Valley during the violence that followed Kenya’s disputed 2007 election.

At least 1,133 people were killed and 663,000 displaced in the post election violence.

“The president has accepted the decision by Uhuru Kenyatta to step aside as the minister for finance,” the presidency said in a statement late on Thursday. Mr Kenyatta will retain his post as deputy prime minister, it added.

Robinson Githae, a lawyer and cabinet minister for metropolitan development, has been named acting finance minister. Mr Muthaura has also resigned.

The ICC indictments, which also accuse MP William Ruto, another presidential hopeful, and radio presenter Joshua arap Sang of crimes against humanity in a separate case, have rocked Kenyan politics in what could be an election year. Recent opinion polls say most Kenyans still support the process, however. The four accused have denied all charges.

Mr Kenyatta, 50, said in a preliminary statement this week that he would co-operate with the ICC. He did not say whether he would still stand for president. He has previously said he would stand whatever the ICC ruled. Some activists say he and Mr Ruto are not eligible to stand because of clauses in Kenya’s new constitution, ratified after the violence, about the necessary integrity of the country’s leaders and those seeking office.

The ICC has no independent police force, but Kenya is under obligation to enforce its decisions should any arrest warrants be issued. The country has appointed a legal team of both local and international lawyers to decide whether to challenge the admissibility of the case, Githu Muigai, Kenya’s attorney-general, said this week. “Kenya continues to assert that it has primary responsibility to exercise criminal jurisdiction,” he said.

The ICC judgment earlier this week was a preliminary ruling allowing Luis Moreno-Ocampo, prosecutor, to continue his cases against the men. A final ruling in the cases could be years away.

Mr Kenyatta, one of Kenya’s richest men, is credited with introducing policies during his time as finance minister that helped stabilise the shilling and curb inflation.