Kenyatta Sworn In as President of Kenya
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: April 9, 2013
On Tuesday, under a brilliant blue sky flecked with a few
puffs of crisp white cloud, Uhuru Kenyatta, son of Kenya’s
first president, was sworn in as the nation’s fourth head of state amid a full
day of pageantry, with the who’s who of Africa
in attendance.
But there was a
certain subject that no amount of sunshine or triumphant cannon fire could
blast away: the International Criminal Court, which has charged Mr. Kenyatta
with crimes against humanity.
Little digs — and not so little digs — were defiantly
sprinkled into several of the celebratory speeches. Uganda’s
president, Yoweri Museveni, saluted Kenyans for what he called “the rejection
of the blackmail of the International Criminal Court,” which he said was
steered by “arrogant actors” to “install leaders of their choice in Africa and eliminate those they don’t like.”
Mr. Kenyatta’s
running mate, William Ruto, who was sworn in as deputy president and who has
also been charged by the international court with crimes against humanity, then
repeated widely criticized comments made by a senior American official.
“It was said that
choices have consequences,” Mr. Ruto said, referring to what many observers
said was a ham-handed warning by Johnnie Carson, who recently stepped down as
the assistant secretary of state for Africa,
in the run-up to the elections. “And look at the consequences,” Mr. Ruto said,
with a huge grin, suggesting that the warning had backfired, driving more
supporters to the polls. “We won in Round 1.”
Prosecutors at the
International Criminal Court have accused Mr. Kenyatta, 51, of using his vast
family fortune to bankroll death squads during the chaos that exploded after Kenya’s
presidential election in 2007. Mr. Kenyatta has insisted that he is innocent
and that the accuations are based on gossip.
But it seems no
matter how forward-looking he wants to be, his presidency, at least in its
early days, is going to be dogged by what happened in the past. Several Western
countries, including the United States,
have signaled that they will keep their distance from him because of the
graveness of the allegations, though they may have a hard time doing that
because Kenya is one of the
West’s most important allies in Africa.
The American
ambassador to Kenya,
along with other Western envoys, did attend the inauguration. But even that was
interpreted by some Kenyans as a snub, because the Kenyan news media reported
that China, for instance,
had sent a high-level delegation from Beijing,
and of course many African countries sent heads of state.
Mr. Kenyatta made a
thinly veiled reference to the court in his inauguration speech, saying that “Kenya will
strive to uphold our international obligations” but that these obligations must
be based on “mutual respect.” He also delivered a long list of things he
planned to do: give laptops to schoolchildren, fight wildlife poachers. abolish
health center fees and extend electricity.
He congratulated the
nation for carrying out the most complicated election in its history, and for
showing patience when the outcome was delayed by problems with the vote count.
He also emphasized that he wanted to extinguish Kenya’s ethnic-based politics,
which often erupt in violence.
“We will not settle
for a perfunctory peace that is disrupted every five years by an election
cycle,” he said. “Rather, we are calling and working toward a permanent peace.”
The swearing–in
ceremony, held in a packed stadium in Nairobi,
capped an exhausting election period that started months ago when the country’s
leading politicians split into rival camps. On March 4, millions of Kenyans
streamed to the polls, some waiting for 10 hours on their feet to cast ballots.
Election officials
declared Mr. Kenyatta the outright winner, narrowly avoiding a runoff, but the
second place finisher, Raila Odinga, who just stepped down as prime minister,
cried foul, pointing to widespread breakdowns in the election commission’s computer
systems. He then challenged the results, but Kenya’s Supreme Court upheld Mr.
Kenyatta’s win.
In a sign that
feelings were still raw, Mr. Odinga skipped the inauguration, saying he wanted
to “rest” in South Africa.
One of his aides said Tuesday that Mr. Odinga did not want to bestow legitimacy
on an election that he still believed had been rigged.
But other African
leaders were there in force, squinting in the sun, watching an honor guard
stand stiffly on the parade ground, beads of sweat trickling down their faces.
Among the dignitaries were Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s president, topped with a Fedora; Salva
Kiir, president of South Sudan, in his
signature black Stetson; and Mr. Museveni wearing a finely tailored suit and a
floppy bush-fighter hat.
At the end of the
festivities, after the cannon smoke had cleared and the brass horns went quiet,
Mr. Kenyatta ascended the steps of an antique convertible Land Rover and made a
victory lap around the stadium. He was just a high school student when his
father, Jomo, died in office in 1978.
Jomo Kenyatta
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jomo_Kenyatta
Uhuru Kenyatta
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhuru_Kenyatta