President Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto will continue cooperating with the International Criminal Court (ICC), State House spokesman Manoah Esipisu has said. However, Mr Esipisu said the cooperation must be within the context of the country’s Constitutional requirements. In his inaugural media briefing Thursday at State House, Mr Esipisu said the President watched the opening arguments by ICC Prosecutor and defence lawyers with a lot of interest. "In the past few days, many of you have sent me messages concerning matters in The Hague. But you will understand that this is a matter about which I can say little to nothing. I can certainly tell you that it was a distressful day for the President," said Mr Esipisu. DEEPLY SADDENED He said the President was deeply saddened by the whole ICC episode considering that promotion of national cohesion and unity has been at the heart of his approach to politics. On both Houses of Parliament voting for Kenya to opt out of the Rome Statute, Mr Esipisu pointed out that the government will remain sensitive to voices of the people as articulated by their elected representatives. The President and his government have yet to apply themselves to that question, he said. Mr Esipisu briefed the media on a wide range of issues including Agriculture, Infrastructure, Devolution, IDPs, Uwezo Fund, parastatal reforms, Energy, Kenya @50 and the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. He said the President remained committed to the broad agenda of delivering economic growth to improve on the welfare of Kenyans. On infrastructure, Mr Esipisu said the Port of Mombasa has now been included among the world’s top 120 performers, alongside only 5 others in Africa including Morocco, Egypt and South Africa adding that this is good progress. RIGHT DIRECTION He said the country was headed in the right direction as new Berths, 20 to 23, are now under construction and will further increase capacity at the Port. Mr Esipisu said turnaround time for trucks along the Mombasa - Malaba road has reduced from 13 days to 4.8 days. He said the transit cargo dwell time for Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi has also significantly reduced from about 10 days to 6 currently. To hasten movement of goods and services in the region, Mr Esipisu said work on the Standard Gauge Rail is due to start in two months’ time. Mr Esipisu also said unscrupulous traders have randomly raised prices based on the VAT Act on goods exempted from the law and asked them to stop the practice which amounts to stealing from innocent citizens. Some of the exempted goods include unprocessed and processed food, medicine, sanitary pads, fertilisers and some selected seeds, he said.
Posted on: Thu, 12 Sep 2013 22:42:12 +0000
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