Uhuru Kenyatta

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Uhuru Kenyatta, 2014

Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta (born October 26, 1961 in Nairobi ; often just Uhuru in his home country ) is a Kenyan politician and has been the fourth President of the Republic of Kenya since April 9, 2013 . During the previous presidency he was Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister of Kenya. He is the eldest son of Jomo Kenyatta , the first President of Kenya, and his fourth wife Ngina Muhoho , known as Mama Ngina. A heir to the Kenyatta family's fortune, Uhuru Kenyatta is among the richest men in Africa, according to Forbes . He was tried before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2010 for inciting murder, eviction and robbery during the 2007 elections. The charges were withdrawn on December 5, 2014 by the chief prosecutor for lack of evidence.

Life

Kenyatta was born in 1961 shortly after his father was finally released from British custody. His parents come from the Kikuyu people . His first name goes back to a proposal by the second Vice President of Kenya, Joseph Murumbi . "Uhuru" stands for "freedom" in Swahili .

He attended St. Mary's Catholic School in Nairobi , where he was known as one of the best students. The family of the president, who died in 1978, was allowed to stay in the state house , the previous official residence of the president, by order of the new president Daniel arap Moi ; Moi had an intense relationship with the adolescent Uhuru Kenyatta. He was often a guest at Moi's new State House .

After graduating from high school, Uhuru Kenyatta went to study in the USA and studied political science and economics at Amherst College in Massachusetts with a Bachelor of Arts degree . With this university place he succeeded his nephew Ngengi Muigai , who had led the Kenyatta clan before him and later moved to the other political camp. In 1985 Kenyatta returned to Kenya.

He has been married to Margaret Wanjiru Gakuo , a daughter of railroad manager E. Njuguna Gakuo and his wife Magdalena, since 1989 . They have three children, Jomo, Ngina and Muhoho (Jaba). Uhuru Kenyatta has two sisters, including Kristina Wambui Kenyatta-Pratt , and a brother, Muhoho Kenyatta , who now runs the family business.

Business activities

In Kenya, he worked as a major farmer and businessman in his father's business empire. He was the general manager and chairman of the Brookside Dairy . He was also director of the Commercial Bank of Africa and a member of the Kenya Dairy Board , which regulates the supply of cow's milk. The family owns land, such as Taita Taveta Farm, Kahawa Sukari Farm, Gatundu Farm, Thika Farm, Brookside Farm, Muthaita Farm, Green Lee Estate, Njagu Farm in Juja, Kasarani Farm, Nakuru Farm in Rongai, Naivasha Ranch, and a few other farms in Nairobi and a quarry in Dandora.

politics

First political engagement from 1996

From 1996 Uhuru Kenyatta appeared at the regional level as chairman of the Kenya African National Union (KANU), the former state party of his father, in Thika . In 1997 he lost his Gatundu South constituency , which his father had already held, to the Social Democrat Moses Muihia .

In 1999 Moi appointed the young Kenyatta chairman of the Tourism Board , Kenya's official tourism authority, and of the National Disaster Management. In the tourism department he worked closely with Nicholas Biwott . In 2001 he was appointed by Moi as a member of parliament and in the same year as Assistant Minister (Local Government). In March 2002 he was elected 2nd chairman of KANU.

First presidential candidacy

In July 2002 he stood as the candidate of the outgoing President Daniel Arap Moi for the upcoming presidential election on December 27, 2002 ; in October 2002 his candidacy was confirmed on a party basis. In doing so, Moi offended many potential non-Kikuyu candidates: George Saitoti , Raila Odinga , Musalia Mudavadi and Kalonzo Musyoka . By appointing a Kikuyu, Moi thwarted his previous anti-Kikuyu policy, which can be described as tribalism . In addition, the voters now had to choose between two Kikuyu, because the other candidate Mwai Kibaki comes from the same ethnic group, while the other large ethnic groups such as the Luhya and Luo received nothing. The Luo in particular felt cheated, as Moi had allegedly promised their leading figure Raila Odinga to run. Odinga and other KANU sizes then switched to the opposition NARC .

The presentation of Uhuru Kenyatta as a candidate for KANU was largely understood as Moi's trick to be sure after the election of the protection of the Kenyatta family and to be able to control the inexperienced man as the " gray eminence ". For his part, Moi had "protected" Kenyatta's widow, Mama Ngina. So she was allowed to stay in the old presidential palace to this day and keep her possessions. Both governments and the circles that benefit from them may have shared interests in land issues and misuse of state funds. Uhuru's “mysterious” past sparked speculation (allegedly unsuccessful studies in the US, pressure from Daniel arap Mois to political activity, excessive alcohol consumption), all of which supported the thesis that Uhuru Kenyatta was just a puppet of Mois and the corrupt establishment.

The fact that Uhuru Kenyatta was so young and had no political experience at all spoke against the candidate in a country that places great value on human maturity. For Kenyatta, the fact that he was fresh, young and thus perhaps not entangled in traditional ropes spoke in favor. His short age and his ethnicity to the Kikuyu made him an admired candidate among supporters of Mungikis . He felt compelled to publicly distance himself from the movement, which he had supported so long when it was still a social movement, with reference to his Catholicism.

Election loser

Despite the long history of KANU as a state party (it ruled for 39 years), Kenyatta lost to the opposition National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) of Mwai Kibaki , an ethnic party alliance whose primary goal it was after due to the fragmentation of the Opposition failed attempts in 1992 and 1997 to force Moi out of office. Kibaki won what was observed to be a free and fair election with 62% to 31% of the vote against Kenyatta. The fact that Kenyatta's mentor Moi had largely lost his support among the population should have contributed significantly to the clear result. But many politicians associated with the two previous governments remained represented in the new government.

Controversial opposition leader

Kenyatta accepted the loss of the election. In the context of the elections of 1992 and 1997, there were still considerable clashes with dead people and in some cases conditions similar to civil war.

He won in January 2005 in the internal party power struggle against the agitator of the Moi government, the controversial politician Nicholas Biwott , and was elected chairman with 2,980 votes to 622 from the party delegates. Biwott was so angry that he stormed out of the hall twice and in January 2006 founded his own party, New KANU . In 2005 or 2006 the KANU became part of the Orange Democratic Movement - Kenya (ODM-K) alliance .

Under Kenyatta's leadership, the relationship between his father's traditional party, KANU, with the ODM-K remained unclear. This provoked protests from those who wanted to keep the KANU and not let it merge into a larger unit.

On November 28, 2006, Biwott succeeded in a coup in the KANU by electing a new party leadership through a conference of delegates not convened by Kenyatta or the leadership of the party in Mombasa and probably registered with the help of the government and ex-President Mois. Despite loud protests on the street and in the Kenyatta registrar's office, almost the entire old party leadership was ousted and Biwott was the new party leader. At the same time, Biwott became the official leader of the opposition in parliament with numerous privileges. The Supreme Court overturned this decision on December 29, 2006, until the main decision was made on February 11, 2007. With that, Kenyatta was again party and opposition leader.

Uhuru Kenyatta is a member of Parliament. He still holds the traditional parliamentary constituency of Gatundu South, which his father had already held. He does not want to give up this seat and gain a prestigious seat in Nairobi, for example, as he announced at the rather private funeral of his grandmother Anne Nyokabi Muhoho .

Member of the coalition grand government

In the 2007 presidential election , Kenyatta did not run again, but this time supported Kibaki in an attempt to be re-elected in the PNU alliance (against ODM, the Orange Democratic Movement, under the candidate Raila Odinga). The reason given by Kenyatta was that he was not aiming for a candidacy without a chance, but only wanted to run if he saw a chance of victory. The 2007 controversial election winner, Kibaki, appointed Kenyatta Minister for Local Government on January 8, 2008. After Kibaki and Odinga ended the bloody unrest in early 2008 by power sharing, in which Odinga was appointed Prime Minister, which is not provided for in the constitution, Kenyatta was appointed Deputy Prime Minister (Deputy Prime) in the grand coalition government on April 17, 2008 Minister) and the Minister of Trade. On January 23, 2009, Kenyatta changed ministry (he became Minister of Finance), but remained one of the two Deputy Prime Ministers.

Charges before the International Criminal Court

On December 15, 2010, the International Criminal Court (ICC) was handed a subpoena concerning Uhuru Kenyatta from its then chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo . He should stand trial in court for crimes against humanity (willful killing, displacement , rape , persecution and other inhumane acts). He was accused of organizing the Mungiki Kikuyu militia during the riots in Kenya in 2007/2008 during the ethnic unrest between the Kenyatta camp in Kikuyu on the one hand and the Ruto camp, a Kalenjin, on the other . At least 1,100 people were killed and more than 600,000 displaced during the riots. Kenyatta denied all allegations. On January 23, 2012, the ICC admitted the lawsuit against Kenyatta. With him the head of civil administration and chairman of the national security council Francis Mutaura , the former education minister Ruto and the journalist Joshua Arap Sang were indicted.

The start of the process has been postponed several times. On October 8, 2014, Kenyatta appeared as the first incumbent President in person at the Criminal Court in The Hague. The charges were withdrawn on December 5, 2014 by Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda . She hadn't been able to substantiate her allegation with evidence. Bensouda stressed that the trial against Kenyatta would be restarted should evidence emerge.

Second presidential candidacy and election in 2013

On March 4, 2013 Uhuru Kenyatta ran as a candidate for The National Alliance (TNA) as part of the Jubilee Coalition together with William Ruto ( United Republican Party , URP) in the elections. After counting the votes, he came to 50.07% and thus achieved the necessary majority of 50% plus one vote with 4099 votes above the target, while his competitor Raila Odinga only achieved 43.31%. In total, more than 12.3 million votes were cast. The 2013 election followed for the first time the requirements of the new Kenyan constitution that was passed in August 2010. On March 9, 2013, Uhuru Kenyatta was officially confirmed as the winner of the 2013 presidential election by the Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission (IEBC). Due to considerable technical difficulties and alleged irregularities in the vote counting process, the result of the election was contested in court by Raila Odinga and the CORD Coalition . On March 30, 2013, the Kenyan Supreme Court upheld the election. He was sworn in on April 9th.

Elections 2017

On August 11, 2017, Kenyatta was declared the winner of the August 8 presidential election . According to the electoral commission, he won 54% of the vote, his rival Raila Odinga achieved 44.7%. Odinga refused to acknowledge his defeat and was convinced that the result of the vote had been manipulated. Odinga dismissed the advice to challenge the election result in court as "pointless". As a result, there were riots between supporters of Odinga and the police in opposition strongholds, in which at least 24 people were killed. In the end, he challenged the election result.

The Supreme Court of Kenya ruled on September 1, 2017 that the August 8 election was invalid due to various irregularities and had to be repeated within 60 days. However, on October 10, 2017, Odinga withdrew his candidacy. Kenyatta then won the election with around 98% of the vote. However, the turnout was only around 39%, compared to 80% in August. On November 28, Kenyatta was sworn in for a second term after an appeal against his election was rejected by the court. Almost two months after Kenyatta took office, Odinga was proclaimed counter-president in front of thousands of supporters in Nairobi on January 30, 2018.

literature

Web links

Commons : Uhuru Kenyatta  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Uhuru it is: IEBC declares 'tano tena' for Kenya's president. In: The Star , August 11, 2017, accessed August 13, 2017
  2. ↑ # 26 Uhuru Kenyatta & family. In: Forbes. February 2, 2012, accessed December 11, 2014 .
  3. ^ A b Niklaus Nuspliger: Case against Kenyatta discontinued: The short arm of the ICC. In: NZZ.ch. December 6, 2014, accessed December 10, 2014 .
  4. ↑ John Kamau, Ayub Savula: Uhuru's woes deepen. In: Eaststandard.net . Archived from the original on September 27, 2007 ; accessed on December 23, 2015 .
  5. ↑ Carol Gakii: Uhuru pulls out of the presidential race. Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, September 13, 2007.
  6. ↑ Kibaki recalls tainted minister. Sapa-AFP (IOL) January 23, 2009.
  7. ↑ International Criminal Court, The Prosecutor against Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta
  8. ↑ Dominic Johnson : Kenya's agitators should go to court. In: the daily newspaper . December 16, 2010, accessed December 20, 2010 .
  9. ↑ Trial of Uhuru Kenyatta. Of her own free will in The Hague. In: FAZ.net . October 8, 2014.
  10. ↑ Trial of Kenyan politicians begins. In: Spiegel Online . December 15, 2010, accessed December 20, 2010 .
  11. ↑ Thomas Scheen: Kenya's new rules of the game. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . January 24, 2012, accessed January 24, 2012 .
  12. ^ First acting President before the International Criminal Court. In: Zeit.de. October 8, 2014, accessed December 10, 2014 .
  13. ^ Statement of the ICC chief prosecutor on the withdrawal of the indictment. ( Memento of December 9, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: icc-cpi.int . 5th December 2014.
  14. ↑ Uhuru Kenyatta wins Kenya presidential election by a hair . In: CBC News . ( Online [accessed August 15, 2017]).
  15. ↑ http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/03/2013390137748204.html
  16. ↑ Kenyan election result disputed. March 9, 2013, accessed August 15, 2017 .
  17. ↑ Elections - Kenya: Court in Kenya confirms election result: Kenyatta becomes President ( Memento from April 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: sueddeutsche.de , March 30, 2013, accessed on March 30, 2013
  18. ↑ Kenyatta sworn in: Africa against The Hague. In: the daily newspaper . April 10, 2013, accessed May 7, 2013 .
  19. ↑ On the ethnically polarized outcome of the election, see Matthew Isbell: Kenya's Presidential Results Were Fair - But Its Ethnic Divide is Concerning. In: MCIMaps.com , August 18, 2017 (English).
  20. ↑ Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura: President Uhuru Kenyatta Is Declared Victor of Kenyan Election. In: New York Times , August 11, 2017 (English).
  21. ↑ Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura: Protests Rage On in Kenya After President Is Re-Elected. In: New York Times , August 11, 2017 (English).
  22. ↑ Human rights activists: At least 24 dead in Kenya by election. In: merkur.de . August 12, 2017.
  23. ↑ Kenya's opposition leader wants to go to court after all. In: Deutsche Welle . 16th August 2017.
  24. ^ Kenya's highest court overturns presidential election. In: derstandard.at . 1st September 2017.
  25. ↑ Kenya's Raila Odinga quits election re-run. bbc.com of October 10, 2017, accessed on October 24, 2017 (English).
  26. ↑ Kenya: Election Commission reports almost 100 percent for Kenyatta. spiegel.de from October 30, 2017, accessed on November 1, 2017
  27. ↑ Burke, Jason: Kenya's opposition swears in Raila Odinga as 'people's president' . In: theguardian.com, January 30, 2018 (accessed January 30, 2018).
personal data
SURNAME Kenyatta, Uhuru
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kenyatta, Uhuru Muigai; Uhuru (short form)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Kenyan politician
DATE OF BIRTH October 26, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Nairobi