Two Kenyan Cabinet ministers may be charged with treason for remarks suggesting the East African nation risks a coup if a proposed new Constitution is approved by voters, a senior government official said on Tuesday.
Police are now collecting evidence against the pair, Roads Minister Raila Odinga and Environment Minister Kalonzo Musyoka, who have warned of a possible coup if the draft charter is passed in a November 21 referendum, the official said.
”We are gathering evidence,” the official told Agence France Presse on condition of anonymity. ”We don’t want to take people to court and then have them bailed out because we don’t have enough evidence.”
”Time is on our side, there is no time frame on treason charges,” the official said.
The comments came amid rising fears of widespread unrest in the bitterly contested referendum campaign that sparked deadly weekend violence when opponents of the new Constitution clashed with police in western Kenya.
At least four people were shot dead in the town of Kisumu on the shores of Lake Victoria on Saturday as police battled rioters attempting to stop a rally by ministers who support the draft.
Police on Monday charged 51 people in connection with the Kisumu unrest, the first violent incident in the campaign to have claimed lives. All pleaded not guilty.
Scores of people have been wounded in referendum-related clashes during the increasingly violent run-up to the referendum which has split President Mwai Kibaki’s government.
Odinga and Musyoka oppose the draft because it retains near absolute powers in the office of the president despite popular demands for significant authority to be devolved to a prime minister and is almost impossible to amend.
Last week, they said the charter’s rigidity could leave Kenya, which has been regarded as an island of relative stability in volatile East Africa, open to military coups, the remarks for which they are now being probed. – AFP
