Kenya must be allowed to heal, reconcile and look into the future with hope without being dragged into the past, President Uhuru Kenyatta has said.
Expressing his joy following the collapse of the cases against Deputy President William Ruto and Joshua Sang at the ICC, President Kenyatta said the country’s focus now shifts to consolidating peace, progress, stability and unity.
“Peace, progress, stability, health, education and opportunity for our young people now be should be our focus, our goal and objective,” said President Kenyatta, who was accompanied by First Lady Margaret Kenyatta.
He added: “Kenya has been vindicated. We said the truth will eventually surface. And today the truth has surfaced.”
President Kenyatta emphasised that Kenyans must be given space to work together to ensure justice for the 2007-2008 post-election violence but history should not be allowed to prevent them from achieving the country’s development goals.
“Justice is not by achieved by doing injustice another Kenyan. We must get justice but not through a second injustice,” President Kenyatta said.
He said Kenyans are capable and have already done a lot to heal and reconcile.
“We want to be left alone to continue on our path so that we can focus on our true objectives as a nation,” the Head of State said.
Noting the unity exhibited by Kenyans living and working abroad, the President challenged the Kenyan diaspora to spread the same spirit back home.
“You have the ability to best exemplify what it means to be Kenyan, to break the boundaries of ethnicity and religious intolerance because while you are here you all see yourselves in terms of Kenyans not individuals from different tribes,” President Kenyatta said.