Mall attack aids Kenyatta’s stature

Until the Nairobi mall carnage, Uhuru Kenyatta was a beleaguered and divisive president. But his own bereavement and new clothes as commander-in-chief have earned him fresh support and, some say, a “get out of jail free card” for the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The deadly Sept. 21 raid on the Westgate Mall brings new challenges to the government, which now has to explain why it failed to act on repeated warnings and find ways to thwart future attacks. But Kenyatta himself, who lost his nephew and his fiancée in the siege, has showed mettle that won him support beyond his tribal constituency. “I did not vote for him but I have to say he showed real strength and determination. I was proud,” said Alex Odhiambo, a young taxi driver, said the day after Kenyatta announced the end of the siege.
“This attack has been a tragedy for him too and people across the country have been impressed that his ability to govern was not affected,” said Mwalimu Mati, who heads the government watchdog Mars Group Kenya. In his speeches to the nation during the crisis, Kenyatta spoke of his loss, called for national unity and vowed to punish the perpetrators. “Whether the security operation was well handled or not has not yet been laid at his feet. He sent the right signals, looked in control. Presidential,” said Mati.
Not only has the 51-year-old scion of Kenya’s founding president earned his stripes, he is now likely to enjoy better support than usual from his traditional enemies. As the country held its breath while the drama unfolded inside the mall, Kenyatta strove to cast himself as the leader of all Kenyans and not just the champion of his Kikuyu tribe’s interests he has often been seen as. The ratings agency Moody’s said it was not all doom and gloom on the economic front either. It said it expected the attack to “galvanize a broader mandate and dull the international and domestic political effect” of Kenyatta’s impending trial at the ICC.
Uhuru, which means “freedom” in Swahili, was due in The Hague in November to face charges of crimes against humanity over the deadly tribal violence he is accused of having stirred after a disputed 2007 presidential election. The Hague refused to postpone his trial after the attack but observers say he will be in a much stronger position to argue that he is now the guarantor of Kenya’s unity and that the country needs his leadership. With a string of key witnesses retracting or being compromised in dubious circumstances, the ICC case against Kenyatta and his foe-turned-deputy William Ruto had already been losing steam.
Kenya is one of the main purveyors of troops to the African force propping up the pro-Western government in Somalia and battling Al-Shabab insurgents.
When Kenyatta argued before the attack that Kenya could ill afford an absentee president, it was a somewhat academic argument. Now he has a strong reason to ask for leniency.

• Agence France Presse