After
IMF
Ignores Kenya
Question for 3
Days, It Says
Doesn't Deal
with
Individuals
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
January 26 --
Hours after
the
International
Criminal Court
in the Hague
on January 23
confirmed
charges
against four
of six
Kenyan
officials for
crimes against
humanity
during the
post-election
violence,
Inner City
Press formally
asked several
International
Monetary Fund
spokespeople
to "state how
this ICC
indictment
changes the
ways in which
the ICC will
engage with
this finance
minister,"
Uhuru Muigai
Kenyatta.
Given
past IMF
stonewalling,
on questions
ranging from
IMF financing
of Dominique
Strauss Kahn's
forays to the
place of human
rights if any
in its
decision-making,
after
submitting the
Kenya question
to the IMF,
Inner City
Press made
the question
public, here
and on
Twitter.
Three
full days
went by
without the
IMF stating
its position.
On Thursday,
Kenyan
president Mwai
Kibaki
e-mailed out a
statement that
"the
president has
accepted the
decision by
Uhuru Kenyatta
to step aside
as the
minister for
finance."
Kenyatta
is,
however,
remaining on
as deputy
prime
minister.
While this was
a post
created in the
2008 deal, the
partial
resignation
impacting only
the
Finance post
implies that
Kibaki felt
that someone
-- the IMF? --
would not have
dealt with the
country
through
Kenyatta.
Inner
City Press
on Thursday
morning
reiterated its
question of
Monday, by
e-mail
before the
IMF's biweekly
online
briefing and
through the
Fund's
"Media Center"
during the
briefing.
While not
having
acknowledged
Inner City
Press' formal
and public
question
on January
23, on January
26 IMF deputy
spokesman
David Hawley
took the
question
from another
publication --
and dodged it.
Hawley
said the
IMF has no
comment, it
has relations
with
"governments,
not
individuals."
This
is a dodge.
The IMF is
ostensibly
part of the UN
system; while
the UN could
say
it deals with
governments
not
individuals,
it has a
stated policy
that it will
deal with
ICC-indictees
only "as
necessary."
How
can the IMF
deal with
governments
except through
people? And
what is its
policy?
IMF's
DSK, rocket
and Kenyatta:
IMF doesn't
deal with
individuals?
Inner City
Press before
the embargo
expired asked
the IMF:
a
follow up for
deadline on
your Kenya
answer: what
is the IMF's
policy
on dealing
with
government
officials who
have been
indicted for
war
crimes or
genocide when
they have not,
as here,
resigned?
please
explain why
the question
when I
submitted it
on Monday was
never
answered or
even
acknowledged.
And the Sri
Lanka
questions, and
the
ones of last
briefing:
On
Sri
Lanka, what is
the IMF's
response to
Central Bank
Governor Ajit
Nivad Cabraal
statement on
January 3 that
Sri Lanka will
seek a fresh
“follow up or
surveillance
program” with
the IMF as the
$2.6
billion loan
obtained in
2009 is
reportedly due
to expire
early this
year? What is
the IMF's
thinking on
Sri Lanka's
failure to
fully meet
the budget
deficit
targets and
its refusal to
devalue the
rupee?
On
Ukraine,
what if the
relation
between that
country's
negotiations
with Russia on
gas prices and
the IMF
resuming
talks, after
Ukraine
passed the
bankruptcy
legislation it
said the IMF
wanted? Etc.
Watch
this site.
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