Kenya swears in Uhuru Kenyatta as president after an election that avoided the bloodshed of five years ago, but left Western nations with the challenge of how to deal with a leader indicted by the International Criminal Court.

    UHURU KENYATTA, the son of Kenya’s founding president Jomo Kenyatta, ascended to the country’s top office Tuesday during a jubilant celebration that began a new era in Kenyan politics, one that forces the United Sates and Europe into a diplomatic balancing act.

    The United States and Europe had hoped to avoid having Kenyatta to face International Criminal Court (ICC) charges. Kenyatta, 51, faces charges of crimes against humanity for allegedly helping to orchestrate the vicious tribe-on-tribe violence that marred Kenya’s 2007 presidential election.

    The United States has said a Kenyatta win would have “consequences,” though many analysts think the effects will turn out to be minimal given that Kenya is the lynchpin of East Africa’s economy and is a major security partner, especially in the fight against Somali militants.

    “I want to salute the Kenyan voters on one other issue — the rejection of the blackmail by the ICC and those who seek to abuse this institution for their own agenda,” Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni — who spoke on behalf of a dozen African leaders in attendance — told the boisterous crowd.

    “They are now using it to install leaders of their choice in Africa and eliminate the ones they do not like,” he said.

    Incoming Deputy President William Ruto — who also faces ICC charges for the 2007-08 violence — noted that he and Kenyatta won in the first round of voting despite the U.S. warning.

    Kenyatta repeated words he said after the election commission first named him the winner.

    “I assure you again that under my leadership, Kenya will strive to uphold our international obligations, so long as these are founded on the well-established principles of mutual respect and reciprocity,” Kenyatta said.

    The United States and European powers had said they would send ambassadors to attend Kenyatta’s inauguration ceremony — a level of representation diplomats said was still in line with their position of having only “essential contacts” with indictees.

    It is part of a delicate balancing act that seeks to retain a policy of limiting contacts while avoiding driving east Africa’s biggest economy closer towards China and other emerging Asian powers that have been gaining influence on the continent.

    “They find themselves in a very difficult position,” said Kenya expert Daniel Branch at Britain’s Warwick University. “My sense is everyone will find some method of accommodation.”

    Sitting alongside the Western envoys were a dozen African heads of state as well as prime ministers and other top officials. China and India, neither signatories to the statutes that set up the ICC, sent senior government officials.

    But Western ambassadors at the stadium on the outskirts of Nairobi were saved one awkward moment. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is charged with genocide in The Hague and now faces an arrest warrant for not cooperating, did not attend the ceremony.

    The pageantry stood in stark contrast to a rushed ceremony closed to the public five years ago to swear in President Mwai Kibaki, whom political opponents accused of stealing the 2007 vote. Those suspicions set off weeks of tribal violence that killed more than 1,000 people.

    It is that violence — and Kenyan leaders’ refusal to deal with it — that brought in ICC investigators. Kenyatta denies the prosecutor’s charges that he helped orchestrate the violence and has pledged to cooperate with the court. His trial is scheduled to begin in July.

    Kenyatta’s lawyers have asked that the charges against him be dropped after the court in March scrapped charges against another Kenyan suspect charged as a co-conspirator.

    Many Africa analysts have said they doubt the case against Kenyatta will go forward. What witness, a popular refrain goes, will be willing to testify against a sitting president in charge of the nation’s security forces?

    Al-Bashir is the other sitting African president facing war crimes charges. He is accused by the ICC of genocide and war crimes for violence carried out in the western Sudan region of Darfur, and the court has issued an arrest warrant for him.

    Kenyatta, a graduate of Amherst College in Massachusetts, has pointed to his experience as finance minister to show off his economic stewardship and readiness to rein in excess.

    As finance minister, he suggested ministers and high-ranking officials downgrade their vehicles, which played well in a nation with a huge gap between rich and poor. However, some critics said the alternative vehicle he proposed was not put out to open tender.

    “My record at the Ministry of Finance is there. When it comes to the issue of transparency and openness in government which is one of the key pillars in our manifesto, my record speaks for itself,” said Kenyatta before the vote, striking the defiantly defensive tone that was a keynote of his campaign.

    He beat seven other presidential candidates with 50.07 percent of the vote. That slim margin over the needed 50 percent was challenged by Raila Odinga — who got 43 percent — and civil society groups that complained of myriad anomalies in the voting process. The Supreme Court upheld Kenyatta’s win after nationally televised hearings.

    Kenyatta made his way through a list of promises Tuesday — improved health care, more schools, and pro-business policies. He also spoke of the need to reconcile tribal grievances.

    “We will not settle for a perfunctory peace that is disrupted every five years by an election cycle. Rather, we are calling and working towards a permanent peace, through which democracy is glorified rather than undermined. A peace that fosters unity,” he said.

    Even as thousands cheered the day’s celebrations, some in the crowd had Kenya’s past violence on their mind.

    “Kenyatta should put reconciliation as his priority. He must make sure we come as one nation,” said Ndungu Kariuki, a 35-year-old engineer who was at the ceremony. “The charges against Uhuru are framed. I was affected by the postelection violence and I know what happened. Kenyatta will be free.”

    “I am excited because I am coming to witness the swearing in of a new president and his deputy,” said Newton Githaiga, a Kenyan resident. “Normally in any election people are split, but in a few months people will be together. Kenyans should be reconciled because as a divided people we cannot go far.”

    (SD-Agencies)