Kenya Should Have Both ICC And More Independent Courts. On every important national question one must speak, take a position and stand up to be counted or it will be said, when one’s voice was needed, one never spoke. In this country, people were called upon to decide between independence and colonialism. We call those who stood for independence heroes and those who stood with colonialism traitors. After independence people were also called upon to make a choice between democracy and dictatorship. We call those who stood for democracy second liberation heroes and those who stood with dictatorship traitors. Now Kenyans are being called upon to choose between ICC and justice or injustice and no ICC. On what side am I? Though many young men and women were not born when dictatorship reigned in Africa after independence, some of us still remember the hell Africa was when Kanu one party dictatorship killed thousands, detained hundreds and terrorized the whole country, when military and civilian dictators killed 800,000 in Uganda, 1million in Rwanda, 2 million in Sudan, 1 million in Somalia, 4 million in the DRC, 2 million in Nigeria, 20,000 in South Africa, 1million in Angola, 50,000 in Liberia and hundreds of thousands in other African countries. The one most important reason why all these people died in Africa was because, African dictators were above the law, could not be removed from power and were not accountable to courts that could punish or stop them from perpetrating whatever crimes against their people and countries. As a remedy for these catastrophes that were not confined to Africa but had also killed millions in Germany, Yugoslavia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Argentina, Chile, East Timor and elsewhere, international community decided to establish a world court that they called ICC or International Criminal Court and whose primary responsibility was to hold leaders to account when they perpetrated crimes against humanity, mass murder or genocide against their own people. Kenya became a member of ICC voluntarily because Kenyans never wanted to suffer again the horrors of dictatorship or mass violence that they perpetrated against one another after elections of 2007. Knowing our courts are not independent and strong enough to render justice or hold leaders to account if they commit crimes, when President Uhuru, Deputy President and four others were accused of perpetrating or organizing the post election violence, parliament voted for these Kenyans to be tried by ICC instead of a local tribunal of international standards that they refused to establish. As ill fate would have it, our leaders preferred ICC to a local tribunal not because they wanted to get but escape justice. Not sure they can escape justice from ICC our leaders now want the international court to terminate cases against them and Kenya to withdraw from ICC so that no other Kenyan president would ever be prosecuted in an international or local court. But without prejudging President Kenyatta, Deputy President and Joshua Sang all who are entitled to release if they are innocent, Kenyan leaders must not throw the baby out with the bath water by seeking withdrawal of Kenya from ICC as if accused Kenyans were taken to the ICC by force, ICC was established only to find Kenyan leaders guilty or Kenyans are in The Hague because of ICC, not their own misdeeds. The truth is whether Kenyan leaders are found guilty and jailed, or innocent and set free, Kenyans will continue to need ICC because danger of dictatorship coming back to mass murder, perpetrate genocide and terrorize Kenyans is not over. Of course, supporters of Uhuru and Ruto will say they are democrats that are popularly elected and cannot perpetrate dictatorship, genocide or mass murder against Kenyan people. But if Kenya withdraws from ICC, Kenyans will lose protection not just from a dictatorship by Uhuru and Ruto, which is not unlikely, going by sycophancy of their supporters, but also from the dictatorship of other leaders. ICC was not established to just prosecute Uhuru and Ruto but any dictator. In fact ICC was not just set up to prosecute dictators but also dissuade leaders from becoming dictators and perpetrating crimes against their people through fear and knowledge that if they attempted to perpetrate dictatorship and murder, ICC is around to rescue of people. People’s protection by ICC should therefore not be lost through Kenya’s withdrawal from ICC merely because Kenyan leaders desire release for President Uhuru and Ruto. When one listens to those who are calling for an end of ICC, one fears that their real desire, apart from seeking the freedom of Uhuru and Ruto, is to remove threat of ICC from leaders who want to re-establish dictatorship in Kenya, with complete impunity against prosecution by ICC or a local court which they are not promising to establish as a substitute for ICC. If withdrawal of Kenya from ICC will therefore usher the advent of a second dictatorship in Kenya, let Kenyans be forewarned that, as the Kikuyu proverb says, the disease that returns is the disease that kills. Kenyans cannot and will not reestablish dictatorship without dire consequences. Young Kenyans will not escape punishment if they refuse to read history, take its lessons and avoid dictatorship that Kenya has already suffered from but which now seems to mesmerize and hypnotize them as a killer python does a dog before swallowing it live. Whatever Kenyans do, they must make or change law for collective good, not individual interests and must always put collective above individual interests. Kenyans will earn freedom and justice by keeping ICC and establishing independent local courts as its substitute, not by killing ICC while local courts are already impotent with political emasculation.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 12:19:46 +0000
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