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GAITHO: I don't want my leaders to be misled into becoming international fugitives - Opinion - nation.co.ke

By Macharia Gaitho
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It was gratifying to see Deputy President William Ruto ignoring his 'misadvisers', and going back to face his accusers at the International Criminal Court.

One hopes that come November 12, President Kenyatta will take his place in the dock after similarly ignoring misadvise from all manner of sycophants, as well as from fellow African Heads of State for whom justice, human rights and democracy are alien concepts.

However inconvenient and humbling the experience may be, the President and Deputy President will be much better off cooperating with the international court than getting sucked into empty chest-thumping histrionics based on newly-discovered nationalism and pan-Africanism.

Do Kenyans want a president and a deputy president who are fugitives from justice, or who have outstanding questions over their heads related to the killing of 1,133 Kenyans, rape, looting, arson and ethnic cleansing?

Some will argue that the extraordinary African Union Summit in Addis Ababa at the weekend gave President Kenyatta and Deputy President Ruto all the cover they need to defy the ICC. But the fact remains that compliance cannot be reversed without the risk of provoking arrest warrants.

If such warrants are issued, they will not be in the names of the collective African Union leadership or any of the individual dictators, thieves and tyrants urging defiance.

Arrest warrants will not be in the names of the Kenyan people or the Kenyan Government. They will not be in the names of Foreign Secretary Amina Mohamed, Majority Leader Aden Duale or any other leader.

Neither will they be in the names of motley activists, hecklers or mercenaries; including that fellow from Uganda David Matsanga, who dispensed his dubious wisdom to mass murderer and wanted fugitive Joseph Kony and now somehow has become a key adviser within the Kenyatta court on matters ICC.

People want leaders they can be proud of. They want leaders who are not afraid of justice and who can confidently face their accusers and demonstrate that they cannot be guilty of such horrendous crimes.

President Kenyatta and Deputy President Ruto — and nearly forgotten co-accused Joshua Sang — have already been advised by their lawyers that while they are free to engage in political manoeuvres in the streets, in Parliament, at the African Union, and at the United Nations, defying the court would be unwise.

The two-track strategy — applications in court and political pressure from the outside — may well be legitimate, but the only worthwhile gains will be those won legitimately in court or through UN Security Council reprieve.

The important thing is that due process is followed instead of crying out against an allegedly foreign institution that we forget has been domesticated in Kenyan law.

It will not be by declaring a national and continental imperative what the President clearly told us was a personal challenge. It will not be voting for the ICC and then turning around to cry foul.

It will not be by conning us that if elected while indicted, governance will not suffer, and then turning around to declare that one must remain in the country to fulfil constitutional duties.

In other words, this flip-flopping and constant shifting of goalposts impresses no one but the converted.

All the rest of us want is justice. We want our President and Deputy President to defend themselves in court against what looks like a limping case. We don't want them misled into seeking martyrdom as fugitives and turning Kenya into a pariah state.

Winning temporary reprieve through the AU and UN, and then living with the stigma of whether they did or did not do what they are accused of is not in anybody's interest.

Finally, that nonsense from our Foreign Secretary and the AU leadership about sitting Heads of State being immune to prosecution: We dispensed with the President being 'above the law' fakery a long time ago.

In any modern jurisdiction where a sitting president cannot be tried, then convention and the law usually holds that on being charged, one must vacate office.
Is that the message?

mgaitho@ke.nationmedia.com

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