{UAH} Standard Digital News - Kenya : Is President Yoweri Museveni genuine with his anti-ICC position?
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Standard Digital News - Kenya : Is President Yoweri Museveni genuine with his anti-ICC position?
By Daniel Simotwo
Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has been leading a tirade against The Hague based International Criminal Court ( ICC) by African leaders, and has not shied away from accusing the court of targeting African leaders, as part of a racist plot by former and present imperial powers to colonise Africans again in the 21st century.
Yet ironically, most of the witnesses against Kenyan leaders have passed through Uganda or are living in safe houses in Uganda and Tanzania.
The latest episode involves the Eldoret-based journalist Walter Barasa to whom theICC has issued a warrant of arrest over accusations of bribery of witnesses.
Barasa and a witness he is said to have passed through Uganda and actually lived there for some months.
Other witnesses have also been reported to be in Uganda or passed through Uganda on their way to better destinations.
When Museveni cries with Kenyan leaders, is he shedding genuine tears, or is he pushing Kenya to make wrong moves that will see the country ostracised by the global community? Uganda is a landlocked country and has to rely on Kenya to access global markets. It is therefore understandable that Uganda would naturally be concerned about the type of government Kenya boasts.
For a number of years, Museveni was a darling of western powers, and was crucial in furthering western interests in the Great Lakes region. This was evidenced by US President Bill Clinton's visit to Uganda in 1998.
Since then the fortunes of Museveni with western powers has been nose diving mainly due to the end of most conflicts in the Great Lakes region, and his own authoritarian management of Ugandan internal politics.
Museveni has always been wary of a Kenyan leader emerging to become a darling of the West, a position former Prime Minister Raila Odinga was set to achieve had he been president, which would have shunted Museveni into the periphery.
Museveni has been quoted in a number of media urging President Uhuru Kenyatta not to honour the summons to appear before The Hague, as this would be a humiliating experience for a sitting African president and an assault on the country's sovereignty.
Museveni knows as all those following this matter that if Kenyan leaders were to defy theICC, then there are bound to be detrimental consequences.
The embrace of succor from Museveni over theICC issue may be a poisoned chalice whose effects would become clear in the years to come.
Daniel Simotwo, Political Science Lecturer and PhD student in Peace and Conflict Studies
http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000094985&story_title=is-museveni-genuine-with-his-anti-icc-position
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