{UAH} Uhuru and Ruto should have honoured Ocampo for doing such a great job - Opinion - nation.co.ke
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Uhuru and Ruto should have honoured Ocampo for doing such a great job - Opinion
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I was rather surprised not to to find one Luis Moreno-Ocampo on the list of those awarded the Chief of the Order of the Golden Heart on the honours dished out to mark Kenya's Golden Jubilee.
I have always opined that President Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto would one day bow deep in gratitude for the exemplary service offered by the International Criminal Court prosecutor.
It was Mr Ocampo who launched the prosecution that only helped hand the Jubilee coalition duo the keys to State House.
Mr Ocampo is no longer in office, but the humiliating task of conceding that the case against President Kenyatta could not be sustained fell to his successor, Ms Fatou Bensouda.
I honestly don't see how the court will grant a request for more time to fish for fresh evidence.
Unless Ms Bensouda can put up a very persuasive argument, chances are high that the court will be more inclined to dismiss the case altogether.
I highly suspect that the case against the Deputy President faces the same fate.
The latest developments buttress the position that it would always have been much more fruitful for the two principal accused to see out the case to its logical conclusion.
Instead, they enlisted fellow leaders in the African Union to apply extra-judicial political pressure largely grounded on the proclivity of dictators to hold themselves above the law.
If the two cases are eventually thrown out, President Kenyatta and his deputy will stand vindicated, save for the niggling question of just how much alleged intimidation and threats may have contributed to the sudden amnesia and reluctance on the part of witnesses.
Meanwhile, the impending collapse of the cases seems to have spurred the Jubilee leadership to embark on a purge.
Former President Moi perfected the art of sending out hirelings to launch tirades against leaders targeted for the chop.
In the early years of his reign in 1978, he and powerful Attorney-General Charles Njonjo manufactured the Ngoroko fable to provide the excuse for an assault on the Kiambu Mafia.
Then in 1983 it was Mr Njonjo's turn to be despatched, and the traitor-msaliti bogey was created.
Come 1988, Vice-President Mwai Kibaki who had enthusiastically helped see Njonjo off, was consigned to a similar fate.
Barely a year later, the main beneficiary of Kibaki's exit, Vice-President Josephat Karanja, was sent packing, accused of being the 'kneel before me' politician.
Always it was a motley bunch of loud and garrulous politicians primed and funded to execute public assaults, the likes of Kariuki Chotara, Kuria Kanyingi, Shariff Nassir and David Mwenje.
That brand of politicians seems to have faded into extinction, but it seems that Mr Kenyatta learnt well at the feet of his political mentor, but applied it with digital tactics.
That is the only conclusion I can draw from the amazing assault launched by State House staffer Eric Ng'eno against unnamed senior officials allegedly sabotaging the government from within.
From his presidential campaign period, Mr Kenyatta was obsessed with controlling the message. Therefore an official who carries the title Director of Speech-Writing and Messaging would not have the leeway to express personal views on such an explosive matter.
He can only be acting with official imprimatur unless he is courting the sack.
I just wonder why in this day and age, such extraordinary plots have to be hatched if the President wants to sack senior civil servants who hold no political clout of their own.
Or might he be delivering a message from Mr Ruto's restive ethnic half of the coalition?
* * *
Two unrelated events took place in different parts of the country on Saturday. In Nyeri County, departed freedom fighter and patriot Waruru Kanja was buried.
In retired President Moi's backyard in Baringo country, a once-famous goat auction was revived.
The funeral in Nyeri was the celebration of a man who survived the colonial hangman's noose to carry on the war for liberation into independent Kenya.
Mr Kanja was lauded as a great nationalist who resisted the call to ethnic loyalties and chose to serve Kenya rather than a few eating chiefs.
The other event in Baringo was a reminder of the Nyayo era. The return of the goat auction was a reunion of tribal chiefs and their politics of exclusion.
It was a confirmation of the Moi-era prophecy that Kanu would rule for 100 years. No prizes for guessing which event the Jubilee coalition leadership chose to grace.
mgaitho@ke,nationmedia.com
http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/-Uhuru-and-Ruto-should-have-honoured-Ocampo/-/440808/2123126/-/12q80i4z/-/index.html
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