{UAH} Pojim/WBK: Celebrate end of case, but remember the real victims crying out for justice - Opinion - nation.co.ke
|
11:11 AM |
No comments |
Celebrate end of case, but remember the real victims crying out for justice - Opinion
More by this Author
It is a pity that in withdrawing crimes against humanity charges against President Uhuru Kenyatta, International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda would not bow out gracefully.
Instead of simply conceding that the case she inherited from Mr Luis Moreno-Ocampo was fatally flawed, she came out with a long statement that blamed the accused rather than the inept investigation and prosecution.
President Kenyatta feels rightfully vindicated by the turn of events at The Hague, as no doubt do millions of his supporters, but on the other side will be just as many who might argue that President Kenyatta was not declared "not guilty". They might agree with Ms Bensouda that the case collapsed because his government refused to cooperate with the court.
They will also argue that witnesses were bribed and intimidated into recanting their testimony or simply — to employ peculiar Kenyan terminology — promoted to higher glory.
Ms Bensouda promised to keep pursuing the case and is at liberty at any point in the future to launch fresh charges. That might seem like a tall order given the paucity of credible information linking President Kenyatta to funding and organising Kenya's descent into bloody post-election violence, but that is the threat still hanging over the President's head, and it might not go away for quite a while.
In the meantime, the ICC will still remain of great interest to Kenyans because the second case against Deputy President William Ruto and radio presenter Joshua Sang is still playing out.
Outside the courtroom, the Kenyan government will continue to apply political and diplomatic pressure at the international level.
We can expect in the coming year heightened campaigns for the remaining Kenyan cases to be dropped, just like President Kenyatta's was.
There is no doubt that the ICC has suffered a bloody nose and there may well be more sympathetic hearing around the world for reform of a broken international judicial mechanism that has lost a great deal of credibility. At the end of the day, however, it should be instructive that President Kenyatta won a great moral victory by winning his battle in court rather than through political pressure.
The President winning his freedom does not remove the great blight in his administration we all prefer to close our eyes to: justice for victims of the post-election violence.
President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto adroitly turned things around to pose as victims of the ICC, but the real victims who were burnt alive, decapitated, defenestrated, butchered, massacred, and run out of their homes still cry for justice. The perpetrators remain free among us, confident that they got away with terrible crimes and that they can do it again.
PRETENTIOUS UHURUTO ALLIANCE
The alliance between President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto pretends that it was about peace and reconciliation, but the truth is that it was about validating mass expulsion from the Rift Valley, sanctifying the programme of ethnic cleansing driven by the Kanu regime from 1990.
Mr Raila Odinga ranks high in the pantheon of freedom fighters in Kenya. He was a stalwart in the fight for liberation from the dictatorial kleptocracy of the single-party regime, and certainly stands head and shoulders above anybody else in the quest for the just and democratic society we all enjoy today.
As Prime Minister in the former Grand Coalition government, Mr Odinga demands equal billing with retired President Mwai Kibaki. And as leader of the opposition Cord alliance today, he would naturally see himself as the equal counterpart to President Kenyatta.
Mr Odinga was inexplicably considering a run for the Homa Bay Senate seat. A place in the Senate would have given him a formal political platform from which to lead the opposition and also help infuse stature, prestige, and relevance to a House that has been reduced to a sterile debating chamber.
However, it would have reduced him greatly. He would no longer be President Kenyatta's counterpart, but would have been kept busy duelling with the likes of senators Mike Sonko, Kipchumba Murkomen, and Kithure Kindiki.
He owes a debt of gratitude to those who persuaded him to abandon the quest.
mgaitho@ke.nationmedia.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment