ICC man’s views untimely but, keep an eye on the warmongers

The Jubilee Party has been presented a golden opportunity to recreate the enemy that so united and galvanised its campaign last time around.

This was after senior International Criminal Court lawyer Anton Steynberg was quoted as saying that the collapsed cases against President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto could be revived if a new government assumes office after the General Election in August.

FLAWED CASES
If he, indeed, spoke as reported from a symposium on international justice in Arusha last week, he must be a living embodiment of why the ICC fares so dismally in almost every prosecution it launches.

Mr Steynberg acknowledges that the Kenyan cases launched by then ICC prosecution chief Luis Moreno-Ocampo, and continued by his successor, Fatou Bensouda, were fatally flawed and doomed to abject failure.

HINDRANCES

True, there are valid concerns about State interference, withholding of cooperation, and intimidation and elimination of witnesses.

However, those now amount to mere excuses as the ICC knew from the very beginning that it was up against a powerful and well-organised state machinery that would do anything to frustrate the cases.

The ICC should have made sure all bases were covered before prematurely rushing to court with half-baked evidence.

POST-ELECTION VIOLENCE

If the cases against Mr Kenyatta, Mr Ruto and the rest of the ‘Ocampo 6’ were dead on arrival, they absolutely cannot be exhumed simply because an ICC-friendly regime takes office.

That was an unfortunate and extremely careless statement, and, in the political context, very unwise.

The ICC cases had served to re-unite Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto, who were on opposite sides of the divide at the disputed 2007 poll that precipitated the post-election violence.

ANTI-ICC SENTIMENTS

The coalition they built successfully exploited the ICC indictments to whip up emotive support in their respective ethnic bastions and deliver a successful election campaign.

Jubilee would, therefore, welcome any opportunity to rekindle the spirit of anti-ICC sentiments, and, of course, accuse the opposition National Supper Alliance presidential election pair of Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka of being mere hirelings of neo-colonial forces.

It is easy to see why governing party stalwarts like National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale and the usual crop of Jubilee social media terrorists so gratefully seized on Mr Steynberg’s reported comments.

JUSTICE FOR VICTIMS
Those comments being so untimely does not, however, change the fact there are thousands of post-election violence victims still crying out for justice.

Will there ever be closure in the killing fields of Uasin Gishu, Nairobi, Naivasha, Kericho, Kisumu and elsewhere without justice and institution of a genuine peace and reconciliation?

For too long, we in Kenya have allowed impunity to reign because we refuse to punish criminals.

WARNING

Whether it be political assassinations or the mass murder or programmed ethnic cleansing, we shout with outrage and then conveniently decide that we don’t need to reopen old wounds.

And then another conflagration comes along because the perpetrators know there will be no punishment.

The ICC cases may have collapsed, but they must still serve as a powerful warning to those who may wish to launch another round of bloodletting.

Let us be reminded that criminal actions have no statute of limitations, and that we are all still subject to international justice institutions.

Nazi-era war criminals are still being sought and prosecuted today, more than 70 years after the end of the Second World War.

ETHNIC CLASHES
We have now been reminded by dangerous utterances in Eldoret town and its environs that the peace dividend promised by the Uhuru-Ruto alliance was a false dawn.

It was a political accommodation between individuals that at best achieved a cease fire, but failed to seek a lasting solution to the ethnic-political pogroms endemic in that part of the country.

If there had been a real peace, we would not be seeing the resurgence of threats targeted at specific communities if they did not vote a certain way.

A genuine peace cannot be built on blackmail and threats of violence and expulsion.

PROSECUTION

We must, therefore, keep alive the reminder that where the compromised local justice mechanisms fail, the vulnerable will look to international institutions for protection.

It must be emphasised, however, that justice can only be built on professional and effective investigations and prosecution, and not the political inclinations of a regime in power.

[email protected] Twitter: @MachariaGaitho