Let’s choose peace over justice in ICC case

The UN Security Council will soon decide on an application by Kenya to have the prosecution of six Kenyans named by International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo deferred for 12 months.

Both Britain and the US have given little hope that they will support Kenya’s application, which is backed by the African Union and China.

Who is the ICC? The court established under the Rome Statute is not, in fact, a global international entity, such as the United Nations, for example. The US, Russia, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, and most south Asian countries are not members. Less than 25 per cent of the world’s population are members.

The Rome Statute is a creation of European states who are essentially the former colonisers of Africa — Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal — and its agenda is imperial. It is a tool for legal interventions and regime change, where deemed necessary in Africa.

Military interventions, monetary structural adjustment programmes of the 1980s and 1990s, the aid and hand-outs, as well as strategic support to dictators like Mobutu Sese Seko of the former Zaire, or more recently Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, have all become unsustainable, hence the latest new idea; legal interventions in the guise of criminal law enforcement by the “international” community.

But before we were colonised, we in Africa knew how to live. Even now, we should be free to choose how we want to live. In our current predicament about the post-election violence, we can choose peace ahead of justice.

We have made this choice before — at independence when Jomo Kenyatta preached a doctrine of “forgive but do not forget” what the colonisers and their loyalists had done to us.

South Africa chose peace ahead of justice for the victims of apartheid. In Northern Ireland, after 30 years of religious-based violence, the people chose peace ahead of justice.

Those who had been convicted and jailed for murder and bombings were given amnesty and released. Those suspected to have panned, financed, and perpetrated criminal activities were also pardoned. All charges against known criminals were dropped and peace has prevailed.

Kenya can make a similar choice. The ICC should not make that choice for us, nor stop us from choosing that route.

It is our right to debate loudly, so long as we can tolerate the noise, even from the NGO types who shout loudest for and on behalf of the ICC.

We know where they get their funding from, so we understand and sympathise with our NGO brothers and sisters when they sometimes fail to see the bigger picture.

It is our right to choose how we go forward following the historic passing of a new Constitution. We owe it to ourselves to try a fresh new start. We can and should prioritise peace ahead of justice.

In the street fight of Kenya versus the Rome Statute, I root for Kenya!

Mr Ngugi is a public policy consultant. Email: kiriro@lobbyingassociates.com