May justice be our defender at The Hague

What you need to know:

  • Collective memory: The hellish and chilling events of 2007/2008 must not be used to find martydom

“The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice.”  Martin Luther King Jr.

The Hague debate has been so dominated by raw emotions that little regard has been paid to some fundamentals at the heart of this grave matter. But with the confirmation hearings now underway in the serene sanctum of Pre-Trial Chamber II of the ICC, some reflection would do the country lots of good.

Let us start with the contrasting mystic woven around what the media has branded “the Ocampo Six”. To some, the six have come to be viewed as the devil incarnate, summarily condemned as criminals that must be confined to Siberia unto eternity. To others, they have acquired the aura of martyrs sacrificed at the altar of political expedience. Both views are grossly misleading.

For starters, no one really is on trial, yet. What commenced last Thursday is what you can term a trial of evidence. The court is weighing the evidence to determine whether it is sufficient to sustain a full-blown trial. That ruling will be on the weight of the evidence, not the guilt of the suspects.

And so even if the matter were to proceed to trial, the six will remain innocent until proven otherwise. Some or all could be cleared. It is therefore premature to condemn any of them.

But it is also callous for the suspects to deliberately manipulate public sentiment by turning The Hague into some political platform. What could possibly be heroic about being suspected of the worst forms of crimes known to humanity? How does any sane person find “martyrdom” in the chilling circumstances that led us to The Hague?

Remember those hellish images of smouldering corpses in Eldoret’s razed Kiambaa church, of poor mzee Ndege, face aflame, wailing helplessly as his entire family was consumed by flames behind doors locked by merchants of death in Naivasha? No, let us not soil the venerated titles of “martyr” and “hero” and the memories of those who rightly earn them.

Amid this tumult, it sure must baffle just how short the collective Kenyan memory can be. And like we have done before with our history, there are already attempts to re-write the script with deliberate mutilation of fact. This must be fought hard. We must accurately record and intimately appreciate why and how we got to The Hague. And the script is quite simple really.

Because of factors that we must unravel, our country came to the edge of the precipice in the aftermath of the hotly contested 2007 polls. In the end, 1,133 innocent lives were wasted; 3,561 were injured; 663,921 were displaced. These statistics are not from Hollywood, Nollywood, Bollywood or Afrocinema.

They are cold hard facts verifiable by graves, scars and miserable IDP camps that indelibly blot the conscience of our nation.

Blazing motherland

To rescue the blazing motherland, Kofi Annan helped fashion the Serena Team, which included William Ruto, that crafted the Agenda Four package as insurance against a repeat of the Armageddon.

The package included the Waki Commission that went on to investigate the post-election pogroms and offered a reasoned remedial roadmap. It is the Waki Commission, not some political leaders, that prepared and handed Annan the list of suspects that informed the ICC process.

But remember Waki offered the country the opportunity to handle this matter locally.

It is just amazing how people can somersault so casually from position to position. The very fellows who today blame their supposed rivals for taking them to The Hague are the same ones who noisily chorused “Don’t be Vague, let’s go to The Hague” even as we frantically tried to establish a local tribunal. I recall President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga pleading with Parliament to act responsibly and save our nationals from the ignominy of ICC trials.

Raila Odinga literally shed tears on the floor of the House as he exhausted his cache of persuasion. But even the indefatigable Tinga lost this battle to those keen on The Hague, the same ones who now blame him for taking them there. I know, because I was there and debated gallantly.

Thank God the Hansard records of Parliament captured these debates. When we all eventually sober up, may we become honest and accept the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Whatever the case, this journey must end in justice, by guaranteeing all suspects a fair trial and assuring the victims of justice not only being done but being manifestly seen to have been done.

The suspects should take comfort in the knowledge that The Hague is the best place to prove their innocence, while victims must be confident that the ICC offers the surest route to closure. Because this is not some village Kangaroo court that can be manipulated at the whims of some political warlords.

This is also a grand opportunity for Kenya to bury impunity in the the tomb of eternity. As envisioned by our national anthem, may justice be our shield and defender even at The Hague.

Ababu Namwamba is the Budalang’i MP. Email: [email protected]