Ocampo Six: What is true and what is not

Never before has so much anxiety and tension been generated by so few at the expense of so many and on the back of insinuations, innuendo and downright lies.

Never before has a search for justice for so many been so vilified and demonised by so few suspects as to turn the entire country into a tinderbox.

When the Ocampo Six left for The Hague, you would not have known they were headed to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Indeed, you would not have known that they could face charges of masterminding rape and murder, arson and looting. Those are heinous crimes indeed.

When the six return to the country tomorrow, they are likely to be received by a huge crowd, the kind you would expect to greet returning or homecoming national heroes.

From the speeches that will be made, you will not know that the sextet may yet be accused of the said vile crimes.

Supporting casts

In rallies that were held before their departure, two suspects and their supporting casts deliberately and determinedly, and without restraint or caution, rallied their communities behind them, warning that you were either with them or against them.

With friends like these, peace-loving Kenyans need no enemies.

What is true and what is not? Please, come with me.

• That post-election violence was caused by calls for mass action by the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM): A call for mass action is not a call for mass murder.

Demonstrators heeding the mass action call, who commit murder or rape, must be held accountable for their actions irrespective of their party affiliations.

• That The Hague process is about the 2012 presidential elections: It was Parliament which rejected attempts to legislate for formation of local processes to try those suspected of masterminding the post-election violence.

Parliament took the Ocampo Six to The Hague;

• That ODM is influencing The Hague process: Not a single shred of evidence has been adduced to prove this claim. If there is, it is a godsend. Making it public will expose ODM and the PM and consign them to the political graveyard instantly.

• That the ICC is a colonial-style kangaroo court: When you make your bed, you lie in it. Parliament made our bed for us. The people we have to share that bed with are worse than colonialists. They include one Joseph Kony who chops off the hands, ears and noses of children.

But, even more important, it should be made clear that the ICC is an instrument of the United Nations and Kenya is a member of the UN and a signatory to the Rome Statute which operationalised the ICC.

We were not forced into ICC and, like the United States, India, China and Sudan, we could have refused to sign on.

• That Kenya is not a failed state and so it can try its own in its internationally recognised courts: Fact. We are not a failed state. By our failure to set up local processes to try our own despite repeated prompting, we unwittingly handed over the responsibility of trying our own to the ICC. The Hague did not come to us, we went to it.

• That some politicians are celebrating the debacle of the Ocampo Six: Of course. The political arena is a veritable shark pool. The wounded are devoured by their kind. Make no mistake; if the Ocampo Six are out of the 2012 equation, they will be replaced immediately in their backyards.

• That the Ocampo Six are innocent: They are innocent until proved guilty. None seems to understand that better than Mr Henry Kosgey who remains dignified in his silence and considered responses to the ICC. You are innocent guys, so take it easy. Finish with ICC and come back home and pick up the pieces.

Dead and displaced

• That the government is committed to getting justice for victims of post-election violence: Unfortunately the dead and displaced from and by post-election violence and who number in the thousands, are never on the radar of the highly voluble and visible politicians; and,

• That it is Raila Odinga who is the enemy of the Ocampo Six and not the Luo: Perhaps. But this statement ignores the ethnic dynamics of our politics.

When some cultural attributes are publicly celebrated and others demonised or audiences told to unite against a hyena who fishes, our diversity becomes an adversity.

Good people, enjoy the remaining hours of peace and quiet fully. The Ocampo Six return on Monday.

Kwendo Opanga is a media consultant [email protected]