So Kenya is fully committed to global treaties? What of the Rome Statute?

I was rather surprised the other day to hear National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale uphold Kenya’s commitment to international treaties and conventions.

Mr Duale was on his feet leading the assault against a House Committee report on the Westgate Mall terrorist attack, when he rubbished the recommendation that the Dabaab refugee camp in Garissa be closed down.

The garrulous Majority Leader was emphatic that there was no way the government would arbitrarily close down the refugee camps and send the inhabitants back to Somalia.

He pointed out that Kenya was a signatory to and bound to respect Geneva Convention protocols relating to guarantees of refuge and security for victims of armed conflict.

That was very rich coming from the man who is the mouth, ears and eyes of the Jubilee Government in the National Assembly.

The oft-stated position from government mouthpieces is that UN and other international conventions, agreements and treaties are colonial and imperialistic.

All sorts of characters have been despatched up and down the country to preach the gospel that Kenya is a sovereign state not bound by agreements that allegedly work against national interests.

Or, at least, the interests of our leaders who may be suffering some ‘personal challenges’ after falling on the wrong side of internal laws to which Kenya is a signatory.

Envoys have been sent globe-trotting at taxpayers’ expense to lobby other leaders on the continent for a threatened mass African withdrawal from the ICC.

Mr Duale has provided one of the most strident voices against the ICC and the trials facing President Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto.

So why has the Majority Leader suddenly realised that Kenya cannot ignore or trash international treaties?

I wonder whether his support for refugees from Somalia, who, he thinks, must be protected under the Geneva Convention, even if they are suspected to harbour terrorist elements, will extend to support for the trials facing Kenyan leaders at The Hague.

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I have always maintained that the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, the Inspector-General of Police and the Traffic Police commandant should be held personally and directly responsible for genocide and crimes against humanity out of the horrendous and totally unacceptable death toll on Kenyan roads.

My view is that they should all be hauled before the courts for criminal negligence and dereliction of duty every time a demented driver commits mass murder because the authorities have refused to enforce the traffic laws.

However, the courts now are just as culpable. Matatus, long distance buses, trucks and other behemoths plying our roads have been given the green light to go back to their old murderous ways after a judge suspended application of the new traffic laws.

Legal technicalities and the mercantile interests shouldn’t be allowed to take precedence over human life.

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Dr Evans Kidero was elected Governor of Nairobi across party and ethnic lines. Citizens felt he was the person most capable of rescuing the capital from the morass it had sunk into after years of misrule by thieving, semi-literate thugs.

He certainly was more appealing for the important office than a Jubilee candidate who would have offered only continuation of the old regime.

I can’t understand, therefore, why the governor has diverted so much of his time and resources to the politics of a region far from his county.

Dr Kidero may well want to build a strong ethnic base in Luo Nyanza as a prelude to a future quest for national leadership, but that must not be at the expense of those who elected him.

An interesting thing is the excitement his recent activity has generated amongst the Jubilee coalition crowd.

They openly say that Dr Kidero is their perfect tool to keep ODM leader Raila Odinga in check. They make analogies to the Tom Mboya-Oginga Odinga duels for Luo leadership in the 1960s.

What they do not mention is that after Mboya was used by the Kenyatta machinery to neutralise the senior Odinga, he was eliminated with extreme prejudice.

Pawns are always expendable.

[email protected] Twitter: @MachariaGaitho