AFRICAN-UNION SHOULD NOT MISLEAD UHURU KENYATTA OVER HIS CASE AT THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT Alexander K Opicho (Eldoret,Kenya;aopicho@yahoo) There is a political and social aura of Kenya quitting the Rome statute obligations.These feelings are very evidend in the Kenyan public atmosphere .However, these are the feelings rooted in politics of tribal democracy, tribal sentimentality and and impugnity that comes with the public office.This feelings are only redolent of national consciousness in tribal perspective .They are not patriotic feelings that reflect Kenya in toto. They don’t reflect that type of Kenya that has victims of political violence and suspects of the violence at the hague. Indeed they are only socially and politically skewed feelings. The truth of the matter is that; If Kenya pulls out of Rome statue which established the ICC then procedural consequences on the case facing president Kenyatta and his two accomplices will turn to become dramatic. African heads of state and governments who are meeting in Addis Ababa for two days should be sober and consciousness enough not to mislead Uhuru Kenyatta over his case at the international criminal court. Their deliberations over future of Africa ties with the court should borrow substance from history of political violence in Africa, should consider the facts on political abuse of human rights in Africa , value of meta governance ,value of global governance and umpteen sham political moves in Africa that heve been executed in the name of testing and proving African political sovereignity.The sovereignity which must be expunged from full measure of itself to a tentative and regulated position. Facts in ralation to Kenya and I CC must contradict the position taken by Kenyas presidential mouthpiece , Manoah Esipisu who displays colourful diplomatic skills when talking about Kenya and the Hague-based International Criminal Court.Who often have eguivocally stated that there had been no attempt to win support for Kenya ahead of the special African Union summit being held in Addis Ababa on Octobre 2013. Another version of Esipisu’s diplomacy is in the words that; ‘But Kenya was and is very happy to have the opportunity to discuss such an imperative matter for the African continent.’ This is a lie , there is no Kenya which is happy of debating over the issue of withdrawing from Rome statute Kenya is simply comfortable with being a signatory to the Rome Statute.And especially this is in tune with the Kenyan spirit of democrace,good governance and rule of law.First technical consideration is that discussing Kenya and the ICC in reference to president Kenyatta’s case is unlawfull.It amounts to an international crime covered under the subjudice rule otherwise commonly known as the court contempt.Therfore the African Union should discuss poverty and failure of democracy in africa not the case of president Uhuru Kenyatta.The position taken by Esipisu are mere understatements. They resemble in content to shuttle diplomacy that took place in the days leading up to the summit where the Kenyan government despatched emissaries across the entire continent to drum up support for its anti-ICC position. The radical stand taken by 11th partisan Kenyan parliament which has ever since voted in favor of withdrawing from the ICC is only self-serving. The arguments of this parliament is that the ICC is biased against africa. But in a contradistinction,the fellow African ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda asserts the court is not biased against Africa Politics played by the political class in Africa at contemporary time is mostly divorced from the African poor and rights of the African poor . This is so because ,Just like in Kenya, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda has often accused Western powers in their practice of international politics to be using the ICC as a tool for installing leaders of America’s choice in Africa and eliminate those that America dont like. Similar criticism also emanate from Ethiopia, Rwanda and partially from Tanzania. These three countries have a misleading supportting for Kenyas plans to pull out of the ICC. The African National Congress (ANC) descibes role of ICC in Africa as agent of judicial coups. ICC is used more to effect regime change in the majority of the African cases. Looking at the above allegations it can de deduced that, one of the problems of African politics is collective misunderstanding of sovereignity.In fact values that come or go with sovereignity need to be expunged from African political civilisation.Empirical Sovereignity in Africa means powerful political class and powerless masses .Even the struggle to pull Kenya out of the Rome statue is for the purpose of preserving comfort of the political class not boosting democratic levels for the Kenyan poor. The poor are for ICC but the political aristocrats are for themselves.There are factual resources available in support of this are that afew African leaders condemnation ofI CC on allegations of prejudice is both false and true. It is false in this juncture if we adduce the observation of the African ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda who has consistently rejected the charges that the ICC is prejudiced against Africa. As a Gambian herself Fatou points to the facts that five of the ICC 21 judges, including the courts vice president, are Africans. Africans of the blood and Africans of blacskins not indians,arabs or europens from Africa. It is also true that they are Africans who are currently the accused in all eight cases currrently before the court. But it was mostly the African countries themselves who in guest for justice called on the ICC to open legal proceedings in cases concerning human rights violations that were politically perpatrated in ;Ivory Coast, Uganda, Kenya, the Central African Republic, Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo.Like Congo which experiencienced extensive raping of young girls,boys and women. Personally as an African and a Pan Africanist, I go with the position of Georges Kapiamba, president of the Congolese Union for the Defense of Human Rights (ASADHO, Association Africaine de Défense des Droits de lHomme),who argues that African countries and the African union now have a special responsibility and moral duties to quash the rumor that the International Criminal Court is biased against Africa. Kenyan political class who are now leading the groups of ICC critics must also give the way forward in redressing the plight of 2007/8 post-election violence victims ,when it is so evident that Kenyan political class refused to settle this in the countrys own courts. The anti-ICC attitude of many Africans has been intensified by commercial and diplomatic tricks shown by China and Russia . These countries are indifferent to the ICC. Similarly ,the USA has no respect for the court . There is also a strong feeling in Africa that the court should have also been dealing with the US, British and Israeli human rights violations in the Arab world. In a similar tandem, Solomon Dersso from the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Addis Ababa Ethiopia, Posits that the origins of the differences of opinion between the AU and the ICC lie in the horrendous Darfur crisis. At that time the AU attempted to negotiate a diplomatic compromise between the parties and the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Sudans President Bashir. Alexander opicho is a social researcher at sanctuary reserachers in Eldoret,Kenya and a lecturer Research Methods in governance and leadership
Posted on: Sat, 12 Oct 2013 13:39:07 +0000
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