The international Criminal Court in Kenyan Politics

By: Peter Qeko Jere
30/12/10

The Western back International Criminal Court has released names of those whom they think were the perpetrators of the 2007 post election violence in Kenya in 2007. A key name among them is Uhuru Kenyatta the son to the Father and founder of the Kenyan Nation, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta. In his response Uhuru who is the current deputy prime minister of Kenya said that what the ICC has done will not have any serious effects on Kenyan. However our main argument here is that the best solution to African problems is African themselves. That the Kenyan government’s stand to create their own tribunal is the best solution to effectively solving the problem and not sending the five to the ICC headquarters which is a westerner Kangaroo court created with the main purpose of humiliating African leaders and those who are key opponent of western exploitation.

To begin our argument, we need to know that the west is ever happy when African brothers takes up arms to kill each other because that way they are able to advance their agenda and have their way through into exploiting African resources even more. Africans are brothers and sisters and we have always lived in peace with each other even though we are enthnically divided. The coming in of western colonialists, created a situation where some tribes were favoured more than the others which at the end created more division and hatred amongst Africans. This resentment continued even in the post independent Africa. Its in this vain that those tribes in Africa who greatly benefited from colonialism have had more advantages than others and this has extended to the kind of politics we have in African today that basically people support the party which is born from their tribes than others. Ofcourse there has been unique instances when some tribesmen and women have defied tribalism and enthicism by supporting the party and candidates from different tribal background which is the kind of thing to be encouraged in African politics today, something which shows some sign of maturity in the way we transact our political business.
The ICC is not a genuine instrument for peace but its geared to break Africa and make it more ungovernable. Neither is involving the ICC in African problems a solution because there is no justice that the ICC can give to African leaders and African people. Therefore sending our African leaders to ICC is not a solution to African problems. African problems can only be effectively sorted out right in Africa and not sending our leaders to the western kangaroo court in the Hague. African people and African leaders at the back of their mind, wonder why African leaders should be issued with warrant of of arrest by the ICC when western former heads of states who committed serious crimes against humanity walk free. So for as long as the ICC fails to prosecute these two individual, George Bush and Tonny Blair African people and African leaders will never take them serious and as we write now, many African heads of States have some reservations when it comes to this ICC justice delivery system. They are too quick to act when its about the African people and they do nothing when its about the western leaders committing serious crime against humanity. Or maybe does it become crime against humanity when its about Africa and not other parts of the world?

Now the 2007 violence in Kenya was basically a demonstration of the tribal political conflict in the country. In as much as the ICC came to a kind of help, this didn’t mean that their findings were a final solution to the Kenyan conflicts. In this case, sending people like Uhuru and others to ICC in the Hague could make Kenya even more ungovernable and infact this court has no right to prosecute a sitting head of state in Africa. The African Union is clear on this matter and our reference point is the sitting Sudan’s President Al Bashir whom the ICC have tried to have him extradited to the Hague but they have failed. With the support of the western finances, so many NGOs which survives on western funding, have put their weight on pushing for the arrest of Al basher but Africa is not listening to them because everybody knows that they are a western puppet and they have to dance to the tune of their financiers in Europe. So the ICC and the west should know that Africa has realised that its not good to have their leaders send to the ICC. ICC is not better than the African court and infact Africa has more qualified people in law who can do a better job than the ICC itself. So we support the decision taken by Kibaki to have these five people tried in Kenya and not in the Hague. Let Africa do their own things in an African way. We have examples that in South Africa after apartheid, they came up with the Truth and Reconciliation commission where they effectively healed and united the country. In Rwanda after the Tutsi massacre, nobody was sent to the Hague but tried in Africa and the country continues in the healing process. So if Rwanda and South Africa managed then Kenya also can do likewise and the nation can be healed. What is important is to heal the nation and not to send people to the ICC to perish. Kenya need the healing process and not the ICC.