The Standard on Sunday
Date: 15.09.2013
Page 16
Article size: 303 cm2
ColumnCM: 67.33
AVE: 154866.66
ICC is not for the three,
our conscience is on trial
Ababu Namwamba
n a mwam baatigtn a i I .com
It is a fatal condemnation
of fifty years of horrific
impunity and disdain for
the rule of law. For fifty
years, we have entrenched
the belief that impunity
pays better
For fifty years we have paid lip
service to nationhood while
of
carving ethnic fiefdoms and
elevating tinpots to tribal dons...
local tribunal a toss of "the
untrusted known or the trusted
to protect "our own" in the harsh
unknown"...Vague vs Hague! We
have now evolved this chilling
hyper suspicion of any judicial
jungle that is the Kenyan State.
decision at variance with our
Little wonder that even ICC
expectation.
prosecutor Fatou Bensounda has
built her case along the natural
Kenyan fault­lines of tribe against
The trials are a deserved sharp
rebuke of our leadership, a tacit
tribe. It is a fatal condemnation of
fifty years of horrific impunity and
afflicted by a chronic trust deficit.
No one trusts anyone. We could
confirmation that we are a nation
disdain for die rule of law. For
not even trust ourselves with the
or Duruma. Victim or ac­
fifty years, we have entrenched
cused. Whatever your po­
the belief that impunity pays
fabled Waki envelope.
Every cycle of national
leadership since independence
has failed to dry the streams of
tribal animosity, forge national
"* ubileeorCORU. Kalenjin
litical affiliation, ethnic
much better than fidelity to the
extraction, sentiment or
rule of law. This belief is the
emotion. If you are Kenyan,
and you have any sem­
stream that nourishes the serpent
of impunity, which has squeezed
hlance of a conscience... you cannot
help but feel a searing sense of na­
us dry of any sense of what is
tional shame.
just and right; sucked us empty of
our ability to be shocked, awed or
The image of the Deputy
President of the Republic taking a
plea on the worst crimes known
in criminal jurisprudence; the
prospect of the Commander­in­
ashamed; shortened our memory
to wart hog levels; and dulled our
capacily for moral outrage. When
trust or exorcise the demons of
impunity. While Julius Nye re re
was fostering a strong sense of
nationalism across the diverse
ethniciries of Tanzania, Jomo
Kenyatta was sowing seeds of
toxic tribal jingoism. As Ghana
makes admirable progress in
some skunkhead of a driver
burying a legacy of coups and
Chief of our Defence Forces in
smashes dozens of school
entrenching a culture of credible
the dock in a faraway land; the
children to smithereens, we shake
democratic practice, we seem
hunted demeanor of our
our heads in fleeting horror, then
life goes on.
journalist fighting terrifying
charges in the blinding glare of
global media.
The spectacle of Members of
Parliament in panic­mode
scampering all over in a sham­
Do we even remember the
price of the 2007­8 pogroms,
subject of the ICC drama? Well,
Statute. Scenes of elected leaders,
flag in hand mumbling words of
reminding that ethnic xenophobia
our national anthem on the cold
has disturbed Kenya's soul every
streets of a foreign jurisdiction. It
matters little whether you are pro
electoral cycle since the return of
or ami­ICC. This whole show
shames us all. It is a damning
unraveling of everything we have
got wrong for fifty years... curious­
And in 1997, no finger lifted,
f hen the 2008 implo­
sion, but who cares! Den
Haag typifies a stinging
indictment of fifty years
of systematic collapse
jubilee! It is a severe trial of fifty
years of our puerile stone­age
tribal bigotry. For fifty years we
of our state institutions.
have celebrated the tribe above all
Tribe over justice. Tribe over
merit. For fifty years we have
stolen, raped, pillaged and
perverted the course of justice...
then taken refuge in the tribe.
Writer is Budalang'i MP and
Chair of Parliament's Public
political pluralism in 1991?
Innocent lives and property were
wasted in 1992, we did nothing.
ly unfolding in Kenya's year of
else. Tribe over country.
character and conscience.
just 1,133 dead, 3,561 injured,
663,921 displaced...only! And, oh
yes, the little risk of die country
almost going banana. Who wants
bolic bid to torpedo the Rome
determined to regress.
No, it is not just three Kenyans
on trial in a faraway foreign court.
On trial is our very national
For decades, we com­
promised the sanctity of our judi­
cial edifice, clogging the corridors
of just ice with the filth of graft and
incompetence, reducing justice to
a commodity pawned to the high­
est bidder.
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