KENYA CONUNDRUM: What if two alleged war criminals, inciters of ethnic warfare became President and vice president of Kenya?
• By Chido Nwangwu, Founder & Publisher of Houston-based USAfrica multimedia networks since 1992, first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the internet USAfricaonline.com
@Twitter.com/Chido247, Facebook.com/USAfricaChido n Facebook.com/USAfrica247
USAfricaonline.com: The complicating twists of the Kenyan presidential elections of March 2013 will get more interesting with the background of a war crimes trial this summer, May 2013 of the likely
winners of the hotly contested votes.
The first accused is Uhuru Kenyatta who draws from the name recognition and nationalist legacy of his father, the great founding president of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta. Kenyatta has served as Kenya’s finance minister while his running mate and second accused war criminal is William Ruto. Ruto served as higher education minister.
Kenyatta who is facing war crimes charges — for fueling very violent ethnic killings of thousands in Kenya’s elections 4 years ago — at the International Criminal Court had some news of relief as the ICC moved his appearance-trial to July 2013.
USAfrica notes that the presiding ICC judge Ekaterina Trendafilova ruled that: “The chamber found that the prosecutor has established substantial grounds to believe that the crimes against humanity of murder, deportation or forcible transfer and persecution were committed.” She added that “These crimes resulted in the death in the deaths of hundreds and displacement of thousands of civilians.”
WHich leads me to the first critical question: What if two alleged war criminals and inciters of ethnic warfare became president and vice president of the east African country of Kenya?
My second question: would a President Uhuru Kenyatta as Commander-in-chief of Kenya submit and continue to cooperate with the International Criminal Court?
My third question: what if they beat Odinga’s team, get sworn in and are found guilty at the world’s war crimes court? Would President Kenyatta and Vice President Ruto resign as Kenya’s leaders to subjugate the mandate of Kenyans to serve any sentence?
What if….?
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Re: KENYA CONUNDRUM: What if two alleged war criminals, inciters of ethnic warfare became President and vice president of Kenya? By Chido Nwangwu, Founder & Publisher of Houston-based USAfrica multimedia networks since 1992, first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the internet USAfricaonline.com
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The possible scenarios would include the following actions:
• The newly elected President and Vice President would immediately repudiate Kenya’s signatory to the International Criminal Court documents. They would justifiably argue that ICC was created by the super powers to keep third world countries in their supposed proper place.
They would assert that the invasion of Iraq involved wide spread acts that rose to human rights abuses and crimes against humanity: killings of hundreds of thousands of civilians, destruction of Iraqi antiquities, looting of Iraqi treasury etc and that nobody has or is being prosecuted for war crimes.
They would reference the invasion of Libya and the killing of Moammar Khadafy by combined forces of Libyan rebels and NATO forces and the killing of ordinary Libyans. They could assert the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan and the use of drones to kill innocent civilians; they could go further and remind the world of Israeli actions in the West Bank and Gaza. The list could be very long on this part of the ledger. On the other side of the ledger they would demonstrate the number of African Leaders and other poor countries that have or are being tried by ICC for what by the standards of Iraq and Afghanistan could be considered minor crimes. If they present their case strongly they would receive wide spread support.
• They could claim sovereign immunity. As Heads of State they represent their country and could not be prosecuted by any country as that would amount to the trial of their country. Under this scenario their trial would have to wait until they have served out their terms. While in office they could try to perpetuate their stay through various parliamentary maneuvers including election rigging and constitutional amendments to the constitution. They could also govern so well that their countrymen would love them and revolt if any efforts are made to prosecute them even after their terms might have ended.
These would be the most predictable moves. The opposition might want them to surrender their electoral victory and proceed to The Hague for trial. The possibility of this is so remote that it is not worth pursuing. They would never do that.
The other possibility would be for powerful international armed team (Special Forces) to go into Kenya and get them out of the country while they are in power. This would cause such a huge international conundrum that even USA may be opposed to such an action.
Therefore the answer to Mr. Nwangwu’s question is rather simple: if they win (The first accused Uhuru Kenyatta and second accused William Ruto) they would be free for the next decade and possibly for life.
The concept of an International Criminal court was a great idea that got wasted when some countries placed themselves above international law. It will be a good idea if countries like Nigeria would cease to be part of this court system until ALL countries are brought within its jurisdictions.
So long as ICC is another instrument of neo-imperialism, ‘third world’ people would not see it as a mechanism to limit man’s inhumanity to man.
Benjamin Obiajulu Aduba
Boston, Massachusetts
baduba54@aol.com
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There are 3 perspectives I will like to keep in mind while waiting for the outcome of the elections before addressing your interesting and thought provoking question. Here’s my approach at the moment:
1. War – especially in Africa – has almost always being without internationally acceptable rules of engagement.
2. Politically motivated accusations are known tools used sometimes to contain the opponent.
3. The international community (though an inclusive community) ironically may be too far from knowing the truth of the allegations and occurrences in Kenya.
Keep this trend open until the final result. It is worth discussing and presents some lessons.
Emmanuel Eyo
Los Angeles, California
eyobobo@aol.com
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The ICC’s expected trial of the indicted politicians Kenyatta and Ruto will be good for the
Kenyan people. They might stand to gain, at last, for good governance in their nation! They will check and balance each other for better. Ho! Ha!!
Abrahamụọgụ Aṅụsịobi Madụ.
Houston, Texas
abraham.madu@yahoo.com
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WHO WINS KENYA’S VOTES?
At the all important item of vote count, things took another turn Thursday as the lead held for two days by Uhuru Kenyatta of the Jubilee coalition was increasingly cut by the late surge of votes for the CORD alliance presidential candidate Raila Odinga.
Odinga, son of the late and famous Odinga Odinga, is the current prime minster of Kenya.
The early surprising lead by Kenyatta and the issues with vote counts and other problems made Odinga’s VP aspirant Kalonzo Musyoka and other CORD leaders to demand that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) of Kenya to halt the counting of votes, alleging they were being “doctored” and rigged by Kenyatta’s group.
He said “There has been a total failure of the electronic vote transmission system and we have evidence that the results we are receiving have actually been doctored.” Shortly after the allegation, IEBC chairman Isaack Hassan dismissed it as unfounded.
USAfrica reading of the vote tally shows that even with Odinga’s surge — at the time of this report, early Friday morning March 8, 2013 in Nairobi and almost 11pm Thursday March 7 in Houston, Texas, Kenyatta is set to win the elections but seemed to be, electorally, forced to go into a run-off. Kenya’s constitution requires making, at least, 50 percent of the votes.
On the outspoken roles of embassies and monitoring groups, Ruto said that “We know for sure that certain embassies have had positions with respect to this election… We are very concerned that there is a lot of canvassing by people who should not be participants in this process and we expect that their role be limited to being observers.
