From: Mugo Muchiri
Los Angeles, CA

The die has been cast and its signature emblem is April 7-8, 2011. These are the days when the Ocampo Six – Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto, Francis Muthaura, Henry Kosgey, Hussein Ali and Julius Sang – are required to report to the Hague in response to summons issued by the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber II.

A preliminary examination, it appears, was all it took for the three-panel bench to conclude by majority vote that the ICC prosecutor’s evidence was sufficiently damning, or had at least exceeded threshold, to warrant the suspects’ personal appearances before it to answer charges of crimes against humanity.

Life wasn’t supposed to turn out this way. With the exception of Mr. Sang, all were high-rolling heavy hitters in government; all enjoyed extraordinary perks of high office achieving what only one or two in a million Kenyans ever live to enjoy: Chase cars, bodyguards, lavish official homes, frequent overseas travel, hefty salaries including all manner of allowances and accommodations, not to mention the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape and implement policies that have a bearing on the lives of millions upon millions of Kenyans, from finance and agriculture all the way to security and industry. Indeed Kenya has been VERY GOOD to them. The question is, Were they good to their homeland?

According to recent surveys, about 4 of every 5 Kenyans think the answer is an unequivocal ‘No!’ The Ocampo Six, they say, need to be tried at the Hague in order to put an end to the flare-ups of violence that have accompanied each electoral cycle since 1992. The ruthless and well-orchestrated use of targeted violence on innocent Kenyans needs to be put to a decisive end. There are not many things Kenyans overwhelmingly agree on being the pluralistic people that we are. This is unquestionably one of them.

Someone recently asked me if the Hague trials will be Kenya’s passport to the Civilized World? Will they be the red card that’s being flashed at Impunity, that ominous culture that was sired by Kenya’s founding father, President Jomo Kenyatta, and has been cradled and nurtured by every single leader of significance since? Will a more equal society ensue, allowing Kenya a calibre of leadership that leans more towards a Barack Obama’s national-interest driven singularity? Will issues great national import see the light of day, having their play in the arena of public discussion instead of in stuffy backrooms of kitchen cabinets?

Not too long ago, activist Ann Njogu joined a glitterati of human rights activists from across the globe at the US State Department in Washington DC where Secretary of State Hilary Clinton honored them for their valiance in advancing the cause of human rights in their respective countries. Will Ms. Njogu be able to give a statement at a police station and not have to be visited by indignities on her person?

Let’s say that I’m optimistic that within this generation, Kenyans will live to bear testimony to a more even society where the application of the law doesn’t vary depending upon your wealth circumstance or family influence. And whereas we may not quite be at Israel’s level – recall that their former President just received a harsh sentence for the rape of a female associate while he was Tourism minister – we have every reason to be sanguine about our future prospects as a nation.

I sincerely hope that the Hague trials will have an added personal benefit to each Kenyan in the sense that it allows each one to think about the following issues:

· Why do people kill, maim, rape and dispossess their fellow human beings?

· How could friendly neighbors be so easily turned into killing machines?

· Is the promise of cash enough to tempt you to slay another?

· What is the value of human life?

· Do poor people not have human dignity and God’s grace?

· How does a churched / templed / mosqued population so easily forget that teaching that man is created in the image of God; that our bodies are His temple, and that “as you do to the least among these, you do unto me?”

· Where is that receptacle of knowledge that forever guides man’s behavior only in the evolutionary, life-supporting direction?

· What is it that can so blind a man that he fails to see innocence even as children and women run in terror before one’s very eyes?

· What is that force that brings a man to lift machete upon his brother?

· What can bring a father (leader of nation for example) to order soldiers to open fire and kill his children (fellow wananchi)?

· What veil is it that closes our eyes to the consequences of our actions especially when we know that one of the most important behavioral injunctions to mankind is ‘Thou shalt not kill’?

· Where is the seat of lust for power and influence?

· How can I gain perfection in mind, body and behavior so that all my actions will be completely in accord with Natural Law, the will of God?

In conclusion, catastrophes, calamities and other events that cause massive suffering, dislocation and loss of life are never random events that lie outside the purview of mankind. When the people in society violate the laws of nature mostly by doing injustice to the innocent, they produce stress in the collective atmosphere of society and create the ground for future suffering. Nature can tolerate tension in the atmosphere until the farthest limits of its elasticity are reached. Then the outburst occurs.

We have to be careful as humans to not cause tension to increase in our lives because in doing so, we plant the seeds that will erupt in our faces at some future period. This is why I advise every Kenyan to learn the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique and the TM-Sidhi program to develop invincibility for themselves, for the nation and for the world.

I thank the world for having founded the International Criminal Court (ICC); I’m grateful to Luis Moreno Ocampo for giving a voice to the millions of voiceless Kenyans who are ignored by their government as a matter of routine. There can be no doubt that the image of some of Kenya’s most powerful people being hauled before the ICC to answer these very serious charges will cause powerful people in Africa to be circumspect, certainly measured in their actions on their fellow citizens.

If I were in Kenya today, I would plant a forest for the ICC to commemorate their actions which will loosen the noose on common folk everywhere in Africa. A forest is an appropriate symbol for it removes the nastiness from the environment, breathes life into the atmosphere and nourishes all in its surroundings. With particular reference to the trial of the Ocampo Six, the ICC is not entirely dissimilar.

But ultimately the responsibility for creating a healthy, vibrant, lawful country lies with you and me. Nothing can ensure better times for you personally, and for your country by extension, that spending 20 minutes morning and evening in a process that allows your mind to transcend the finest level of relative life and experience pure, unbounded Being in terms of your own inner Self. And so, from the son of Ndunge, it’s keti gumu and LET THE ICC GAMES BEGIN.