Reports Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City
THOUSANDS of Kenyans who watched the live television coverage from the court room when the “Six Ocampo” suspects made their first appearance before he ICC judges last Thursday and Friday to be told of the impeding criminal charges against them hired the leading teams of lawyer from the UK and Canada.
IT was indeed puzzling that when two of the six suspects, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and the suspended Minister for Higher Education and the MP for Eldoret North William Samoei Arap Ruto, made an appearance before the ICC judges they had their leading lawyers hired from foreign countries of Great Britain and Canada.
When the gongs proved to be too tough for the erstwhile chest thumping and arrogant Kenyan politicians with Luis Moreno Ocampo, the ICC prosecutor was not mincing his words about the evidence he will be adducing to the court, they run to foreign lawyers for help instead of engaging local Kenyans lawyer who are equally highly competent.
This is so, because prior to the trip to the Hague, the two politicians and their troop soldiers, comprised a number of hired MPs, while criss crossing the country had told a series of rallies called to drum up tribal and ethnic support against the ICC trials, had faulted the Prime Minister Raila Odinga for having suggested that Kenya should source its new Chief Justice from a commonwealth country to hold the office temporarily during the judicial reform process.
Odinga had also suggested that Kenya should invite a competent team of police investigators from a reputed and credible police force like the FBI to carry as thorough investigation on pending cases of post election violence.
For the political expediency and in order to gain cheap political mileage, Kenyatta and Ruto came out with their blasting guns and accused Raila Oding of advocating o a neo-colonialism system rule in Kenya after nearly 49 years of independence and yet the country had enough experts to handle its own affairs without resorting for expertise help from foreign countries.
Kenyatta and Ruto said Odinga was calling for foreign help because he had no confidence on Kenyan qualified personnel and local experts on these fields. And even the highly respected former First Lady Mama Ngina Kenyatta while offering prayers and blessing to her son Uhuru and his newly found political friend in amorphous alliance under the so-called KK tribal outfit had chided at the foreign whites for having caused her family a lot of suffering over 59 years ago, and were still out to disturb her people.
Surely, how comes within only two weeks after the two had made the most highlighted remarks about hiring of foreign experts as suggested by the Prime Minister Raila Odinga, the two now turn up and the umbrella of foreign lawyers, the so-called Queens Councilors. Did they mean that Kenya had no legal experts they should rely on? Or these remarks were just simply empty political slogans and common political gimmicks?.
The last week’s first appearances of the Ocampo Six” before the ICC judges at The Hague had exposed President Kibaki government to its most severance criticisms for allegedly spitting on the old wounds of the victim of the politically motivated post-election violence of 2007 and 2008.
Civic society leaders, from Kenya who were in attending a conference at The Hague at the material time said they were not clearly amused by the manner in which Kenyans MPs had taken over the ICC court in showing the solidarity with their colleagues.
They said, in a statement presented to the conference, that both the MPs and the government of Kenya had clearly demonstrated that they lacked concern about the victims of the violence, the majority who lost their loved ones and those still languishing in the Internally Displaced Persons Camps {IDP} in a very inhuman and degrading conditions.
The civic leaders said the MPs supporting the suspects have never been so vocal on the concerns of the victims whom they represent.
“The government and politicians must stop spitting on the wounds of the victim; no political statements, rallies, cheering squads or ethnic balkanization can bring justice to the victims,” they said in a statement read out at the entrance of the ICC buildings in The Hague last Thursday.
Human rights activists made the statement before Uhuru Kenyatta, Francis Muthaura and Mohamed Hussein Ali appeared before the court last Friday. They included Human Rights Commission of Kenya’s Esther Waweru,COVAW’s Lydia Munyiva,Kituo Cha Sheria’s Martin Ouma, International Center for Policy and Conflict’s Kasiva Muli, ICJ’s,Stella Ndungu and ICTJ’s Christine Alai all of them lawyers in Kenya.
The group chided the government of Kenya for allegedly pulling out all stops to derail the post=election violence cases. The Inadmissibility challenge, they added, is another attempt by the government to impede accountability efforts. It is ell calculated to derail the ICC process.”
“It is alarming that the government of Kenya has chosen to stand on the side of its allies expending resources through futile diplomacy shuttle diplomacy to pursue deferral of the cases, an intention to provide time and resources to the suspects and now an application challenging the ICC jurisdictions after all avenues have been closed.” says the statement faxed back home to newsmen in Kenya.
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