From: otieno sungu

Yesterday, one daily screamed its headlines, Poll Chaos Murderers and rapists to walk free. It was a declaration too hard for victims to swallow. Now, the task force formed by Mr. Keriako Tobiko, the Director of Public Prosecutions to review the matter of prosecuting poll suspects, returned the verdict that there is no evidence to try 8869 cases of suspects who killed, maimed, raped and destroyed property.

This is in the backdrop of government’s concerted efforts to bring back the ICC cases to be tried locally. We all know that over 1600 Kenyans were killed in 2007/08. We buried them, The President attended a memorial service sometime later in their memory, if I am not wrong, a mausoleum was erected or proposed in their honor.

We all know that over 500,000 people were displaced and some are still living in IDP camps. The government has spent millions of tax payer’s money resettling them. We have heard hundreds of individual accounts of victims of post poll rape in various forums.

Today, I do not want to write on behalf of the IDPs, victims of rape, maiming and those who lost property. The government seems to believe they have a weak case and thus they should try harder and build stronger cases.

I want to confine myself to the case of the dead, those who were killed by the marauding mobs that the government claims it cannot ascertain. I want to speak for the dead because they cannot come back from their graves to build their cases. I want to speak for them because the constitution guaranteed them the right to life and the government has an obligation to protect that right.

It is not the burden of dead victims of crimes that infringe on fundamental human rights such as the right to life to prove their cases. This responsibility lies with the government, especially where murder has occurred. It is very callous of this government to throw up its hands and declare it cannot do anything to apprehend the killers. The government machinery from the NSIS, CID and police are capable of investigating and finding these killers. These killers did not come from Mars, they are fellows within our society, people who were captured on camera hacking fellow Kenyans, burning their houses, pulling them out of vehicles and slaughtering them. These are gangs that were caught on camera, without hoods or balaclavas; brandishing machetes, bows and arrows, spears, some even transporting guns in vehicles. These people did not commit these crimes in the dead of the night; they were operating in broad daylight, in many cases right next to contingents of armed police officers.

Various institutions such as the Kenya National Commission for Human Rights documented some evidence. The NSIS must have reports of what transpired before, during and after the elections with regard to the violence. Meanwhile, the government wishes for victims, among them the dead to come out and build credible evidence.

If this government cannot find the killers, it has no moral authority to continue in office. The oath of the President is that of protecting lives and property, protecting the constitution which guarantees the fundamental rights and freedoms, among them the rights to life, free speech, association, owning property, exercising ones choices during elections.

This latest developments is further proof of the governments preoccupation with protecting the perpetrators of post poll chaos at the expense of victims. It all boils down to political will. Neither side of this coalition government wishes to bring to justice the architects of the heinous crimes. It can only mean one thing; major players in this government are themselves the perpetrators. A government worth its salt cannot claim that out of over 1600 murders, 500,000 displacements, hundreds of rape and maiming cases, in all this, it is only capable of convicting a single perpetrator whose case a victim successfully provided evidence.

This is an affront of the people of Kenya, it is an affront on the rule of law and definitely, an affront on the oaths our leaders took. If anyone still has any doubts that we expect suspected perpetrators to prosecute themselves, we are a deluded lot of a people.

This is what all Kenyans must stand up against.

Otieno Sungu.
The writer is an online civic educator and an environmental activist.

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