From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste in images
THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2013
Despite that the case against President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto is of serious concern, I concur with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni that International Criminal Court (ICC) is blackmail to Africans, even though not necessarily as he says for the purpose of imposing their own agenda for the type of leaders they want.
Although in the Kenya case, Museveni did not refer directly to Raila Odinga, the former prime minister of Kenya, and Mr Kenyatta’s long-term political opponent as the one ICC wanted to impose to Kenyans, the fact remains that ICC is indeed hurting Africans.
That is why Africa and the ICC do not get along very well. This is a problem for the ICC considering that all their investigations are centred on African countries and all their suspects are African men.
A fact that has led the African Union (AU) to get tired of grappling against the ICC’s perceived racial and colonial biases, of ignoring ICC arrest warrants that are not politically expedient and of losing all control of the judicial process.
It explains why the argument that the court is politically motivated in singling out African leaders was taken up by defense attorney Courtenay Griffiths at the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor earlier this year.
According to Griffiths ICC is a form of neocolonialism that must be rejected by Africans. This is based on the fact that ICC has shown its bias in its trials. Currently everyone being tried or awaiting trial at the International Criminal Court are from Africa. That is why Africans must have the reason to be disturbed by this.
It also explains why, unless the heads of African states will create courts or can create courts to punish crimes within their country, even crimes that offend everyone of us as members of the global community, unless they do that, the rest of the world should simply butt out.
At the same time it is very unfortunate that thirty-one of Africa’s 53 nations are signatories to the Rome Statute establishing the court’s authority. That is nearly one-third of the countries where the ICC has jurisdiction.
Against the background that I am proudly to state that Uhuru and Ruto have no case to answer, not only because of the serious lack of evidence against them, but also because of the methods used to obtain this evidence.
The ICC did not directly source witnesses for this case, nor has it done so in any other case heard before the court. Instead it outsourced evidence-gathering to local intermediaries.
That is why all along Uhuru and Ruto have maintained that ICC never conducted independent investigations, but relied heavily on self centered NGO activists who had selfish ambitions to incriminate leaders who were perceived to be a threat to Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s ascension to power.
They have also claimed that the purported ICC witnesses who are being relied on by ICC, were coached and paid by ODM’s Mombasa point man Omar Hassan and former Kenya National Human Rights Commission (KNHRC) chairman Maina Kiai to falsely testify against them.
First, it was witness number 4 (James Maina Kabutu ) who said he was paid to falsely testify against President–elect Uhuru Kenyatta and ambassador Francis Muthaura on the “Mungiki Connection”.
Second, it was Witness Number 8 (Samuel Kimeli Kosgei) who has withdrawn in the William Ruto and Joshua Sang case. Kimeli said he was coached and bribed by Omar Hassan and Maina Kiai to falsely testify against Ruto at the ICC.
Also reports indicate that six other witnesses have written to the ICC court requesting the court to withdraw their testimonies saying they are not ready to falsely testify on three ICC suspects.
They said they were coached and bribed to be witnesses by members of the civil societies, who promised them huge chunks of money if they incriminate the three ICC suspects.
Former Kenya National Human Rights Commission (KNHRC) chairman Maina Kiai has denied ever coaching ICC witnesses in connection with the 2007-2008 post election violence.
During Tuesday’s swearing-in of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Ruto Museveni praised Kenyans for ‘rejecting ICC blackmail’ by electing Kenyatta and his deputy and co-accused, William Ruto.
Museveni said he supported a local process to address the issues arising from the 2007/2008 post-election violence saying only such an “investigation would establish genuine reasons as to why villagers attacked one another.”
According to Museveni ICC is also one of the major causes of conflicts in Democratic Republic of Congo. Museveni was quoted to have told UN Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous that when some rebels were referred to the ICC, they became wild and continued fighting hard so they were not captured.
Museveni said to resolve issues in the Great Lakes, the region must handle the residual problems of the Democratic Republic of Congo including managing its own people instead of referring everything to the ICC.
He said the M23 rebels in Congo and other groups destabilising the region were partly as a result of a decision to refer people to the ICC. “Uganda has many problems from Amin and Obote but we never referred anyone to the ICC. We must manage our people ourselves because this can be a constituency for trouble” he said.
“The South African government handled this through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. If you use external groups to deal with your problem and neglect your own problems, it’s a big mistake,” he added.
He said that using foreign institutions to deal with internal conflicts instead of negotiating with opponents is a mistake. “You can’t rely on the ICC to get rid of your rival,” he said.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
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Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002