From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
THE HAGUE SPECIAL TAKE-3

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2013

Erick from Kitale would like to know why Deputy President William Ruto is over confident cases against him at the ICC will be dismissed and why The Kenyan Daily Post has been writing in favor of Uhuru and Ruto and not Joshua arap Sng since the cases began at The Hague? Who owns the blog and is he/she paid to write in favor?

Erik would also like to know whether video clip played by Deputy President William Ruto’s lawyer, Karim Khan showing former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, calling for mass action in 2007 can implicate him.

The three questions asked by Erick are crucial. My take here is that Ruto has seen there is no case before him following witnesses, some of whom are dropping, arguing they have been forced or coached to bring false evidences against Ruto and Uhuru.

Already Ruto’s defence team is likely to press for early dismissal when his case resumes next Tuesday. This is following Ms Bensouda’s failure to produce her first witness on the opening day.

At the conclusion of his opening statement, Mr Khan challenged Ms Bensouda to concede early that her case was fatally defective and withdraw it in the interests of justice.

As to whether The Kenyan Daily Post has been paid to write in favor of Uhuru and Ruto and who owns the blog, my take here is that it could be possible following recent revelation.

The owner of the Kenyan Daily Post blog has remained anonymous for a long time, not until recently he was uncovered at a page calling itself “The Truth Kenya” His name is Timothy Rioba Obare, graduated from Kenyatta University a few years ago.

From pictures obtained from his facebook profile, he seems to be making some good money from his blog, worth roughly $176,000 (US Dollars) which is about 14m Ksh!! Sources also reveal that he does most of the editing and posting on his own and he is also paid by people who want damaging articles written and posted to his website.

Recently he posted in his website blog how Uhuru and Ruto will be found not guilty by ICC judges except Sang. In his blog Obare argues that the exoneration of Muthaura from the case has weakened Uhuru’s case, therefore, as Muthaura was found not guilty, so will Uhuru.

Similar argument is also on Ruto. He argues that there is no logical reason why Kosgey would be free and Ruto going to jail. Most of the accusations against Ruto will not stand trial, so like Uhuru judges will find him not guilty.

It is only Joshua arap Sang will be found guilty since the ICC court has enough audio recording to cement that indeed Sang was inciting Kalenjins to kill the Kikuyus. If this happens, Obare argues, Sang will be among the first Kenyan Citizens to be imprisoned at the ICC court.

In his September 11, 2013, Obare narrates how the European Union’s ambassador to Nairobi, Lodewijk Briet, has said that cases facing President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy President William Ruto will be dropped before December this year, for lack of evidence, and that Uhuru and Ruto’s cases may also be dismissed on technical grounds or economic diplomacy.

He quotes Briet as saying that the cases have already split the Western nations, where majority of them calling for the dismissal of the cases since they are politically castigated.

“The cases worry the West, which sees a stable Kenya as vital to regional security and the fight against militant Islam,” Briet is quoted to have said.

He said Uhuru and Ruto’s cases cannot be compared with Sudan’s President Omar al Bashir’s cases because the two have cooperated with the court from the beginning.

On the third question whether the video clip dated December 31, 2007 where Odinga can be seen and heard calling for mass action arguing that the 2007 poll was rigged; Ruto is then heard whispering to him to include the word ‘peaceful’ in his call can be enough reason for Raila to be indicted by the ICC.

If it was talking peace, even Raila did the same. On January 23, during a memorial service in Nairobi for victims of the violence, Raila was quoted to have said: “Tribes should not fight because “this is a war between the people of Kenya and a very small bloodthirsty clique clinging to power”.

Lawyer Karim Khan played the video four times to the court maintaining that his client had nothing to do with the bloody events that followed the controversial 2007 election.

Khan argued that Ruto did not ask anyone to kill or loot property of those perceived as enemies of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), to which he belonged at the time.

Khan’s intention for playing the video clip is not to implicate Raila at ICC. His intention was to prove the fact that Ruto whispering “peaceful” to Raila was an indication that Ruto would have not planned for the violence that killed 1,100 and displacing 600,000 people.

Another reason why Raila cannot be indicted is because mass action is not only a constitutional right; freedom of association, expression and peaceful protest guaranteed even in the old Constitution, there isn’t a democratic constitution or international convention in the world that prohibits those fundamental rights; which are inalienable to all human beings by virtue of their humanity.

Mass action is used against the perpetration of wrongs; the infringements of fundamental rights and freedoms; and to take action against dictatorship and autocracy; are both ancient and fundamental. That is why it is used all over the world.

Mass action has led to the popular replacement of repressive governments and even the revolutionization of society. We saw it during the French Revolution. We saw it again during the American Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution against the British Empire.

It was visible again and again during apartheid regime in South Africa. India during its independence struggle against British colonialism; African Americans during the civil rights movement; and Latin America during the fight against military juntas; taught the world about the power of mass movement.

Here in Kenya, it was mainly mass action – not armed struggle – that swept the autocratic regime of Daniel arap Moi from power. And it has been largely to mass action that Kenyans have successfully staved off imminent relapse to autocracy since 2003.

The Hague special take-4 resumes Wednesday

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