ICC in Kenya

The Court Has Been a Game Changer in this EastAfrican Nation

By Maurice Maina

The International Criminal Court -ICC-came calling. This time not in Iran or some other place that is wont to attract, the world rather, international attention.

In the Eastern Africa city of Nairobi, this beautiful tropical city was experiencing, as one daily put it, an International Criminal Court ruling that 'hit like tsunami off the waters of Indian Ocean'. This may be more than the journalistic enthusiasm you are accustomed to. It aptly captures the mood of the nation. A muted sigh characterized by ambivalence. Probably like survivors of a tsunami would be - glad to survive but sad of the loss.

Being a model democracy on the side of globe, and in concert with all democracies all over the world, popularity with masses determines who becomes leader. What ICC ruling did is: it indicted persons who, going by recent polls, are considered as among the most popular among the masses. Indeed they are presidential candidates in the coming elections at the end of the year.

While this is not new in the west, it's relatively a new phenomenon here. It could be similar to what happened to former IMF chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, minus the hotel maid twist. Yet the stakes could be high here. The fiercely modest ICC prosecutor has successfully managed to get the nod of a three judge bench on allegations, as one of the accused termed them, movie stuff.

One of the defendant's lawyers complained: 'this is not L.A law or Bueno Aires law'. Mind you he was in a real ICC court at Netherlands, participating in real case. The end of which has seen his client indicted and in, more or less, the circumstances he was probably complaining about. The reference to Bueno Aires, by the American lawyer was a telling, as one analyst noted then, spite to the ICC prosecutor who hails fromArgentina. Bueno Aires is the capital ofArgentina.

Back to the natives ofNairobi. The man from Bueno Aires has, as it is, indicted their most popular leaders of, listen to this: murder, rape, forcible eviction and…what else could be worse? Crimes against humanity. That is what we are talking about. It all started with post election violence of 2007 that saw [former]US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice team up with former UN chief and a host of world leaders, including those from the AU, to bring an end to.

After more than a thousand dead, over half a million displaced and tales; the kind of tales that belong to the movies: rape, forcible circumcisions and, as ICC calls them, crimes against humanity- they succeeded. It took them less than month. The time it took for the country to be to hell and back. So, it was perfectly in order for the citizenly to demand international investigations.

The local system had let them down. It had, apparently, been taken over by gangsters. In came the ICC and the long story began. Last week, the media savvy prosecutor and slayer of the mighty, declared a milestone. The awed journalists seemed short of questions. He had ready, factual answers. According to him, those presumed gangsters, had all along been popular community leaders. Born and bred in God fearing families and later elected by their communities as their parliamentary representatives.

What any journalist would have ventured: so, mr. prosecutor, do you want to say that the citizens have been their own worst enemies?

The case is going on for trial. Appeals have been lodged.