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| Kenyatta (L) and his deputy Ruto: They will surprised who their real friends and enemies are – or will they? |
UGANDA AND RWANDA asked Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta to stop his Deputy President William Ruto from flying to The Hague to attend his trial on charges of crimes against humanity last week, the regional weekly, The East African, reports in its latest issue.
Kenyatta himself will appear at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in November to have his day in court. He and Ruto were indicted for their alleged role in Kenya’s 2008 post-election violence that killed up to 1,400 people and displaced 600,000. The two have steadfastly held that they are innocent.
According to The East African, the request was presented when Kenyatta met Uganda’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa and Rwanda’s Louise Mushikiwabo in Nairobi on September 8, two days before Ruto flew out to The Hague.
The paper said that Kenyatta insisted on his deputy attending court, because failure to appear before the ICC could trigger an arrest warrant, and “the
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argument of whether they are innocent would be lost.” That was some shrewd thinking.
Meanwhile, The Star in Nairobi reported that other African countries, including Burundi, Tanzania, and Ethiopia – in all 15 of them – have requested to be allowed to respond to a successful appeal by ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda that overturned an earlier decision by the Court that would have allowed Ruto not to attend all sessions. Now he is required to present in court throughout.
This ICC matter has really got Africa’s goat – or at least that of most of its leaders. They consider the court an “imperialist plot against Africa” (meaning, again, African leaders).
For the last two years, the African Union has not had a summit in which Africa’s presidents, prime minister, and king, did not pass a resolution condemning the ICC and vowing not to cooperate with it.
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We are getting close to that point where other African leaders will soon be mourning over the Kenyatta and Ruto trials, more than the two Kenyan leaders.
I don’t think they love Kenyatta and Ruto so dearly. Many observers have argued that many of them are afraid that, given their dodgyhuman rights records and violent rule, after the Kenyatta and Ruto trials, the ICC will go for their heads next.
That might partly be the case, but I suspect what Africa’s rulers are terrified not the possibility that Kenyatta and Ruto will be convicted, but that they could be found innocent.
After all, given the way witnesses against Kenyatta have been withdrawing or recanting in near-record numbers, one cannot help wonder if there will be any left to take the stand come November.
It is possible that African leaders are crying crocodile tears, and are secretly hoping Kenyatta and Ruto are convicted. If they are, even the most ICC-phile folks have to admit that the backlash against The Hague on the continent will be massive, and it will be all but impossible for it to bring a case even against a small African village chief for many years. In that way, despotic African leaders will be safe.
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However, if Kenyatta and Ruto are acquitted then all the arguments and emotions against the ICC could collapse. It will have proved that it was not deadest on nailing the two. Also, Africa will no longer have symbols around
which to rally its opposition to the ICC. The result could be that the leaders who are jittery now, would not afford to ever sleep with both eyes closed again. They will keep panicking at every knock on their doors, thinking it is a Bensouda warrant.
Therefore, contrary to appearances, it is likely that Africa’s presidents actually want Kenyatta and Ruto convicted. You can never trust our Big Men.
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