ICC: LEADERS MUST STOP INVOKING THE HYDRA OF NEGATIVE ETHNICITY.

Niccolò Machiavelli once said that “a prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promises.” To Machiavelli the subjects had to view impunity as part and parcel of leadership. In other words, bad leadership, so to speak, was a necessary evil. Going by the recent utterances by a section of the political leadership, it would seem that they are ardent followers of this Machiavellian philosophy. This is why some hackneyed politicians are furiously and callously traversing the whole country on a mission to pamper impunity and defenestrate retributive justice against those bearing the greatest responsibility for the 2008 Post Election Violence (PEV).

In order to achieve their vile objectives these politicians are busy invoking the hydra of negative ethnicity and manufacturing conspiracy theories in quick succession in order to discredit the ICC led investigation. It would seem that the use of emotional trickery is the secret weapon with which to defeat the quest for retributive justice.

Among those employing such ethnic exhortations is none other than the vice president, honorable Kalonzo Musyoka. One would not have expected to find in a leader of his stature such distraught and shameless sentimentalisms. I must admit that it was utterly irresponsible of him to allude to further bloodletting should the architects of the 2008 PEV be brought to book. Such utterances are not only unfortunate but they are a further testament to the deep rooted impunity for which we demand that the international wheels of justice must keep on grinding to hold accountable even those currently trying to defeat the quest for justice.

I must remind all and sundry that the deaths of the so many innocent Kenyans and the cruelties inflicted upon hundreds of thousands of IDPs was not the handiwork of any single community. Far from it, this was a design by a few aberrant politicians and some senior public servants to grossly abuse the power bestowed upon them by the public. It is these people that ICC seeks to punish.

Moreover, if it so happens that most of the senior security officers under whose watchful eyes the massive atrocities took place are from one ethnic background then this further confirms the ulterior motives behind the gross ethnicization of the state security as well as other public institutions. We must therefore quickly disabuse these merchants of doom from the notion that the ICC is targeting a certain community. Such thinking is the product of an array of evil forces.

Unfortunately, some of the followers of these self serving politicians want to put up and even idolize this array of evil forces. Kellerman Barbara, in her book titled “Bad Leadership” opines that followers of bad leaders will go along way with the bad leaders who fulfill their selfish desires. If for instance, protection of the presidency from the fold of a certain politician is the primary concern and a certain cabal can make it possible then the followers of this cabal are likely to consider the situation (however wicked it is) an acceptable one. This is the behavior that we must disabuse from the citizenry if we are to progress as a democratic nation.

We must be bold enough to shun politicians who are hell bent on using fear mongering and threats of bloodletting to buttress bovine obedience among Kenyans. We must pray that such politicians are struck dumb by the very ethnic demons that they are busy conjuring.

TOME FRANCIS,
BUMULA.
http://twitter.com/tomefrancis