AFRICAN HEADS OF STATES MUST STOP UNDERMINING ICC.

So the African Heads of States under the auspices of the African Union (AU) have unanimously endorsed President Kibaki`s request to have Kenya`s case at the Hague be deferred by the United Nations Security Council. They have alleged that the Hague based trials would be ignoring Kenya`s raison d'être as well as undermining Kenya`s sovereignty and the dignity of the African continent at large. Their protégés too have been lithe and active in leading the ICCs demonization.

Besides the African Heads of States have also unanimously agreed to go slow over their Comrade in Chief in Ivory Coast who has blatantly refused to hand over power to the real winner of the country`s general election.

It must also not be forgotten that only last year at Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort in Kampala the African Heads of States unflinchingly reiterated that subjecting a “sovereign head of state” to a warrant of arrest is undermining African solidarity and African peace and security.”

Sadly, the AUs decision points at African Heads of States who are increasingly determined to shield themselves and their protégés from prosecution for crimes against humanity or genocide. In the pretext of local mechanisms coupled with cosmetic peace and reconciliation initiatives, they want to be given carte blanche to perpetuate impunity. It will be suicidal to grant them such a wish given the fact that they have often demonstrated a genius for working at cross-purposes with the objectives of the ICC. This will definitely lead to increased human rights violations in the continent by the same leaders with justice being the very least of their concerns.

Any keen observer would not fail noticing that beneath the African Heads of States veneer of pursuing peace, justice, stability and reconciliation is an attempt at warding off any incursion at their comfort zones that are characterized by a common denominator-impunity. It must be crystal clear to these leaders that no amount of immunity for a sitting president can justify the perpetration of impunity against his own citizens. The world will never let go unpunished such tragic bloodletting.

The public and the International community must be warned to be wary of those who
are desperately trying to accuse ICC of ignoring this region`s political realities. Such arguments are as misleading as they are false. With respect to Kenya`s case, suffice it to say that nobody is against Kenya`s bid to have a local judicial mechanism but the only problem is that we have not demonstrated honesty in the establishment of a credible local judicial mechanism. The process is fraught with all sorts of schemes including suspect nominations aimed at defenestrating justice. It is with a lot of consternation to thus hear that the AU is in full support of such a mockery of justice in the country. The AU and IGAD were never intended to be the washing powder for the merchants of doom. Simply put, their pronouncements are huge diplomatic gaffes.

Kenya must therefore not be emboldened by the Aus pronouncement into flaunting unabated her sovereignty in defiance of the Rome Statute. She will undoubtedly become a target of unrelenting opprobrium and censure within international forums such as the United Nations. Unfortunately, this will not bode well with our struggling economy.

I wish to remind the African Heads of States of the import of Thomas Jefferson`s edict that states that “Where the people fear the government there is tyranny, where the government fears the people there is liberty.” In other words democracy is not meant to be a concentration of monopolized socio-political power in the hands a few so-called” Heads of States.” Whether these Heads of States have the backing of their deeply ethnicized parliaments is immaterial. We must remind them that any popular consensus that flies in the face of justice for all is not democracy but anarchy.

The citizens of Africa must not succumb to the dark impulses that lurk in the schemes of the African Heads of States lest the African continent falls in the worst possible crisis. So far we are encouraged by the popular uprising in the Maghreb states. Paced by economic doldrums, political friction and repression, the measure of resentment toward the African Heads of States has reached unsustainable levels. It is my prayer that this domino effect continues until the last of the remaining dictators are swept away.

The citizens of Africa expect that even in the absence of divine intervention, the fundamental principle of morality must always govern the actions of the African Heads of States. Any decision undertaken by these Heads of States must be based on the Utilitarian pragmatic ethos of the Greatest Happiness Principle which seeks a course of action that is most likely to produce the greatest good (in terms of satisfaction, pleasure, happiness) for the greatest number of people. Anything less results in tyranny, moral depreciation and social breakdown!!!