PEV Victims Cry For Justice

PEV Victims Cry For Justice

The year of our Lord 2007 started in an upbeat manner as Kenyans tried to retain hope that the elections at the end of the year would usher in even more democratic and forward thinking leaders who would cement the unprecedented growth rates experienced in the first five years of the Kibaki administration. It was an uneventful year except for the latter part, in which all hell broke loose after the General Election. The violence that ensued saw 1,333 people killed and over 600,000 left homeless and displaced in their own country.

After much wrangling, the warring political sides finally agreed on a Grand Coalition Government which officially ended the killings. Any sanely thinking Kenyan expected the twin issues of prosecuting the perpetrators of the violence and the resettlement of the displaced Kenyans as the most urgent item on the agenda of the newly crowned leaders. Instead, the country was gripped in a political tussle between the Vice President and the Prime Minister, who were bickering about who should make a higher salary.
If that was not enough, the MPs went ahead and certified their pay increases as one of the most urgent orders of business in Parliament. After much public outcry, the government went about setting up a tribunal to investigate the murders. However, most other business that does not touch their salaries, the MPs undertook the mission in what seemed to all and sundry, a lackluster approach wrought with accusations on who was responsible for what and who should be in the investigating team.

After yet another outcry, the government reassured the public that it would have a committee in place by June 30th 2008, failure to which it would invite the International Criminal Court to adjudicate as an unbiased third party.

It is with this background that Kenyans are baffled by very deliberate moves of the government to subjugate the proceedings of the ICC. First, the government sponsored and passed a motion in record time, to withdraw Kenya from the Rome Statute, in whose capacity it had invited the ICC in the first place. This measure was ostensibly because the court is seeking to indict certain Ministers in the same government as being responsible for killing Kenyans for their own political gain. Quickly following this is the Vice President’s sudden burst of energy demonstrated in trying to marshal other African and World leaders into the notion that Kenya can deal with its own affairs.

Finally, and most astounding, is the Kenyan government’s offer to underwrite the legal expenses of those accused of killing Kenyans. Let us not forget that this same government invited the court into Kenya because it had failed to arrest and prosecute perpetrators of the Post Election Violence.

This events may be comical were their consequences not so tragic or the image of Kenyans as bumbling fools who have leaders more concerned about their personal wealth than the welfare of Kenyans citizens. One can rightly speculate on the reason why a tribunal could not be agreed upon. One can also draw conclusions on why the government is undertaking the legal bills of those accused of being responsible for the killings.

Metaphorically, it is akin to give a carte blanche for you to kill us and us undertaking the legal and financial responsibility of defending you.