Dictatorship has always been a problem for mankind. To survive, mankind must fight dictatorship and ICC is one means of eradicating tyranny not just in Kenya or Africa but the whole world.
I write my defense for ICC as a victim of dictatorship who believes ICC is a deterrent against tyranny, an advocate of democracy and an agent of peace in the world. That is why its cases are necessarily political.
It was with shock therefore that I watched the National Assembly passing the motion seeking Kenya’s termination of her ICC membership followed by the Senate.
The ICC motion reminded me of the 1982 parliament’s change of the constitution, to end multiparty democracy and legalise one party dictatorship. As section 2A ended multiparty democracy, withdrawal from ICC will terminate rule of law and entrench impunity in Kenya.
As we use Parliament and the law to legalise and legitimise dictatorship by withdrawing from ICC, we must heed divine law that is superior to law made by Parliament, supports ICC and is in conflict with any law that will expose Kenyans to tyranny.
Again as I watched MPs from the Jubilee coalition exercise their tyranny of numbers to pass this dangerous motion and exhibit a high level of hubris, I remembered how Parliament without opposition, with a very high level of hubris, inserted section 2A into the constitution and with it subjected Kenya to a cruel dictatorship for the next ten years. Many societies believe hubris is one sin for which gods will always punish any man that is guilty of. Let Jubilee MPs be warned by the hubris of Kanu. Pride comes before a fall.
Though Kenya is a voluntary signatory to the Rome Statute that established ICC that is of the same cloth as International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Special Court for Sierra Leone and International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, also created to punish crimes against humanity, ICC is accused of being a special court that is anti-Kenyan, anti-African and racist. I don’t agree.
ICC was established in 1998, long before it was known that Uhuru would be President and Ruto Deputy President of Kenya. Yet ICC is portrayed as if it was established to maliciously prosecute Uhuru and Ruto and enthrone Raila Odinga.
And as The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, a sister court of ICC is not a special court – more special than the Special Court for Sierra Leone that was established specially to prosecute and persecute African leaders. Former Yugoslavians are white people.
Nor did ICC come looking for Kenyans to prosecute. It is Kenyans who took themselves to The Hague saying ICC justice was better than Kenyan justice, also believing it took ICC more than 90 years to prosecute a case and Kenyan suspects were therefore beyond prosecution.
True USA, Russia, China, Japan and Israel are not members of ICC. That does not mean Kenya should equally reject ICC. Africa has more dictatorship than these countries. And if great powers of the world are robber barons, it does not mean victims of their robbery should also strive to be robbers.
Fundamentally, ICC was not established for Kenya or Africa but to tame dictators everywhere. And in Africa, after independence, most countries were victims of either leftist or rightist one-party dictatorship that subjected people to so much terror and genocide, that masses wondered when African independence would end!
Looking down the memory lane of African history, we see captains of one party dictatorship like Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel arap Moi, Francisco Macias Nguema, Milton Obote, Blaise Campaore, General Gnassingbe Eyadema, Paul Biya, Mengstu Haile Mariam, Omar Al–Bashir, Siad Barre, Hissene Habre, Juvenal Habyarimana, General Sani Abacha, Charles Tylor, Sekou Toure, Kamuzu Banda, Mobutu Sese Seko, Jean-Bedel Bokassa and Idi Amin Dada. Even Mwalimu Nyerere admitted he was a constitutional one party dictator.
These are the dictators that misruled Africa after independence, sowed the seeds of African poverty and hunger and together with dictators who tyrannised other continents were the real reason for ICC.
Without them, neither Kenya or Africa, nor the world would need ICC. Kenyans volunteered to become members of ICC for no other reason but save themselves from tyranny. ICC is not an ordinary court. It is a legal, political court set up to protect mankind against violent tyranny.
Before African Union that is now up in arms against ICC existed, its predecessor, OAU was a club of African dictators whose only purpose was to protect African tyranny, impunity, leaders’ loot and life presidencies.
Today African Union dictators are fighting ICC because they too intend to kill the rule of law, put themselves above the law, restore dictatorship, eliminate opposition and reclaim absolute freedom to steal, plunder, loot and commit genocide, crimes of war and against humanity with absolute impunity.
In the 'Man for All Seasons,' had Sir Thomas More been living in Kenya today, he would have warned Kenyans that if they clear the forest of the law, or withdraw from ICC, when the devil attacks, they will have nowhere to hide or seek refuge. This is what Kenyans are risking by pulling out of ICC.
Long experience allows me to warn Kenyans. If they break away from ICC, they will live to regret, just as they did after they threw democracy out of the window. As Johnnie Carson told Kenyans, “choices have consequences.”