Getting away with murder

Here the Don paused and drank his wine as he looked around the table at his two sons and Astorre. "Let me tell you the reality," he said, and turned to his daughter. He spoke with an intensity rare for him. "You say human life is sacred? From what evidence? Where in history? The wars that have killed millions are endorsed by all governments and religions. The massacres of thousands of enemies in political dispute, over economic interests, are recorded through time. How many times has the earning of money been placed above the sanctity of human life? ~ Mario Puzo, Omerta (p. 30)

In this month's edition of the Nairobi Law Monthly, my friend Carolyn Makana (The Masses are betting big on ICC) and Barrack Muluka (Trust betrayed) attempt to address the disconnect between what our politicians have publicly pledged to do and what they are actually doing or trying to do. Ms. Makana places great trust in the institution of the International Criminal Court to address some of the pain and suffering thousands upon thousands of Kenyans suffered during the violence that ensued after the 2007 general elections. Mr. Muluka is no longer surprised that the men and women elected to the Tenth Parliament claim 'sovereignty' only when their hides are on the line or when it suits their political purposes. I am surprised that it has taken him this long.

The case of the Ocampo Six has managed to obscure an uncomfortable fact: in Kenya, the wealthy never get their comeuppance. 4 years after the terrible events that followed the general elections, thousands of Kenyans still live in abject circumstances, their plight overshadowed by the apathy of the general public. Kenyans talk a big game, but the fact of the matter is, we have moved on and the 2012 elections occupy our minds to the total exclusion of everything else. How else do you explain the fact that even Mwalimu Mati's Mars Group has not come out with a statement of on the fact that our national debt keeps growing even when national revenue is dwindling?

The ICC process has been billed as the first vaccination against the disease of political impunity. It has been accorded mythical status, variously being described as the shot the nation needs to wean itself off its troublesome political class. However, on the ground, we are carrying on as if the violence we are being primed for will affect someone else. Kenyans still refuse to participate fully in informed debate about its institutions, including its political ones. We have abrogated our duty and we will cry foul when the politicians drive us into the ditch come 2012.

When the Ocampo Six walk into the hallowed chambers of The ICC, they will do so knowing that they have primed the nation to blame one man for their plight. Regardless of the merits of the ICC prosecutor's case, Kenyans will be more concerned with how it will affect the presidential contenders' chances at the hustings. Whether they truly participated in planning and fomenting the violence is immaterial; what matters is whether they will still manage to stymie Raila Odinga's hopes of becoming Kenya's Fourth President or, in the alternative, implicate the PM in the violence and have him dragged to The Hague too to answer charges of international crimes.

In the maneuverings and prayer sessions, not one bishop of preacher has come out to speak for the thousands who lost lives, loved ones and property. The government, as represented by various ministers, not least Uhuru Kenyatta, keeps using them as fodder for its political cannon against the PM. The fusillades being sent against his citadel make no bones about somehow placing the blame for the continued plight of the IDPs on the PM. When the history books are written, posterity will show that ordinary Kenyans abandoned their brothers and sisters and allowed an avaricious bloody-minded political class to get away, literally, with murder.