Moreno-Ocampo's Kenya case bombshell

The delaying tactics used by Kenyan politicians to enable the post election criminals get off the hook has now made Kofi Annan hand over the Wiki’s envelop to the ICC persecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo. Moreno-Ocampo is a no nonsense man , who will not hesitate to prosecute the top Ministers in the Kibaki- Raila Cabinet who are suspected of plotting and financing the post election violence that saw the death of more than 1,000 Kenyans at the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008.

Kofi Annan took the step to hand over the envelop to the ICC because he has inside information about the intention of Kenyan politicians to sweep the crimes of post election violence under the carpet. What the Kenyan politicians are thinking about is the 2012 elections, and how they can gang up together and continue to misrule this nation as a privileged ruling class, is very well known to people like Kofi Annan who have dealt with them for a long time. He knows they are dishonest. Rumours are that William Ruto, one of the people whose names are said to be in the envelop, is getting closer to Uhuru Kenyatta, whose name too is said to be in the same envelop, to defeat Agwambo’s 2012 plans.

Agwambo, on the other hand, knows he has the backing of the people of Kenya and the international community when he pushes for justice to be done. And justice cannot be done when criminals who committed mass murders continue to scheme on how they will perpetually dominate and exploit the wananchi. For justice to be done the mass murderers must be tried either here or at The Hague. It now looks like the gates of the ICC will soon open for some very important people from Kenya.

Just before he went to Geneva to meet Kofi Annan on the issue of extending the deadline to establish a local tribunal, Mutula Kilonzo is on record claiming that he would not like to do anything that could cause chaos in the country. Many pundits interpreted that statement to mean that the country should trade carefully while establishing the tribunal to prosecute important political leaders in Kenya lest certain big tribes are provoked. According to the umbeguous Kalonzo argument, prosecuting certain unnamed politicians could make the tribes they lead rise up in arms again. It cannot be that difficult to guess who the politicians in Mutula’s mind are. The big question is: If they caused trouble after the 2007 elections why should they be treated as if they were above the law? And if they are above the law in Kenya should they also be above the law internationally?

It is now clear that Kenyan leaders don’t take the establishment of a local tribunal seriously and that is why Kofi Annan had to write to Raila and Kibaki to tell them that the ICC is where some very top politicians will soon be going. Mutula obviously thinks Annan should not be ordering Kenyan leaders like primary school kids; but as a lawyer he should know better. The ICC is not governed by the Kenyan Constitution, which our leaders disregard with impunity; it is governed by The Rome Statute . Mutula should also know that the ICC was established to help end impunity for the perpetrators of the most serious crimes just like the crimes committed in Kenya soon after the last elections.

Suggestions are being made by the suspected criminals that the post election problems should be solved through the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) which will be established by the same politicians suspected of committing the international crimes in Kenya. It will not be surprising to hear of some pastors in the politicians’ payroll planning to reconcile all those who plotted and paid for the post election disturbances. The priests will then call to the people of Kenya to forget the past as the hatchets are buried in stage managed and fictitious peace treaties between the same tribal mass murderers. At that time calls will be made to Kofi Annan, Moreno-Ocampo and ICC to leave Kenya alone to solve its own problems. We will then be reminded that Kenya was a sovereign state which did not need any international intervention in its internal affairs.

Whatever the Kenyan despotic tribal leaders say or do, however, will not change the ICC stand as the International Criminal Court cannot be influenced or directed by the leadership in this country. As an independent international organization, the ICC is not even a part of the United Nations system which can be manipulated by the dictators of the Third Word, where Kenya belongs. The world is fed up with the impunity of dictatorial regimes which have leaders who torture and kill their own people and get away with it. It is in this spirit that the international community adopted the Rome Statute on July 17^th 1998 when the legal basis for the establishment of the ICC in a permanent form was backed by 120 nations.

Though the death toll of Kenyan’s post election crimes did not qualify to be described as genocide, crimes against humanity were committed here. Hundreds of thousand of people were made homeless. Officially there was no war in Kenya and so no war crimes were committed but even when countries are at war they can still be prosecuted for war crimes like it happened in trials that took place in Nuremberg and Tokyo after the Second Word War. In places where dictators have organized the mass killings of their opponents the long arm of international law has always caught up with them. International Criminal Tribunals have dealt with such cases in Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Why Kenyan politicians think they can literally get away with mass murders baffles the mind.

Now that the matter is being handled by Moreno-Ocampo it means officially the Kenyan criminals are being investigated by the office of the Prosecutor. According to the ICC website the Office of the Prosecutor is responsible for receiving referrals and any substantiated information on crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court, for examining them and for conducting investigations and prosecutions before the Court. The Office is headed by the Prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo from Argentina, who was elected by the States Parties for a term of nine years.

From now on Kenyans will be very much interested in knowing this man Luis Moreno-Ocampo. According the Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, he is an Argentine lawyer who has been the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) since 16 June 2003.

According to the ICC website Moreno-Ocampo took office on 16 June 2003 by pledging his solemn undertaking as required by article 45 of the Rome Statute. As Prosecutor, he will assume full authority over the management and administration of the Office, including the staff, facilities and other resources thereof. For full curriculum vitae of the Prosecutor, click here.

This is a man who must be trusted by Kenyans because he has a proven record of working tirelessly for the sake of fighting international crimes like the ones committed in Kenya soon after the last general election. No wonder so many MPs led by Gitobu Imanyara have so much confidence in him.