KNCHR’s list lifts the ICC lid

The secret is now out and the names in Waki’s envelop have been exposed by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR).The list includes seven cabinet Ministers, three Assistant Ministers and seven MPs. Naturally they will all deny having anything to do with the post election violence that led to the death of over 1,000 Kenyans and the displacement of 300,000 others. The fact that their names have been mentioned by the country’s most respected human rights organization means they are implicated, at least as suspects, and the chances are that the ICC’s list of suspected post election plotters of mass murders will contain the same names. After all, the KNCHR has been conducting investigations in Kenya well before the 2007 elections and they have been forwarding their results to Moreno-Ocampo’s office. What Kenya’s expect from all the people named is their immediate resignation. If they fail to resign then Kibaki and Raila must show them the door as the people expect them to do.

From the Cabinet the human right body named the Agriculture Minister, William Ruto, the Road Minister, Franklin Bett, the Higher Education Minister, Dr. Sally Kosgey , the Industrialization Minister, Henry Kosgey , Heritage Minister, William ole Ntimama, Tourism Minister, Najib Balala and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Uhuru Kenyatta. The Assistant Ministers named are Elizabeth Ong’oro, Nairobi Metropolitan, Kabando wa Kabando, Youth and Sports and Ramadhan Kajembe, Environment. The public servants named are Police Commissioner Hussein Ali and administrators Paul Olondo, Grace Kaindi and Peter Kavila. Members of Parliament named are Chris Okemo, Peter Mwathi, John Pesa, Anyanga Omondi, Marger Lagat and Fred Kapondi. Former MPs named are David Manyara, Nakuru, Jayne Kihara, Naivasha, Njenga Karume, Kiambaa and Moses Cheboi, Kwesoi. The businesswoman named is Mary Wambui.

The exposure by the KNCHR will be greeted by congratulations to the human right body by the majority of the people of Kenya. But it is also likely to make many people angry, particularly those who took part in the mass murders of Rift Valley and other cruelties that took place in the Central Province and down at the Coast soon after the election results were announced. The culprits will now organize huge public rallies from where they will be expected to seek wananchi’s sympathy. They will even try to mobilize the people and make them revolt. But the masses must condemn such moves and reject them as yet another attempt to pour the poor people’s blood as sacrificial ritual to perpetuate the misrule of the rich.

The named people will go back to their clans and tribes to try and mobilize them against any trial whether local or at The Hague. No wonder the named ministers from the Rift Valley were already trying to rally the people to reject such trials by calling for a PJRC solution. But the people must remember what happened in 2007. They were misled to kill fellow Kenyans and now they are in trouble. To avoid the possibility of causing tribal warfare in the country, which is the wish of the named culprits, the people must refuse to be manipulated as political ladders and shields.

Apart from resigning from the top cabinet positions in the coalition Government, the named people must also be kicked out of their various political parties regardless of what positions they hold. No political party in Kenya would have been registered if it had violence as part of its policy in its constitution or manifesto. The named people will also seek refuge from their various political parties by claiming they did what they are accused of doing in order to make their various political parties win.

The culture of political violence during election time can only be ended if the people organizing such violence are made to suffer individually as common criminals, instead of being glorified as tribal heroes. Whenever they mobilize the people to fight at election time, they do so in order to win unfairly so that they can be returned to Parliament, where they are so used to collect taxpayers money, without doing any work that brings about development in the country for the benefit of the people. The only benefit they are aware of concerns their own pockets and close members of their families.

The named people should not only be kicked out of their various political parties, but they must also be made to vacate their seats in Parliament. This move should be jointly taken by all political parties led by Mwai Kibaki, Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka and Martha Karua. Kenyans must learn to reject leaders who divide the country along ethnic lines and the best example of proving that point is to refuse to do be led by people who are suspected of organizing mass murders.

Needless to say the named people must not be condemned unheard. They must be given the opportunity to brief their lawyers who will represent them either at a local tribunal to be formed soon, or at The Hague. The exposure by KNCHR seems to have been done with close collaboration with ICC. It will therefore not be surprising at all for Luis Moreno-Ocampo to also soon make his list public . The chances are that the two lists will have identical names.

The bombshell dropped by the KNCHR should make the remaining MPs to act with speed in passing Mutula Kilonzo’s Bill to establish a local tribunal. It is gratifying to note that the Minister for Constitutional Affairs has categorically said that he does not intend to dilute his draft, which has taken serious legal steps to ensure the established local tribunal will not be manipulated by the powerful. His move has been backed by all the Western diplomats because they have seen no loophole in it. The stand taken by the diplomats means the named people are really cornered. Very soon too their secret accounts in banks in the Western countries will be frozen and their children who are studying in those countries will be sent back home. Short of facing the law and defending themselves in law courts, they will have nowhere to run to. The wananchi, therefore, must reject them too.

The Government of Raila Odinga and Mwai Kibaki must also step in and confiscate the passports of the named people. They must also be given 24 hours police protection to prevent them from being harmed by anybody. This will make the police prevent them from running away from the country. Naturally there are a number of countries run by dictators ,who are also on the wanted list of the ICC, who will be ready to give them political asylum. These steps taken by the Government, political parties, Parliament and the people of Kenya against people suspected of planning mass murders will serve as a lesson to those who may want to emulate them in future. Kenya should not have time for leaders who do not respect the lives of the people they lead.