Issue
Corruption ... Kenya

COMING DOWN WITH A CASE OF THE HAGUE

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

COMING DOWN WITH A CASE OF THE HAGUE Achoo! I feel we’re coming down with a bad case of the Hague… or should I say a GREAT case of the Hague. It rhymes with plague, and today Kenya’s Pharaohs are feeling the heat, because they’re day of reckoning is coming. John Githongo was ostensibly the Moses of Kenya’s post-independence, an elite-born of the dominant ethnic group saying “let my people go” from this economic captivity of corruption crippling the economy of Kenya. You could say this blog is Youth Tsunami IIb, picking up on the topic of impunity I mentioned in my last blog of the series. My voice is especially for those in the West to help begin a process of understanding about Africa in general and Kenya in particular, and there is nothing more important happening in this generation right now than the Hague. For those reading this who don’t regularly stay tuned to African breaking news, and may not be up on international justice either, the Hague in Holland is the location of the International Criminal Court (ICC), where five senior Kenyan politicians and one radio executive have been summoned last Thursday and Friday April 7th/8th, having been accused of crimes against humanity – i.e. organizing and perpetuating the 2007-2008 post-election violence. The reason is that never in Kenya’s history has any prominent person – whose corruption is largely flaunted publicly – been held accountable or convicted. And now, two of the top suspects at the ICC are two of the top presidential contenders for 2012 – so first, they are as big of a fish as they come; and second, it may fundamentally changes the potential course of Kenyan politics in this critical first election after the implementation of the new constitution last August as they may not be able to run for office with their trial underway. To step back a moment, US Ambassador to Kenya Michael Ranneberger said Kenyan Ministers (of parliament, the robed ones bearing crosses are for another blog) are the most corrupt country in Africa. Another global survey puts Kenya as only #20 on the most-corrupt-countries-of-the-world list, barely beating Congo and Angola. (Big woop. This is no way means that we’re “okay”). You can see an interactive map of the most corrupt, though, which is pretty cool. On cover of one of Kenya’s newspapers last month (the Star, 17 March 2011) was yet another article about corruption. “Attorney General unwilling to prosecute Anglo Leasing: Wako Shielding Mudavadi – Wikileaks.” Ango Leasing, dubbed Anglo Fleecing by the media when it came to light, is combined with The Goldenberg Scandal to be Kenya’s most outrageous looting of funds, have been turned into a public circus with grand commissions held to get to the bottom of the scandal but nothing ever done to bring justice. The ordinary Kenya witnessed how specific businessmen and leading politicians stole billions of dollars from the government through fictitious companies and ghost contracts. Some of these people include current Internal Security Minister George Saitoti, former Transport and Internal Security Minister Chris Murungaru, former Finance Minister David Mwiraria, current Public Works Ministry Chris Obure and Deputy Primer Minister Musaila Mudavadi, as well as former permanent secretaries and other government officials. These are the names listed on the front page. Everyone knows. But no one is prosecuted. The projects in which they are implicated total over KES 56 billion ($700 million USD). For perspective, this was nearly the same amount of money that Kenya receives each year in aid. Micaela Wrong’s book It’s Our Turn to Eat chronicles former Anti-Corruption Czar John Githongo’s attempt to root out corruption, which resulted in his fleeing the country. The damning evidence was shared over time, and again in the book, and directly implicates not only President Kibaki and the Mount Kenya Mafia but head of civil service Francis Muthaura who is one of the Ocampo Six (so named because of chief prosecutor of the ICC, Luis Moreno-Ocampo naming of six suspects), former Justice Minister Kiriatu Murungi, and others abovementioned. Moi may well be one of the best grabbers of public funds in history, reported siphoning over Sh130 billion ($2Bn USD) and with key people close to him linked to drug trafficking and money laundering. That’s probably the tip of the iceberg. Most of these mentioned have basically been playing musical chairs in politics for twenty to nearly fifty years, doing whatever they want with impunity, because everyone in power is in on the game and protecting each other. So you can see how Kenyans would be fed up. And you can see how high the stakes are, and that it might make some people rather nervous to have the ICC coming in and messing up this nice little balancing act of looting, because once one card is knocked down, the whole house of cards may tumble with it. The circus of politicians running around Africa and to UN Security Council countries trying desperately to get a postponement or a return of jurisdiction to Kenya implies an appalling self-indictment of complicity, especially as thousands of internally displaced persons continue to languish in distant hovels. The cartoon in today’s paper of the Ocampo Six homecoming tomorrow sums it up: http://www.zanaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/HomecomingICC.jpg Says Githongo, “They [the political elite] have never come across a problem that they can’t bribe, intimidate, or kill,” says Mr. Githongo, quoted in a recent article, “This is not a direction that the elite would have chosen, and they will fight each step of the way.” Now, the suspects are just that, innocent until proven guilty. And maybe some will be cleared, and others brought in over the course of the trial. Who knows? But right now in case you’ve missed who has been summoned to the Hague, the cast of characters includes: William Ruto: formerly Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s right-hand man during the past election in the party called ODM (Orange Democratic Movement), now in an alliance with Uhuru and others to try to keep Odinga out of the Presidency in 2012 (this alliance being newly formed and calling itself the G7) Henry Kosgey: close associate of former President Moi and also Kalenjin like Moi and who, under Moi’s reign, acquired obscene amounts of land in the Mau Forest; chairman of ODM; been a cabinet minister of almost everything, currently being investigated for dubious activities while he was Minister of Transport Joshua Sang, a radio talk show host on KASS FM, a Kalenjin vernacular radio station, accused in particular of using coded words to incite violence Uhuru Kenyatta: Deputy Prime Minister, son of the first president Jomo Kenyatta, one of the biggest landowners in Kenya, currently also Minister of Finance, Kikuyu like President Kibaki; accused particularly of organizing meeting with the outlawed Mungiki sect to incite violence Retired General Hussein Ali, then-head of the police force; has done a good amount to clean up the police force in the past, yet in the post-election violence his office is accused of giving a “shoot to kill” order such that gunshot wounds from police are reportedly the single biggest cause of death during the violence Francis Muthaura, career politician and Head of Civil Service, also Kikuyu secretary to the cabinet; one of the reported insiders of the Anglo Leasing scandals, according to Githongo; accused of leading secret meetings in Kibaki’s office, where revenge attacks against supporters of Kibaki’s opposition were planned, also accused of authorizing the use of excessive force against protesters by the police The first three are charged with being involved in a well-prepared plan to attack supporters of the governing party, while the latter three are charged with organizing attacks on the people protesting the election results, which were widely viewed as rigged. Now, if America would just style up and sign the Rome Statute to also submit to the laws of the ICC, that would make me the happiest American in Kenya I could be. How is it that we (America) can advocate so ferociously for Kenya to undergo this process and not allow ourselves to be under scrutiny as well? It rather damages our credibility. I’m betting the average American doesn’t even know the ICC exists, or that the US helped to create it yet flouts its authority, or the enhanced negative image of America this perpetuates internationally. I believe in America, I believe in Kenya, but we all have so far to go. But for now, here’s to Kenya, and here’s to a process of justice for all, and for ending the culture of impunity for the Pharoahs whose time of judgment, we pray, has finally come. For ongoing news about the ICC, please keep an eye on international news such as the BBC and Al Jazeera and Kenyan news like the Nation and the Standard. What are your predictions as to what will happen, and why?