Verdict: The Hague is Beckoning

Justice Waki may have tempered his language to avoid bruising political egos, but the thrust of his verdict lies in the fine print that most Kenyans will conveniently ignore as they shout themselves hoarse in chasing shadows. The report lays bare the root cause of post election violence as LACK OF LEADERSHIP that is/was singularly enshrined in IMPUNITY. But trust Kenyans to shamelessly cheer their tribal chiefs even when they are all collectively led to the edge of a cliff.

The verdict on NSIS is damning. No country runs without a dependable intelligence service and ours is reputed as one of the best on this side of the planet. The NSIS knew about the suffocating tension before the polls but their interest rested elsewhere secure in the knowledge about the voting pattern and outcome. Gichangi and his team disregarded professionalism to pay back the piper. His only grave mistake was use of old models based on stereotypes while chronically underestimating the resolve and anger of Kenyans collectively.

The truth is that right from 2005 referendum, Kibaki knew his political fate and he consequently played it safe while scheming to have the last laugh. Not until events took unpredictable turn and not even the NSIS could sermon any quick fix from its reservoir of magic in containing the fast escalating superhighway to apocalypse. Waki has painted it in black and white that Kibaki obtusely failure to offer POLITICAL leadership in his first term as president.

Waki couldn’t have been more candid. Our problems were more political than anything else. And the good judge didn’t mince his words in declaring that Kibaki failed to unite the country. Instead Emilio and his cronies allowed feelings of marginalization to fester into the inevitable post-election violence. The import of that is that Kibaki’s actions and omissions raped him of moral legitimacy which fueled national animosity only in need of a less than civilized contest to explode. And in deed we have lived to tell the story.

So what next or where do we go from here? Well, nothing and nowhere actually. Our short memory and selfish clarion call to MOVE ON will soon relegate this explosive report to the archives. We have no institution to speak of and the office bearers have no legitimacy either. We remain a country held hostage at the whims of scoundrels hell-bent on feathering their nests at our collective peril. Maybe by tracing the origins of PEV to 2002 MOU, even Waki refused to move on. On the contrary he is latently warning about the perils of DECEPTION.

Handsome rewards of impunity.
Even the cabinet’s adoption of Kriegler’s report was a gimmick to create an impression of motion with no commensurate movement. The composition of the sub-committee couldn’t have been more revealing with the same faces still smarting from distrust and raw anger at each other. The headlines may as well be the apt obituaries of these reports.

With no political or moral BALLS to confront challenges, the present leaders have bequeathed on us the curse of living a national lie in postponing Armageddon. But the truth never mutates and the lives of more than 1500 Kenyans were not lost in vein. Well, cheap political shots often derive pleasure in trivializing those lives as mere statistics with their pedestrian accusations.

Nothing lasts forever and one day and very soon the real perpetrators of these murders will ultimately pay for their crime singularly or severally. It is only a matter of time and only a Nairobi or Hague tribunal will appease those departed souls