ICC: Uhuru, Ruto, Muthaura, Sang to Stand Trial

Updates

President Kibaki is playing hard ball after ICC tried to get to him through proxy. You see technically, in government operations, Muthaura is the President’s ‘enforcer’ and meets and talks with him daily. So convicting him amounts to convicting the boss albeit indirectly.

In response Kibaki has smartly hinted to the ICC that he is changing the goal posts following their ruling on the Ocampo 4. You don't have to be a genius when you read in between the lines of the statement: ''The President said with the new Constitution, Kenya now has a "RADICALLY" transformed judiciary system as well as a functional witness programme along with a police service that is undergoing reforms. In other words the ICC may be told as dissenting Judge Hans‐Peter Kaul pointed out the charges are equally actionable before Kenyan laws and will be dealt with LOCALLY.

President Kibaki has gone further to make the ICC ruling a government project. It is no longer about individuals accused and Kibaki has accordingly ordered the Attorney General Githu Muiga to immediately form a legal panel that will advice government on how to respond to Monday's ruling by ICC pre-trial judges. The President has also for the umpteenth time ordered resettlement of IDPs.

Well, even the dissenting Judge Hans‐Peter Kaul has indirectly declared Kenya a failed state by acknowledging the gravity of the accusations which could be tried (but unable) locally.

The hot air about resettling the IDPs is another indictment of the government's inertia in addition to instituting local prosecutions to other PEV suspects.


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Wow, ninety years can surely arrive sooner in less than three calender years. Nobody saw this coming. Nobody predicted this verdict either. The post election violence victims had long resigned to their unfortunate fate of life in squalor. The IDPs have been left starring at another five-year wave of displacement. The suspects were thumbing their big chests rubbishing the ICC and mocking its ruling to have no bearing on their political careers. Most Kenyans had retreated to their tribal enclaves spoiling for the next polituical fight.

Well, the party has been rained on heavily. That soft-spoken diminutive figure, the Bulgarian Law Professor Ekaterina Trendafilova has struck hard where it hurts most. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has finally confirmed charges against four of the Ocampo 6. The ICC ruled that Uhuru Kenyatta, Francis Muthaura, William Ruto and Joshua Sang will stand trial over violence after the 2007 election. Meanwhile charges were not confirmed for both Henry Koskey and ex-police boss Hussein Ali. A sigh of relief but maybe not an acquittal.

All the Ocampo 6 were accused of crimes against humanity, including murder and persecution. What a delicate balancing act for the Judges to acquit and convict one and two from both sets of suspects. And that definitely opens the floodgates for imaginative conspiracy theorists.

The ICC ruling has been long coming and Kenyan politics will never be the same again. One thin is for sure impunity has been dealt a deadly blow. The cycle of political violence has been consigned to a very deep grave.

The ICC has made both political and legal statements. Kenya is bigger than the sum of her various tribal warlords and nobody is above the law. It has been a long time coming let the game begin.

One fundamental fact is discern able from this ICC ruling and that is court battles are never won with the press nor with theatrics. The only common denominator between Koskey and Ali was their humility and legal focus to fight their corner. On the other hand the convicted four had all their molars out playing to the gallery. Well, the judges had a different persuasion albeit unpleasant.

Thank God for small mercies, a Kenyan court would have seen plethora of counter injunctions by now. Don't mind the fact that such a case would have not taken off in the first place.

One thing is for sure, the 2012 general elections will be like no other and the face of Kenyan politics will never be the same again.

Wapi WIPER?

Make no mistake, the ICC verdict has just opened a can of worms. So far all we know is from Ocampo's redacted dose. Kenyans must brace themselves to handle the bitter and nasty truth when the true full trial begins. That is when suspects will cut deals and when the s*@t hits the fun your guess is as good as mine, NOBODY (repeat NOBODY) is safe nor immune to ICC coolers.

Now that ICC has separated the apples from guavas, Kenyans will predictably interpret the ruling under three themes: political, ethnic and personal. Well, the often forgotten fourth dimension that never mutates remain the TRUTH. Take your pick.

Verdict on the Ocampo 6: Evidence the ICC Should Not Miss

BREAKING NEWS: ICC Confirms charges against 4 of the 6

We have been told that the Kenyan anti-riot police are on full alert in readiness for the announcement by the ICC on whether the Ocampo 6 will stand trial or not.

Why?

Why should anybody riot and cause chaos when some super rich (ill-gotten wealth) Kenyan individual is found to have a case to answer in a court of law that has to be more impartial than the Kenyan judicial system which has time and again declared that our corrupt leaders are actually clean "Kama pamba"?

The answer should be obvious. Only a tribal war Lord can provoke that kind of reaction (or is it organize those kind of chaos). No?

And that is exactly the kind of evidence that the ICC should be looking for to strengthen their case when they confirm the charges against the Ocampo 6 shortly.

So let them bring it on. Let them go into the streets and cause chaos and give us a glimpse of exactly the kind of things they got up to in January 2008. ICC prosecutors please pay close attention.

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Folks are asking me to make a prediction on what the ICC verdict will be and I don't think it is fair for me to do so. But what I can say is that the evidence against two individuals (both presidential candidates) is so overwhelming that if they go scott free then all 6 should go free.