I rarely read
Ngunjiri Wambugu’s articles in the Nation but his article titled ‘Only
Africa Leaders Will Right Wrongs’ though nothing implying critical analysis
of the phrase was captured, lost the real core of journalism- objectivity-
seeing the truth whole and being fair about it . This is the line of bigotry
that he has opined to undertake in his writing and his article only end up as
mere vivid description of events and substantively fall short of any critical
analysis of those events. It is such titles with nothing new to the body of
knowledge that renders his opinion writing amusing, begging more questions than
answers.
All these coupled
by the harsh response, bashing and criticism
the NGO community have received from modern day ‘holier than thou’
shallow, biased and arrogant ICC opponents, it is of signal importance to me
that I participate in this dialogue about ICC and Africa, I have no interests
in pandering to the western stereotypes that portray Africans as failures, as Wambugu would thinly aver,
rather ,my intention is to draw attention to the alarming rise of Wambugu’s ilk
sponsored anti-ICC crusade. When the basic rights of individuals are being
violated because of their race, colour, creed, gender, in this case victims of
post-election violence, those committed to justice and equality cannot remain
silent. I raise this fundamental issue at stake, in the rise of Wambugu’s ilk
sponsored anti-ICC crusade and the threat it poses to the unassailable nature of
rights.
I would argue, that the ICC is itself an
African issue because of two fundamental reasons First, of the 122 countries that ratified the
Rome Statute under which the ICC was formed, 34, including Kenya, are African,
making Africa the largest regional block in ICC. World powers such as USA,
China, Russia, France, etc., deliberately chose not to submit to it and African
rulers, including your President, did not muster the courage to ask why.
Second, the motherland
of criminal impunity for which the ICC was formed is Africa, the cradle of bad
governance. The call for African solutions to African problems is not new: Ask
Thandika Mkandawire. However, the premises upon which the ICC was founded were
not only correct but also remain tenable. It is logical to preserve the status
quo, for the ICC to decisively deal with criminals masquerading as political
leaders, who paradoxically Wambugu would want us believe they have the
solutions to our problems.
Your claim to fame in
this article is that Kenya’s ICC issue should have been listened to because it
was a decision made by all the 54 sovereign states, one would then question,
whether sovereignty is a passport to sovereign thieves murderers etc. True, the ICC like any
institution of record is not perfect. However, even a clock that is out of
order is right twice a day. For all intents and purposes, the reputation of the
ICC is arguably much better than that of virtually all African countries put
together.
Your article is not
only malicious and hateful but it’s also unworthy of response if it were not
published in the ‘Star’ which has a wide circulation in the country.
Argument used by anti-ICC crusaders Wambugu- in their support, is that ICC is
anti-African or an imposition from the west, its inception history would answer
in the affirmative, but without asking whether corruption and civil wars in Africa
is African, I beg to argue,Mr Wambugu, the framers of Kenya’s’s Constitution,
of which I was part by enacting Article 143(4) thereof had in mind the notion
that a sitting President can become a criminal. There is absolutely nothing
wrong with any person or groups of people (NGOs) resisting any ruler intent on
violating our Constitution. Such resistance may take the form of lobbying to
obtain the necessary criminal liability and this would be constitutional
The ‘Star’ should hold
even opinion and critic authors to the same standards of scholars likeYash Pal
Ghai and Waikwa Wanyoike who write
columns which engage what is happening in our society rather than simply
displaying academic prowess which I highly doubt whether Wambugu’s articles have either.
Mr Wambugu, you have
good reason to change your opinion about the ICC because well, you never know.
After all, your opinion about many things have been changing since the CORD
defeat in March 4thgeneral elections. In fact, what seems not to
change is the opinion you have about yourself. I doubt the political actors to
whom you chose to render the unsolicited advice on complex African issues take
you seriously, and if they are,well, Kenya is down the self-destruct path, if I
may use your words.
I don’t expect us to
think uniformly about everything. We may have to agree to disagree on some
issues, such as ICC and Africa, but we cannot remain silent while columnists
fail to speak truth to power. I hope this marks the beginning, rather than the
end, of an important dialogue we, as global citizens, need to have amongst
ourselves about ICC and Africa.
BenardMoseti,
A
postgraduate Student, Institute of Development Studies, UoN
