Jubilee: too clever for counsel, yet too foolish
The folly of this Jubilee
government is its overconfidence and false sense of importance. Folks are too
full of themselves they wouldn’t listen.
I watched senate proceedings as
Jubilee senators heckled down Senator James Orengo advising majority
leader Kithure Kindiki to pursue Assembly of State parties if they genuinely
wanted to help the President and his deputy William Ruto. Instead they thumped
their chests because they control the Kenyan legislature. They went ahead to
complicate matters with their withdrawal from the Rome Statute motion. Tragedy
is, jubilee has some of the most brilliant attorneys in this country in Senate
and National Assembly. But they reduced themselves to cannon fodder, spewing
tirades at the international community that they shockingly didn’t appear to
understand they would depend on when they went to the AU, UN Security Council (UNSC) etc.
Like the Swahili said – “Mwenda omo na tezi marejeo ngamani” - He who goes from bow to stern must return to the bilge
We are back to square one. It has
now dawned on the spin masters in the Jubilee Kingdom that they won’t shout or
bully their way out of the ICC. Folks are exhausting options. Amazingly, now
they are pushing an amendment to the Rome Statute to allow Uhuru Kenyatta and
William Ruto attend trials via video link through the same Assembly of State
parties that Orengo advised them to pursue but they arrogantly told off.
We have come from "a sitting
president cannot and won’t be humiliated at The Hague" to begging for amendments
to help save face. The ICC is inevitable after all. Cool, the proposed amendment
is backed by the AU (I elect not to comment on the toothlessness of the AU).
But, the Assembly of State Parties isn't a club exclusive to African despots, so
they can push and shove amendments at their whims.
Goodness me, the Assembly of States
will also decide whether sitting heads of state should be exempt from ICC
prosecutions. Why didn’t people think of pursuing this all this while?
Keep enjoying the pleasure of
opinion without the discomfort of thought. Therein lies your downfall.
