Kenyans Should Not Contribute to Uhuru or Ruto’s Trip to The Hague

After months of waiting for the naming of the Ocampo Six, ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo finally revealed the names of those who allegedly funded or organized the 2007-2008 post election violence that put Kenyan on the precipice of political, economic and social collapse. Luckily, we survived. But not before thousands of lives were lost, hundreds of thousands displaced and property destroyed in a manner never witnessed before in the annals of Kenyan illustrious history of much success and little to regret about. 

Perceived presidential aspirants come 2012 Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, seasonal political player and ODM confidant Henry Kosgey as well as head of public service Ambassador Francis Muthaura, former police boss Hussein Ali and ‘small fish’ Joshua Arap Sang  all graced the dreaded list. 

As one would have expected, they all claimed innocence and denied organizing, funding or aiding in any way whatsoever the post-election violence. As one would have expected, some political sycophants came out in their defence as if they had accompanied the six full time in the period of the political debacle. As one would have expected, their gullible constituents and supporters also came out of their ramshackle with their placards raised sky high claiming their leaders were being slaughtered for crimes they didn’t commit. Never mind the truth and nothing but the truth is yet to be known. 

However, none of these frantic moves to absolve the Ocampo Six from suspicion first, summon second, arrest third, prosecution fourth and release or detention last is more baffling than the suggestion that poor constituents should empty their coffers and contribute to a ‘trip to the Hague fund’ on behalf of the suspects (read Uhuru and Ruto so far) and also to hire the best lawyers for them.  

Are you kidding me? Haven’t these people raised enough money since they joined the filthy and corrupt world of Kenyan politics over a decade ago? And just what is about 125,000 shillings to a politician? A Kenyan politician! Isn’t it the same Kenyans who have desperately been crying that the MPs pay taxes to no avail? Isn’t it the same Kenyans who pay taxes but which always go on a Safari to hang out with public money seized in areas like free primary education, cemetery, water, maize and even from the embassy?  

And if these people are really innocent, what’s the need of hiring the best lawyers to defend them. One can almost bet that this ‘best lawyer’ will not be an African, let alone a Kenyan. Another spit on our education system and a doubt on our intellectual capacity I guess. 

Honorable Uhuru, Ruto and Kosgey have the wherewithal and are capable of funding their trips to the Hague and hiring the so-called best lawyers. The only thing is that they are not willing. And if they are, the suggestion that supporters should drop their meager earnings from burning charcoal, picking tea and roasting maize by the roadside are just euphemistic routes to sympathy. 

Unless we really don’t have what to do with money, unless we really are gullible and unless we have no memories of what transpired during the post-election violence, we should feel sufficiently philanthropic to help these ‘suspects’ out. But if we can still look at that IDP camp and see those people whose lives moved from something to nothing, if we can still see those graves of our siblings, parents, relatives, neighbours and friends lying behind our homes, at the Langata cemetery and the likes, if we really feel ashamed of what we did post the last elections thanks to the selfish interests of politicians, if we don’t want a repeat of the same events in the near future, and if we really want to see the culprits apprehended for their deeds, we should let justice take its course. 

We once sympathized with these politicians and expressed our empathy very inhuman like manner. When we look back, we feel sorry for what we did to those who are innocent. So why not let the guilty get their punishment. Surely, the Hague won’t raise machetes on them, destroy their property, burn their houses or rape their loved ones. They will just be denied of the freedoms of a free man. I hear the Hague is not such a bad place anyway. You can eat nutritiously without having to burn charcoal.

And That's thesteifmastertake!!