Museveni’s statement on ICC may hurt the Uhuru’s case
President Museveni applauded Kenyans for rejecting the blackmail by the West on the status of the ICC suspects saying that the sovereignty of the Kenyans remained entirely with them. The East African Chair of the summit of the head of states said that Africa should be left alone to solve its own problems and not inviting foreign courts to administer justice.
The president’s statement are in one way or another deemed to be inappropriate especially at a time when Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy would be appearing at the ICC based in Hague Netherlands.
“I want to salute the Kenyan voters on one issue – the rejection of the blackmail by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and those who seek to abuse this institution for their own agenda” Museveni said in statement.
President Museveni came clean that he had earlier supported the ICC citing that he does not support impunity blamed the local leaders of using the ICC as a form of locking their opponents out of the leadership roles.
“I was one of those that supported the ICC because I abhor impunity. However, the usual opinionated and arrogant actors using their careless analysis have distorted the purpose of that institution. They are now using it to install leaders of their choice in Africa and eliminate the ones they do not like," said Museveni.
"What happened here in 2007 was regrettable and must be condemned. A legalistic process, especially an external one, however, cannot address those events. Events of this nature first and most importantly, need an ideological solution by discerning why they happened. Why did inter community violence occur? Was it for genuine or false reasons? Even if you assume they were genuine reasons as a hypothetical argument, why should villagers attack one another? Would the villagers have been responsible for whatever mistakes that would have occurred?"
Museveni defended his stand of having Joseph Kony tried at the court citing that the latter was operating outside Uganda.
"We only referred Joseph Kony of LRA to ICC because he was operating outside Uganda. Otherwise, we would have handled him ourselves. Equally, Kenyan actors are the ones best qualified to sit and delve into their history in order to discover the ideological stimuli the Kenyan society needs. I, therefore, use this opportunity to salute the Kenyan voters again, rejecting that blackmail and upholding the sovereignty of the Kenyan people. The people of Kenya extended hospitality to Ugandans when they had to run out of their country because of criminal rule in Uganda," said Museveni.
“There is no immunity for International Crimes at the ICC. The judicial calendar at the court will not be altered. The ICC judges are not bound by any political processes’ those were the words of Fatou Bensouda when she visited Kenya last year. She was not only coming to Kenya to assess the magnitude of the post election violence but also to underscore the seriousness of The Hague based ICC.
Under the Kenya Constitution, It states under article 143 clause 3, ‘Where provision is made in law limiting the time within which proceedings under clause (1) or (2) may be brought against a person, a period of time during which the person holds or performs the functions of the office of the President shall not be taken into account in calculating the period of time prescribed by that law.’
However, Uhuru Kenyatta may not enjoy the same immunity if he is tried outside the Kenyan soil and that explains why the ICC has been insisting that the President appear in person in The Hague International Criminal Court. The fourth clause states that ‘The immunity of the President under this Article shall not extend to a crime for which the President may be prosecuted under any treaty to which Kenya is party and which prohibits such immunity.’
Owing to the fact that the Kenyan cases at International Criminal Court have been said to be the most challenging due to the massive withdrawal of key witnesses, Kenyatta still holds that his case should be returned to the pretrial chamber II after the withdrawal of the star witness number four who played a huge role in the confirmation of the charges against the President.
The presence of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe was symbolic that the African leaders were not supporting the ICC process. Mugabe, speaking at a joint summit of the European Union and African states in Tripoli in November 2010 said the ICC was applying a double standard by indicting Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and genocide.
"Why does this court not do the same with Tony Blair and George W. Bush, both of whom occupied Iraq and killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people?" Mugabe said in a speech to the summit in Libya's capital.
In 2011 Mugabe told the UN General Assembly that the ICC has no credibility in Africa citing it targeted mainly the developing countries.
“The court seems to exist only for alleged offenders of the developing world, the majority of them Africans, The leaders of the powerful western states guilty of international crime, like Bush and Blair, are routinely given the blind eye. Such selective justice has eroded the credibility of the ICC on the African continent," said Mugabe.
All eyes are now locked to the president Kenyatta’s conduct during the lengthy judicial process that begins in July at The Hague based ICC.
The president’s statement are in one way or another deemed to be inappropriate especially at a time when Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy would be appearing at the ICC based in Hague Netherlands.
“I want to salute the Kenyan voters on one issue – the rejection of the blackmail by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and those who seek to abuse this institution for their own agenda” Museveni said in statement.
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| Uganda President Kaguta Museveni |
“I was one of those that supported the ICC because I abhor impunity. However, the usual opinionated and arrogant actors using their careless analysis have distorted the purpose of that institution. They are now using it to install leaders of their choice in Africa and eliminate the ones they do not like," said Museveni.
"What happened here in 2007 was regrettable and must be condemned. A legalistic process, especially an external one, however, cannot address those events. Events of this nature first and most importantly, need an ideological solution by discerning why they happened. Why did inter community violence occur? Was it for genuine or false reasons? Even if you assume they were genuine reasons as a hypothetical argument, why should villagers attack one another? Would the villagers have been responsible for whatever mistakes that would have occurred?"
Museveni defended his stand of having Joseph Kony tried at the court citing that the latter was operating outside Uganda.
"We only referred Joseph Kony of LRA to ICC because he was operating outside Uganda. Otherwise, we would have handled him ourselves. Equally, Kenyan actors are the ones best qualified to sit and delve into their history in order to discover the ideological stimuli the Kenyan society needs. I, therefore, use this opportunity to salute the Kenyan voters again, rejecting that blackmail and upholding the sovereignty of the Kenyan people. The people of Kenya extended hospitality to Ugandans when they had to run out of their country because of criminal rule in Uganda," said Museveni.
“There is no immunity for International Crimes at the ICC. The judicial calendar at the court will not be altered. The ICC judges are not bound by any political processes’ those were the words of Fatou Bensouda when she visited Kenya last year. She was not only coming to Kenya to assess the magnitude of the post election violence but also to underscore the seriousness of The Hague based ICC.
Under the Kenya Constitution, It states under article 143 clause 3, ‘Where provision is made in law limiting the time within which proceedings under clause (1) or (2) may be brought against a person, a period of time during which the person holds or performs the functions of the office of the President shall not be taken into account in calculating the period of time prescribed by that law.’
However, Uhuru Kenyatta may not enjoy the same immunity if he is tried outside the Kenyan soil and that explains why the ICC has been insisting that the President appear in person in The Hague International Criminal Court. The fourth clause states that ‘The immunity of the President under this Article shall not extend to a crime for which the President may be prosecuted under any treaty to which Kenya is party and which prohibits such immunity.’
Owing to the fact that the Kenyan cases at International Criminal Court have been said to be the most challenging due to the massive withdrawal of key witnesses, Kenyatta still holds that his case should be returned to the pretrial chamber II after the withdrawal of the star witness number four who played a huge role in the confirmation of the charges against the President.
The presence of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe was symbolic that the African leaders were not supporting the ICC process. Mugabe, speaking at a joint summit of the European Union and African states in Tripoli in November 2010 said the ICC was applying a double standard by indicting Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and genocide.
In 2011 Mugabe told the UN General Assembly that the ICC has no credibility in Africa citing it targeted mainly the developing countries.
“The court seems to exist only for alleged offenders of the developing world, the majority of them Africans, The leaders of the powerful western states guilty of international crime, like Bush and Blair, are routinely given the blind eye. Such selective justice has eroded the credibility of the ICC on the African continent," said Mugabe.
All eyes are now locked to the president Kenyatta’s conduct during the lengthy judicial process that begins in July at The Hague based ICC.
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