Anyone who watched the events unfolding at The Hague on live television cannot have failed to notice that there are some areas in which Kenya is more or less at par with the Netherlands, and yet other areas in which we are still miles behind.The images of the Kenyans at the various hotels where they were staying, suggests that there is no real difference between a three-star hotel at The Hague and a three-star hotel in Nairobi.
It’s only the race of the hotel staff that reveals that this is not Kenya. Otherwise there are several hotels in Nairobi which are just as good as the ones in The Hague.
But when it comes to the court chambers, we enter a completely different world of clinical efficiency, first class technology and farsighted architecture. Clearly the people who designed those ICC courtrooms set out to create a custom-built facility for the dispensing of justice.
And yet, it is no doubt much cheaper to build a courtroom like the one in which the Kenyans sat, than a world-class hotel. Not only to build it, but also to get the right kind of staff to operate the backroom technology like digital records, and transcribing facilities. Not to mention live streaming via the internet, and the availability of a well-equipped press gallery.
The material facilities available at the ICC courtrooms should serve as a challenge to us, in our own efforts at judicial reform. And such reforms are not just about justice for victims of post-election violence, but just as much about establishing the rule of law, as a preliminary to attracting greater investment.
We already have the manpower required to operate world-class courts. Now we need world-class facilities.
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