Three ways to avoid an off shore presidency
By KWENDO OPANGA
Posted Saturday, July 14 2012 at 17:45
Posted Saturday, July 14 2012 at 17:45
Now we have a macabre scenario on our hands. If next March we vote either Mr Uhuru Kenyatta or Mr William Ruto president, then we will have an off shore head of state.
No sooner will either man have been sworn in than he would be required to head to The Hague to stand trial and be present there for the duration of the hearing.
We will then own the dubious distinction of having our head of state arraigned before the International Criminal Court (ICC) charged with masterminding mass murder, rape, destruction of property and displacement of populations.
No crimes could be more heinous or vile and image denting for man and country.
Adjourned
Even if the case was to be adjourned and the president came back home and resumed duty, it is difficult to imagine that he would devote his mind entirely to steering the ship of state.
Why did Tony Blair, when he was Prime Minister of the UK, change the PM’s Question Time from 15 minutes each twice a week to 30 minutes once a week?
Because, he reveals in his memoir, A Journey, that he would spend the better part of his day thinking and preparing for those 15 minutes and, rather than go through this twice a week, he wanted the PMQs dispensed with once to free him to attend to other matters.
Our ICC-indicted president will forever be haunted by the charges at The Hague. Now suppose, as appears likely, our March vote does not produce an outright winner and, therefore, we have to go for a second round of balloting?
Then, if either Mr Kenyatta or Mr Ruto is in still in the running, neither will have the time to campaign for the second round of voting. I reckon the man at The Hague will be disadvantaged.
What would happen in the unlikely event the two finished first and second in the first ballot and have to face each other in the run-off?
It is highly unlikely they will take time off from defending themselves to come back home to campaign. If they met all conditions and had their names on the ballot, we would end up with an off shore president.
And suppose one of them finishes first and the other third or lower in the first ballot? The two will end up at The Hague.
The one who finishes third or lower will, of course, have all the time in the world to concentrate on his defence and contemplate what might have been if he were in his friend’s shoes.
An off shore presidency would still be on the cards. There are three ways to avoid an off shore presidency. One is for Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto to lose the presidential contest.
The other is for us, like Khartoum, to refuse to comply with the Rome Statute while canvassing support for African courts to try the ICC-indicted Africans.
I can see the Uhuru and Ruto supporters mobilising support for the latter position. So rather than have an off shore presidency we could have a hermit for president.
Do not be deceived, good people, that Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir is happy in his skin confined as he is to parts of Africa and Arab countries for his external itinerary.
Do not be deceived, good people, that Khartoum is happy to live with the tag of an ICC-indicted president.
Legally stopped
The third way to avoid an off shore presidency or a hermit for president is to block Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto from running for the presidency altogether.
This means the two men are either persuaded or forced not to run. I mean legally stopped, which points to Chapter 6 of the Constitution which calls for men and women of integrity to compete for leadership.
Mr Kenyatta and Mr Ruto are clear in their minds, as are their formidable teams of lawyers and advisers. The charges they face at The Hague cannot bar them from running for high office because they are innocent until they are proved otherwise.
A challenge to this position — and one is already in court — will meet the strongest defence its prosecutors have ever seen. I support Mr Ruto’s and Mr Kenyatta’s God-given right to pursue their political ambitions. I supported a local judicial process when Mr Ruto was against it.
I have accused former International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo of shoddy investigations, especially regarding Mr Kenyatta. However, I hold that ICC remains a major stumbling block for the two.
Kwendo Opanga is a media consultant. opanga@diplomateastafrica.com
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