Friday, February 15, 2013

Why There Will Be No Violence



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2013 - 00:00
 -- BY WYCLIFFE MUGA
In early January 2008 – at a time when Kenya was still reeling from the shock of the early days of the post-election violence – I paid a visit to a lady friend of mine, a citizen of one of the European Union countries.
At one point she went to check her email, as she was expecting a message from one of her children, and suddenly she burst out laughing.
She then went on to explain the instructions she had just received online from her embassy in Nairobi about the evacuation procedures that were in place in the event that things got out of hand.
For example, she was to carry only one small bag of personal items, and one bottle of water. Nothing more. Any food she might try and take with her would be confiscated before she was allowed to board the helicopters which would – in the event of a total breakdown of law and order – be flying into Mombasa to rescue the citizens of her country.
She was also advised to try and move in with friends at a location closer to the local golf club which had been chosen as the appropriate place for a military-led evacuation.
Since then, I never drive past a golf course without imagining a squadron of helicopters descending from the skies.
Looking back, I suppose the only reason we were able to laugh at these elaborate plans for the rescue of foreigners, was that we were both longtime residents of the coast. And although there was plenty of teargas and looting in Mombasa during those tragic days, by and large the coast was peaceful.
I was to later hear shocking stories from friends who had barely got out of Eldoret alive. And one friend who took his children to Kisumu for Christmas, only made it back to Nairobi by joining a long convoy of cars provided with heavily armed police escort.
So, I suppose it is only right that both Kenyans and foreigners view the approaching general election with extreme anxiety. After all, “the unthinkable” happened five years ago; how sure can we be that it won’t happen again?
Actually, I am pretty sure that it won’t happen again. This election is going to be totally different from the 2007 one in three crucial respects:
First, we have an electoral body which only came into being through a process involving a broad consensus. Thus the IEBC, despite all its organisational weaknesses, is thus totally unlike the old ECK which President Kibaki openly stuffed with his cronies just before the election.
Then we have a new judiciary, the members of which have been subjected to public vetting, often of a very humiliating kind. And although there are those among us who still regard the Chief Justice Willy Mutunga as an ear-stud-wearing poseur, who has yet to prove his mettle, nonetheless no loser in any election can convincingly argue that “there is no point” in seeking justice from this judiciary.
Finally, we now have the ICC entrenched in our national life in a way which was inconceivable before the post-election violence came upon us. Those of us who knew anything of the ICC prior to this, tended to think that it was set up to try Serb militia chiefs; Congolese and Liberian warlords; and the likes of Joseph Kony.
Now we know better. And, more significantly, our top politicians know better. They know that the moment they send out any street gangs or private militias to do their dirty work, they have effectively supplied the ICC with the witnesses who will one day – from the safety of Europe – turn up in fine suits to offer evidence against them.
A massively tragic event like the post-election violence, that led to more than 1,000 deaths and 600,000 displaced, cannot have been "spontaneous". Someone planned the initial attacks; someone else planned the counter-attacks; and in each case, they thought they would get away with it.
Kenya has long been a country where, if you were powerful enough, you could conduct your personal as well as your official affairs with no regard for the law. But that is no longer the case.
Dr Thomas Fuller, the English 17th century churchman and historian, famously addressed the great men of his day with these words: “Be ye ever so high, the law is above you.”
Here in Kenya, we can now warn our own high and mighty, starting with the president himself: “Be ye ever so high, the ICC is above you.”

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