Nothing baffles me like the amount of sage our predecessors had. There wells oozed words of wisdom rich with insights and practicality. Whoever chronicled them for posterity did humanity a great service.
Necessity is the mother of invention they quipped, desperate times calls for desperate measures, added another guru. None knows how useful these aphorisms can be other than Kenya's fourth president Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto.
The precedes of 2007 elections plunged the country into an abyss laced with ethnic driven clashes. Statistics reveal that tens of hundreds lost their lives, hundreds of thousands rendered homeless with unknown number sustaining physical and psychological injuries with women getting assaulted sexually.
Various governmental and non-governmental institutions both from within and outside embarked in an investigative mission to unearth the invisible minds behind the treasonous act. After years and months of probe, names of six men colloquially inferred as 'Ocampo Six' were made public.
The six were: Kass FM influential radio presenter Joshua Sang, Henry Kosgei, Mohammed Ali, Francis Muthaura, Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto. Though the aforenamed didn't pull a trigger nor unleash arrows, they were believed to have instigated the violence through; funding, encouragement and organization.
The failure by Kenyan government to prosecute the perpetrators saw International Court of Justice taking the case. The wheel of justice started rolling in late 2010 and with assurity, ICC promised to serve the victims justice by making Kenya an example to the region and world at large.
ICC affirmed it had enough evidence and witnesses to make the process a success but little did they know that the suspects were hatching underhand but yet pragmatic tactics to evade their fangs.
By then, Uhuru and Ruto were in different political camps but fate did that it does better; it brought them together. Besides, birds of the same feather? Flock together! They joines forces and a plan to beat a common enemy started hatching.
How can we beat them? they predictably asked themselves. Let us get power, with power we can adjust sails to our direction they agreed. Soon a political coalition dubbed Jubilee come to be with Uhuru Kenyatta being the flag bearer with William as his running mate.
UhuRuto staged one of the greatest campaigns in 21st century and their message was; We are the victims of political and international witch hunt. After the polls, the duo were elected as president and deputy president respectively. CORD leader Raila Odinga challenged the poll outcome in the supreme court but Willy Mutunga ruled in their favour.
Their victory formed the base of them slaughtering the beast that was baying for their blood. Jubilee government extended their tentacles in African States summit. They made it look like ICC was a biased and a racist entity used by the white man to mingle with African affairs.
African leaders threw their gauntlets behind Kenya and a possible walkout from ICC was in the offing. In 2015, South Africa which has been an ardent supporter of ICJ refused to arrest Sudan president Omar Al-Bashir when he visited the country. Africa was united against their enemy and this to UhuRuto was a quantum victory.
The next phase of their play was masterminded by Kenyan government of which Uhuru and Ruto were a party to. The government slackened and refused to cooperate by presenting forth crucial documents among them the bank statements of the suspects and phone call database.
Fatou Bensouda publicly confessed that though the government assured them of cooperation, it was doing the contrary; not cooperating. You tell me, how can you help someone with evidence to crucify you? That was what Fatou wanted UhuRuto to do and they did that you and I would have done.
As ICC was battling storms to solidify their evidence, Jubilee government brought fourth their third tactic. An invisible being started threatening the suspected witnesses and this did send shivers among those who were willing to testify. Witness withdrawal hit the prosecutor with a thud and without a witness, what will happen to the suspect? Lawyers and judges in the house, hone us!
The very ICC which had espoused 2007/08 victims' hopes was beaten in their own game and the victims had nothing to boost of but scars and ugly memories. The unwillingness of Kenyan government to bring forth the perpetrators of crime against humanity into justice, will verily remain to be a dreary ghost in Kenyan history.