‘Free at Last!’
screamed the Saturday Standard and Saturday Nation editions of December 6,
2014. After a six-year battle along the corridors of The International Criminal
Court (ICC), in The Hague, Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has withdrawn
charges against President Uhuru Kenyatta. The Country’s CEO has been vindicated
by the ICC. The investigation and prosecution of this case were simply inept
and flawed, as she inherited them from her predecessor, Luis Moreno Ocampo. She
has suffered a bloody nose and still at pains to accept it. She now has Deputy
President, William Ruto and radio presenter Joshua arap Sang, to pursue to a
legally logical end, or fail once more.
The head of State
humbly accepted this massive victory, and as a nation, we can breathe a sigh of
relief as he can now focus all his energies on improving the welfare of the
Kenyan citizenry. Credit goes to the president for morally winning this battle
in court, rather than through the cheap politics that most of the usual
sycophants in our politics propagated. However, as a nation ululates in joy and
the media captures it all, as most of the politicians sycophantically chant
victory tunes and the deliberate decibels get louder, a unique cry is slowly
but surely being drowned! It is the cry of those who bore the brunt of the
07-08 quagmire. The real victims who were burnt alive inside the Assemblies of
God Church in Kiambaa and other places, those who were decapitated, defenestrated,
butchered, massacred and smoked out of their homes. They still cry for justice,
and those six-feet under now, still need justice. Their tormentors remain free,
roaming the country, worse still, confident that they got away with such
horrible crimes, and that they can do it again! They are free, with innocent
blood on their hands, as their victims live deplorably as refugees in their own
country. The victims are still scarred and traumatized, some had their lives
permanently changed for worse, and to them, an election is a scarily agonizing
experience for them.
As the cases trudged
on at The Hague, locally, we took no steps no heal the victims. Political
alliances came together under the pretext of uniting the country. But is
logically, can there be uniting, when reconciliation has never taken place and
the perpetrators have not owned up to their crimes? Perhaps the best example to
learn from is our neighbors, Rwanda. When the horrific 1994 genocide where
close to a million Rwandans, from both the Hutus and Tutsis were butchered, and
ICC set up the Arusha Tribunal to try the big fish responsible, back in the
country, the locals set up Gacaca Courts where the smaller fish
were brought to book, and the perfect example of reconciliation was
experienced, as tormentors and surviving victims came face to face, forgave and
embrace each other as a brother and sister. We have refused to learn from
Rwanda, and what we have done is simply run away from our past, a past that
might come back to haunt us in the future. The wounds and scars have never been
healed, victims have cried for elusive justice for a lengthy seven years.
Bensouda has failed them and locally, our leaders and judicial system, ahs
horribly failed them. They are the forgotten lot, refugees in their mother
country, while their perpetrators live freely amongst us.
How bitter does a
victim feel, when he or she knows that the person who butchered her family,
raped her and burned her hard-earned property, is still free somewhere in the
country? The perpetrators of these heinous crimes roam freely as their victims
lie six-feet under and the survivors agonize on how their lives were cruelly
changed. Communities have never forgiven each other and to best put it, the
deceiving façade of uneasy calm has lied to us that all is well. Those who were
flushed out of Rift Valley, Kisumu, Central Kenya and other places under the
pretext that they were aliens or visitors there, have never gone back, and they
are scarred to, considering the fire that almost burned them there. Can we then
say that we have healed and forgiven each other? No.
Cheap politics and
forgetful memories have misled us on how we ought to have dealt with the ghosts
of 07-08. However, we still have a chance to make amends. Kenyans who called
each other neighbors regardless of their tribal et ethnic differences should do
that once again, our politicians should lead the way and put reconciliation
between the affected communities to practice, our judiciary and police should
put their feet down and follow up on perpetrators who are still free, and the
entire nation should re-think and face this ghost of 07-08, and logically and
comprehensively deal with it. We can borrow from what Rwanda did.
Otherwise,
this uneasy calm that we pretend to be reconciliation, might one day explode
and make us cry. We cannot afford to throw this great country to the dogs once
again, No!
Reach
the writer at jeanmutua@yahoo.com
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