With friends like us, ICC needs no enemies

It is sad but true that during a week in which the world’s eyes were trained on Kenya for all the wrong reasons, some among us have sought every opportunity to diminish our standing as a nation even further. It is perhaps no exaggeration to say that we have collectively succeeded in making fools of ourselves before the whole world.

While Deputy President William Ruto and radio journalist Joshua arap Sang were doing their best to stay on the right side of the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Kenyan social media trolls were making life hell on Earth all over again for a victim of the violence that engulfed Kenya after the 2007 elections.

It did not appear to matter to the social media crowd that the victim — the first witness at the trial of Kenyans charged with carrying out mass killings, rape and evictions — came close to death during the Kiambaa church attack in which 34 women and children sheltering from violence were burnt to death.

No it didn’t.

On a day when Kenyans should have paused to remember the tragedy of our politics, some embarked on the cowardly pursuit of seeking to expose the identity of the Kiambaa witness for reasons best known to themselves.

That the proceedings at The Hague were subsequently moved to private chambers away from the public glare is tribute to these marauding cyber-bullies. The distress caused to a young woman after her photo was circulated as that of the first witness is mere collateral damage.

Where’s the fairness? Where’s the justice here?

With such a public disdain towards the crisis that rocked our country in 2007 and 2008 — an assault that came close to closing the curtains on Project Kenya — everyone has cause to fear that we would rather forget our history than learn from it.

The evidence of this hides in plain sight. Amidst all that, yesterday we were treated to more claims surrounding the family of a former head of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, a body which documented the post-election violence and upon whose evidence many of the cases at The Hague rest.

Although the facts are vague for now, there was sufficient apprehension among civil society groups to warrant a press conference in which the former official claimed that police had moved into the family’s rural home to provide protection but without saying whether this was precautionary or in response to any specific threat.

We hope police are alive to the risks of rogue elements making a bad situation worse. We hope too that the statements coming from the civil society officials are well considered for the same reasons.

Thousands of miles away, at The Hague, Kenyan Members of Parliament were making a spectacle of themselves to the point of having security officials called in to ensure matters did not get out of hand.

Pictures of the Kenyans confronting police outside the courthouse will do nothing to repair the damage caused to Kenya’s reputation this week.

You would think that leaders, if no-one else, would lead by example on this occasion in ensuring that the memory of those lost in the tragic violence is not trifled with — never mind the fact that it is political rhetoric that drove the nation to the brink.

Kenyans of all persuasions who are now so intent on outdoing one another in a show support for The Hague Three must be told that the events that gave birth to the international trial cannot be wished away.

They must be reminded that the trial represents for many a painful chapter of their life, one that cannot easily be replaced promises of a cohesive future.

They must surely know that The Hague trial should be approached with maturity and circumspection, not as one would a political contest in the true Kenyan tradition.

Should Kenya pull out of the Rome Treaty and show the ICC its back? This week, more than at any time since 2008, Kenyans had reason to fear a future in which the ICC plays no part thanks to urban bloggers, rural vigilantes and itinerant politicians.