William Ruto is now a free man. The International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted six Kenyans on charges of crimes against humanity but Ruto was the centrepiece, the man of the moment. The Prosecutor showcased him as the master planner and architect of the 2007 post-election violence, the penultimate warlord. He availed himself in court in person early, and demonstrated a stubborn commitment to the court process until the end. When the case commenced, he told the court that accusations levelled against him were just as fictitious as the Hollywood movies.
In November last year, I wrote in this column that Ruto was “a victim of a morbid conspiracy by a cabal of power hungry characters around the former President Mwai Kibaki who abused office to fix him.” I had argued that the “indefatigable Ruto, with immense organisational skills and great oratorical prowess, threw in everything he had to dislodge the incumbent” and hence ran afoul of the system. I was on the campaign trail with him in 2007 and knew there was no systematic or planned violence; it was spontaneous eruption after PNU stole our trophy!
His acquittal however came as a surprise to many who thought that ICC would find him guilty nonetheless because it was keen in making the Kenyan cases a lesson for the rest of the world, as Prosecutor Ocampo argued when he indicted them. His case was peculiar; the government apparatus was used in 2008 to produce evidence to the Waki Commission and by extension the court, to nail him for the violence. His lawyers said as much, and named specific individuals in government who planned the indictment. The country was on the edge; if the court found him guilty, his supporters would have blamed President Uhuru’s team, with far reaching consequences for the coalition.
Kenyans have learnt a valuable lesson from the ICC cases. Our political leaders had resolved ‘don’t be vague, let’s go to Hague’, perhaps thinking that ICC would be a lesser evil, and would offer better justice. At the time, the ODM team to which Ruto belonged, had no confidence in our courts because of the Kibaki regime that framed him for the charges. But The Hague became an enigma; the court process was vague, evidence was lacking as expected and the witnesses were manifestly ‘procured’ to secure an indictment. Soon, we wanted to be out of the Rome Statute, to be back home. The West had threatened that ‘choices have consequences’ and warned against electing UhuRuto to the Presidency. But Kenyans did just that, and it paid off! Once in power, the Presidency lobbied African Union, and the world, to challenge even the legitimacy of the ICC. They mobilised political leaders in the country, and the region, to shake the foundation of the court and validity of the charges, and brought out the duplicity of the court in handling African cases. The court was on the run, its existence threatened. It had rattled Kenya, and it was paying a big price.
But it is the resilience and persistence of our nation against this court and its perceived masters that stands out as remarkable. Kenya fought for its space on the world stage and carried the day. It came out stronger, and should remain a strong proponent of sovereignty of African nations.
Politicians will however be careful in future in instigating or fanning violence. The Hague experience is too traumatic for our leaders to forget any time soon. The 2007 violence was a blot on our history. Our criminal justice system failed to deal with the perpetrators. Now that they are free, the Presidency should seek to compensate the victims.
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