The declaration of a mistrial by judges of the International Criminal Court of crimes against humanity charges facing Deputy William Ruto and journalist Joshua Sang comes as a great a relief. Not only to the suspects, but also to a country that was growing weary of the long-winded trials.

It is easy to conclude that the spectacular collapse of the case is an indictment of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, for failing to present watertight evidence to convict the accused. Yet according to presiding ICC Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji, "...there was a disturbing scale of witness interference in the Ruto/Sang case that made an acquittal a grossly unjust option." But the unspoken irony is that those who had condemned the ICC will celebrate its ruling as just and favourable. But not the victims.

As the country gears up for elections in August next year, it is comforting that the campaigns will not centre around the ICC; that at least voters will be offered a real choice based on real issues and not a referendum on the ICC as happened in the 2013 elections, though the ICC somehow acted as a deterrent against violence.

Yet in the final analysis, the ruling represents a triumph of a judicial process: that the weight of the evidence and nothing else argued before a highly competent bench, would matter after all.

The unfortunate consequence of the ruling would be that it entrenches the culture of impunity where no one is held to account for violence and injustice meted on the innocent to score political goals. Because for the nearly 1,200 people who lost their lives and the hundreds of thousands who were displaced in the 2007/08 post-election violence, their cry for justice has not been answered. The hard questions will not go away.

Are Kenyans likely to resort to violence in a future electoral contest? In other words, have lessons been learnt from the violence of 2007/08? It is time for the Jubilee coalition to consolidate itself and get down to work. So muchin terms of time, energy and money has been spent in efforts to free the accused. From the time the indictments were pronounced by former prosecutor Louis Moreno-Ocampo, to Tuesday's declaration, nothing was spared (including beseeching the United Nations Security Council) to free the suspects.

The intention of the court remains noble. The Rome Statute has a place in the current world where the poor, the innocent and the helpless face injustice from the merchants of power.

And so, this is no time to gloat over the developments at the ICC because that risks sowing unnecessary division. After all, we have a much bigger interest as a nation. There is a feeling that the underlying causes of the violence have not been fully addressed. And that despite a new Constitution, many of the issues under Agenda Four are still pending, probably forgotten. It is obvious that the price of inaction will be higher than in 2007/08. And not even the ICC will offer a solution.

No doubt, other than an awfully incompetent Electoral agency, a rotten Judiciary precipitated the outbreak of violence in 2007. And it is ominous that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and the Judiciary are suffering grave confidence crisis 14 months to the next elections.