Actions by African despots make staying inside the ICC attractive

In the same week that President Uhuru Kenyatta refocused us on the ICC and ODM leader Raila Odinga instinctively, and I believe unwisely, waded into this political hot potato, two sets of events were occurring in Africa and the Middle East. The events explain two contrasting views that many in the continent hold on the ICC.

Those who hold the view that Africa needs the ICC were emboldened by events in South Sudan and Gambia. In South Sudan, Yasmin Sooka the Chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, submitted a report to the UN Human Rights Council which warned of a “Rwanda-like genocide” unless the UN took immediate pre-emptive action. It is clear from the report that most of the atrocities are being committed by President Salva Kirr’s soldiers as they seek to eradicate anything remotely Riek Machar. Without international action, including a credible threat of prosecution of the perpetrators of this ongoing genocide by the ICC, there is no incentive for cessation of this violence.