The arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, issued by the Worldwide Legal Court docket (ICC), have introduced again not-so-fond recollections to many Kenyans. Greater than a decade in the past, then Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy – present President William Ruto – grew to become the primary incumbent heads of state or authorities to truly face an ICC trial, having been indicted earlier than they bought into workplace.
Nevertheless, whereas each Kenyatta and Ruto selected to cooperate with the courtroom – at the least on the face of it – and attended their trials, thus obviating the necessity for an arrest warrant, it’s unlikely that Netanyahu and Gallant will probably be taking a visit to The Hague any time quickly.
Kenyatta and Ruto have been accused of being answerable for the violence that adopted the nation’s disputed 2007 election, through which greater than 1,300 individuals misplaced their lives. The 2 had been on opposing sides of the battle and have been alleged to have organised and funded “tribal” militia to hold out killings.
So far, solely a handful of individuals have ever been prosecuted for the murders, rapes and mutilation that led to the forcible displacement of 660,000 individuals, and it was solely after the Kenyan state proved unwilling to behave that the ICC stepped in.
Equally, when he utilized for warrants for the Israeli leaders in Could, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan – who coincidentally headed Ruto’s defence group – additionally indicated he can be comfortable to defer prosecution if Israel’s justice system exhibits any willingness to take motion in opposition to Netanyahu and Gallant and “have interaction in impartial and neutral judicial processes that don’t protect suspects and usually are not a sham”.
The ICC judges have now agreed that there are cheap grounds to imagine the 2 bear felony duty for the numerous crimes dedicated by Israel in opposition to the Palestinians throughout its ongoing genocidal assault on Gaza. With an official demise toll of greater than 44,000, Gaza has witnessed murders, rapes and displacement on an enormous scale, in addition to mass hunger, and the deliberate focusing on of faculties, hospitals and locations of worship.
Many have complained concerning the seven-month-long delay within the ICC judges issuing the arrest warrants, however Kenyans needed to wait for 2 years to have the ICC prosecutor ship a request for an investigation after which one other 5 months for the courtroom to approve it. It then took one other 12 months for the precise indictment of particular people – six of them – to be handed down.
Thus, by comparability, the Palestine circumstances have moved a lot quicker.
Among the many causes for the delay within the Palestine case have been the quite a few briefs difficult the courtroom’s jurisdiction and the admissibility of the allegations. There was additionally plenty of strain placed on the ICC by Israel and its Western mates.
There have been Israeli makes an attempt to intimidate the courtroom even earlier than the struggle began final yr, with Khan’s predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, going through threats by the Mossad to not launch an investigation into Israel’s struggle crimes of 2021. Khan now himself faces accusations of sexual misconduct.
It’s notable that few Western nations got here to Kenyatta’s and Ruto’s support. Quite the opposite, there was greater than a refined trace given to Kenyans that electing Kenyatta and Ruto can be a foul concept – that “choices have consequences”.
I’m not saying they need to have opposed the duo’s arraignment, however there’s greater than a whiff of double requirements right here. It does appear that there’s extra of an curiosity in seeing justice completed when these within the dock are Africans, and never simply anti-Western.
That time is pushed dwelling when one considers how the indictments of Israeli officers have been framed within the Western press. The Guardian, for instance, described it as “the primary time a western ally from a contemporary democracy has been charged with struggle crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity by a worldwide judicial physique”.
This account comes as a shock to Kenya, which for properly over six a long time has thought-about itself a “Western ally” and which – having held common elections all through that point – may be described as one thing of a “fashionable democracy”, no matter meaning. Until, after all, these are euphemistic descriptors of extra problematic relationships.
Kenyans have a reputation for this form of factor: the “mtu wetu [our guy] syndrome”. Every time our legislators discover themselves being investigated or – God forbid! – charged with crimes, they attempt to rally their ethnic kinsmen across the concept that it’s the “tribe” being focused.
The mobilisation of an imagined identity is a political tactic that could be very efficient in scaring off prosecutors and intimidating judges each domestically and internationally. “Mtu wetu” is how Kenyatta and Ruto have been capable of keep away from prosecution at dwelling after which instrumentalise their management of the Kenyan state to undermine their circumstances on the ICC.
It’s why the ICC discovered itself accused of “race hunting” – of specializing in prosecuting Black Africans, an allegation that conveniently ignored the truth that a lot of the conditions the courtroom was pursuing had been referred to it by African governments.
“Mtu wetu” is why Netanyahu at the moment accuses the courtroom of anti-Semitism, suggesting his prosecution is an assault on all Jews. “Mtu wetu” is why immediately Germany appears much less eager on upholding its obligations beneath worldwide regulation, and why US politicians are threatening one and all, even these in Canada and Europe who maybe mistakenly thought they can be at all times a part of the tribe.
It’s sadly ironic that on the 140th anniversary of the Berlin West Africa Conference – which set the stage for European colonisation of Africa and which subsequently introduced the scourge of tribalism to the continent – that the identical irrational and totalising conception of id is being weaponised within the West to defend individuals accused of a few of the worst classes of crimes conceivable.
The views expressed on this article are the creator’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
