NAIROBI, Kenya, Apr 6 — Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna has dismissed warnings for possible indictments for crimes against humanity at the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) terming the judicial institution as impotent.
Responding to a statement by House Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah who warned the opposition Azimio alliance against acts of anarchy, Sifuna the court “will never jail anyone”.
“One thing I truly admire about these Kenya Kwanza clowns like Ichung’wa is their audacity. Who are you scaring with ICC? Write all the letters you want,” he tweeted, adding “…that court will never jail anyone. Write the letter I will give you a stamp.”
Ichung’wah had threatened to write to The Hague over what he described as Azimio leader Raila Odinga’s use of violence to blackmail a legally constituted government.
“We want to tell Raila, we have no problem with you demonstrating, but demonstrate peacefully. And that’s why we are telling Raila Odinga, your system of looting, your system of anarchy, your system of using bloodshed to blackmail the country will come to an end,” the House Majority Leader affirmed.
He promised to act “not next year, not after the next elections [but] this year.”
“That is why I have said I will propose an agenda to our Parliamentary Group meeting next week that we write to the ICC to take measures to ensure that Raila Odinga and his sponsors do not slide our country back into anarchy,” Ichung’wah said.
ICC monitoring Azimio
If adopted, Ichung’wah said he will formally ask the Hague-based court to start actively following happenings in Kenya.
“If our PG agrees with us, we will write to ICC because it is now very clear that all Raila Odinga and his team want is to blackmail the country using violence, anarchy, looting, and bloodshed to get into the system of government,” Ichung’wah said in the company of House Majority Whip Slyvanus Osoro.
Kenya Kwanza leaders have turned down proposals from Odinga to expand the scope of the bipartisan negotiations to include externally mediated dialogue that would put an end to the opposition-led anti-government protests.
The leaders declared that they were ready to nominate participants to lead the bipartisan negotiations within the framework of Parliament as proposed by President William Ruto.
“Bring the list of your people, we are ready for talks, and let’s focus on the interests of all Kenyans not issues about positions of power,” said Ichung’wah.
Since the onset of pro-Azimio demonstrations, both the government and opposition have at one time threatened to involve ICC over acts of violence.
Azimio has singled out police offer what it has described as use of brutal force against demonstrators.
Odinga’s running mate in the 2022 presidential election specifically warned the police saying she would push for prosecutions at The Hague.
“I am reminding you as police officers to be very careful when dealing with demonstrators because your former police boss was taken to the Hague because of his actions during the violence in 2007,” Karua warned on March 12.
ICC has taken up cases involving crimes against humanity in Kenya once before indicting six Kenyans over the 2007-08 post-election violence.
The cases however collapsed after the prosecution dropped them citing lack of evidence due to noncooperation.
