WHISPERS
 By Mboneko Munyaga, East African News Agency
Local trial of crimes against humanity timely decision
One of the landmark decisions that came out of the10th extraordinary summit of the heads of state of the East African Community (EAC) was the decision to grant powers to the region’s Court of Justice to try cases of crimes against humanity.
In the joint communique of their summit held in Arusha on April, 2012, the leaders said:
”The summit welcomed the resolution by the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) for expediting amendment of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community to extend jurisdiction of the East African Court of Justice or the conclusion of the protocol on this matter.
“The Summit looked into the matter of extending this jurisdiction to cover, among others crimes against humanity.”
The leaders directed the Council of Ministers to have considered the matter by the end of this month and report progress to an extraordinary summit meeting next month.
If the region had such a court, there would have been no need for three prominent Kenyan politicians and a radio presenter to be tried in The Hague for crimes committed during the 2007/08 post election violence that they are believed to have either abetted or instigated.
The violence left 1,133 people dead and 650,000 dislodged from their homes in the region’s worst and most shameful show of savagery. The leaders also deserve further praise for the simple fact that they agreed to be held accountable their excesses of power.
Why didn’t the treaty foresee such a situation when it provided for the establishment of the East African Court of justice? The court could have been given criminal jurisdiction then and be able to deal with cases like the Kenyan situation. Otherwise, to handle the Kenyan situation it would require retrospect jurisdiction. How far back could the region go? That would open up a can of worms.
But membership to the EALA itself also needs to be given greater democratic face. It is high time people aspiring to represent their countries in EALA were popularly elected instead of the present system whereby they are kind of “nominees” of their respective national legislatures.
In his state of the address last month, President Mwai Kibaki told Kenyans that the government was working on having the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Uhuru Kenyatta, the former head of the public service, Mr Francis Muthaura, the Eldoret North MP, Mr William Ruto and radio presenter, Mr Joshua arap Sang charged at The Hague for crimes against humanity tried at home.
Let us all agree that Kenya has realized rather belatedly that trial by its nationals by the International Criminal Court (ICC) was erosion of its own pride and standing in the global civilisation of nations. In fact, even without human rights court, there was still opportunity for the suspects to be tried at home.
The summit also considered South Sudan’s application to join the community and expressed satisfaction that the Council of Ministers had initiated a verification process for Africa’s newest nation to join the grouping.
But I think geographic expansion of the community is another matter in which the people should be directly involved and their opinion sought. EAC is a grouping which is still in transition. As the heads of state noted, the bloc is still working on modalities for consolidating the single Customs region modalities.
It is my view, rather too ambitious to be consolidating and expanding the bloc at the same time. Of course consolidating will also continue for fairy long time to come. My point of view is that new applicants should not be given straight full membership status but be admitted on a system of tiered levels during which they would be under observation for adherence to the region’s ideals.
Even without the ongoing tension with the Republic of Sudan, South Sudan itself was a disappointment soon after independence as it plunged into bloody tribal wars for self annihilation. It is hardly the kind of behaviour that East Africans are ready to condone or turn a blind eye as the region’s moves to hold accountable for crimes against humanity.
Even though South Sudan’s application was postponed for consideration up to the November ordinary summit, it is my humble opinion that Juba is not yet ready to be part of the East African fraternity. We should not risk running into considerations as we move very progressively forwards. |
