Koigi Wa Wamere
Dictatorship has always been a problem for mankind. To survive, mankind must fight dictatorship and ICC is one means of eradicating tyranny not just in Kenya or Africa but the whole world. It was with shock therefore that I watched the National Assembly passing the motion seeking Kenya’s termination of her ICC membership followed by the Senate.
The ICC motion reminded me of the 1982 parliament’s change of the constitution, to end multi-party democracy and legalize one party dictatorship. As section 2A ended multiparty democracy, withdrawal from ICC will terminate rule of law and entrench impunity in Kenya. As we use parliament and the law to legalize and legitimize dictatorship by withdrawing from ICC, we must heed law of God or Nature that is superior to law made by parliament, supports ICC and is in conflict with any law that will expose Kenyans to tyranny.
Again as I watched MPs from the Jubilee Coalition exercise their tyranny of numbers to pass this dangerous motion and exhibit a high level of hubris, I remembered how parliament without opposition, with a very high level of hubris, inserted section 2A into the constitution and with it subjected Kenya to a cruel dictatorship for the next ten years.
Many societies believe hubris is one sin for which gods will always punish any man that is guilty. Let Jubilee MPs be warned by the hubris of KANU. Pride comes before a fall. ICC was established in 1998, long before it was known that Uhuru would be President and Ruto Deputy President of Kenya. Yet ICC is portrayed as if it was established to maliciously prosecute Uhuru and Ruto and enthrone Raila Odinga. Nor did the ICC come looking for Kenyans to prosecute. It is Kenyans who took themselves to The Hague saying ICC justice was better than Kenyan justice, also believing it took ICC more than 90 years to prosecute a case and Kenyan suspects were therefore beyond prosecution.
Fundamentally, ICC was not established for Kenya or Africa but to tame dictators everywhere. And in Africa, after independence, most countries were victims of either leftist or rightist one-party dictatorship that subjected people to so much terror and genocide that masses wondered when African independence would end!
Before African Union that is now up in arms against ICC existed, its predecessor, OAU was a club of African dictators whose only purpose was to protect African tyranny, impunity, leaders’ loot and life presidencies. Today African Union dictators are fighting ICC because they too intend to kill the  rule of law, put themselves above the law, restore dictatorship, eliminate opposition and reclaim absolute freedom to steal, plunder, loot and commit genocide, crimes of war and against humanity with absolute impunity.
In the Man for All Seasons, had Sir Thomas Moore been living in Kenya today, he would warn Kenyans that if they clear the forest of the law, or withdraw from ICC; when the devil attacks, they will have nowhere to hide or seek refuge.
This is what Kenyans are risking by pulling out of ICC.
Koigi Wa Wamere is a former detainee of the Kenyatta and Moi era.