Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya’s current president, has been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “orchestrating deadly violence” after the 2007 election. His trial is set to begin in November.
There are so many crazy things about this situation. First, that the Kenyans seemingly elected this apparent war criminal. (Why is this shocking? Americans did this too when we re-elected George W. However, GWB probably committed war crimes against others. Kenyatta is accused of war crimes against his own people. Speaking of parallels, Kenyatta is also the son of the first president Jomo Kenyatta, like George W. is the son of George HW.)
Secondly, and equally stunning to me, is that this trial is actually going forward. Can you even imagine an American president being indicted for war crimes? (Certainly, a large percentage of them deserve it.)
Finally, what happens if he’s convicted? This seems unlikely because the witnesses for the prosecution are dropping like flies citing security concerns. Will someone detain him? Will there be new elections?
The ICC faces its own legitimacy issues not least from the fact that the U.S. is not a party to it. Plus, so far its only open cases are in Africa, giving fodder to the critics who argue that it’s a biased entity.
I've heard that Kenyans were a little defensive of Kenyatta when the ICC went after him, citing the bias you allude to that all the people sitting for trials are from Africa. I'd be curious if you talk to any Kenyans about this what their response might be.
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