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Ocampo`s tour to Nairobi National Park accompanied by the Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo who also doubled up as his cicerone; elicited varied reactions from the fourth estate and by extension, the public.

For a moment I too thought that the Government had elected to give sop to Ceberius to secure a nod for the local trial of the Lords of Impunity behind the 2007 Post Election Violence (PEV). I waited with abated breath for the usual theatrics. I am certain that like me there are many others who shared this misgiving. Worry no more.

Belatedly, the reality of his tour to the park hit me like a thunderbolt. How could I have failed to unravel the powerful symbolism in this tour?

You see, Ocampo has spent a good part of his professional life taming individuals who know nothing other than the rule of the jungle. A Busman`s tour to a park where beasts of the jungle are tamed enabled him not only to horn his skills in taming them but also inspired him into buckling his armor in readiness to tame the real Kenyan Lords of the jungle; read the perpetrators of the 2007 horrendous Post Election Violence(PEV).

And sure enough, it was hot on the heels of his tour to the Nairobi National Park that his verbatim and body language caused hemi cranial headaches to many a suspect. He left no doubt that he had his hands firm on the plough. This is after he invoked Article 15 of the Rome Statute seeking ICC`s permission to commence investigations and prosecutions of crimes against humanity committed during PEV in Kenya. What this means is that Kenya`s case is almost certainly hermetically sealed. Sovereignty or not, the country will most certainly kowtow to ICC`s demands for the arrests of these suspects if and when need arises.

As for those who have been trotting from region to region purveying piles of hogwash about ICC`s inability to dispose timely justice, Ocampo has nailed your lies to the counter. Indeed Hague will not be vague. A rude shock awaits you in a jiffy.

Francis Tome
Bumula Constituency

Perhaps the missile code named Grand Coalition Government (GCG) auto –destructed itself after its much hyped launch. It set out to navigate the judicial path of Post Election Violence (PEV) and implement essential reforms commonly referred to as “agenda four” with more bravado than common sense. Now everything is at a stand still yet the clock is fast ticking. All indications are that we are heading into a Cimmerian darkness. Even though the Grand Coalition Government keeps on reassuring Kenyans that it is committed to fighting impunity, one cannot fail to see impunity`s usual appurtenances. The permanent nature of GCG feebleness keeps on rearing its ugly head ad infinitum. Everyone right from the government functionaries enjoys a carte blanche. And the result is an avalanche of confusion in the GCG`s operations.

That is why Kenya`s foreign affairs Permanent Secretary; Thuita Mwangi easily adopted a very blinkered attitude of the conscientious public and then belligerently arrogated himself the power to pen down balderdash in one of the leading local dailies on the eve of the ICC prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo`s visit in the country. In fact, Thuita only stopped short of declaring Ocampo a persona non grata in this country. This is obviously a case of engaging in a two penny theatrics on issues touching on the heartbeat of the nation.

The two principals on reading the mood of the conscientious public ostensibly castigated Mwangi for the impermissible conduct. However, a day later when the two met the ICC prosecutor, their body language on Ocampo`s demands was anything but different from Thuita`s. Beneath their well coded diplomatic verbiage was a tacit message to Ocampo and by extension the international community that Kenya was a sovereign state able to deal with its own internal problems without external interference. Now this is ad hominem par excellence. Like Thuita the two principals must be told that anybody perceived to be standing in the way of justice is an enemy of public conscience.

Thinking of using a special wing of the high court that reeks with impunity to try suspected perpetrators of PEV is ad nauseum. It will be chimerical. This will be chicanery most foul. It will no doubt be interpreted by the post election victims as an attempt to defenestrate justice and pamper the afreet of impunity. The time for bread and circuses is out. The two principals seem to working at cross purposes with the conscientious public.

We must stop behaving as though we are a people suffering from borderline personality disorder. Parliament made a resounding decision. “Let us not be vague, let us go to Hague”. So be it. Why backpedal and embellish incendiarism? It will be in our best interest as a country if we ceased beguiling ourselves with abrogation talk. Such talks will amount to nothing because ICC has no abandonment option. My exhortation to the President and the Prime Minister is not to allow the country to be held captive by the mumbo-jumbo sovereignty balderdash.

Tome Francis,

Bumula Constituency.

We hear two Cabinet ministers who believe their names are in the secret envelope of key perpetrators of the post-election violence are now working behind the scenes to ensure speedy passage of a Bill that seeks to create a local tribunal once Parliament reopens on Tuesday. The ministers are shocked at the zeal with which ICC prosecutor Louis Moreno Ocampo has taken up the matter and are scared stiff that he may issue warrants of arrest against them.

Corridors of Power has it that an officer at the Ngong Police Station is engaging in open corruption and impunity. The cop, attached to the Traffic Department, has been going around the town on Saturday evenings arbitrarily impounding vehicles parked on the streets and accusing the owners of obstruction. Anyone whose vehicle is impounded is expected to pay a Sh1,000 bribe to have it released, no charge and no record of the alleged offence!

Remember the MP from Nyanza who is at loggerheads with his wife after spending in his election campaigns Sh20 million which was given to her by donors to establish a home for orphans? Well, the donors have decided to take part of the MP's home compound where they are now putting up the orphanage. The MP was initially using a building in the compound as a guest house before finally moving in.

And still in Nyanza, another broke MP is struggling to clear the bills he ran up at a popular and high-class hotel in Kisumu. The legislator has now been forced to spend his nights in one of the low-class hotels after managers at the classy joint refused him the right of admission until he clears his outstanding bills. The MP has taken to spending his days and nights in Kisumu instead of travelling to his constituency because he does not want to meet with the constituents!

Some leaders of civil society groups are going around asking donors not to fund the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission led by ambassador Bethwel Kiplagat because "it lacks credibility". We hear some of the activists are so determined to derail the commission that they have been quietly meeting donors who were initially willing to fund the commission and made some of them hold back their money until they "consult further."

Speaking of civil society, there is division among its members over whether to support the enactment of a law which would force each organisation to declare and account for all the money given by donors. A section of the civil society claims their colleagues practice double standards — demanding, indeed pushing for the government to be transparent, accountable and observe good governance practices while they remain obtuse, opaque and dictatorial in their organisations.

Just when does the mandate of the "elders" appointed by Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo end? The team led by Justice Effie Owuor and political scientist Prof Peter Wanyande has been operating under Mutula's ministry for months now. Initially, it was expected that they will stop their activities once the National Cohesion Commission was formed and sworn in. The commission has been in office for more than a month but the "elders" are still in office and continue to draw allowances. They are now pushing to have the government release Sh100 million so that they can organise a national elders conference! To rub salt into the wound, Mutula's "elders" want the national cohesion commissioners to attend the conference as participants!

Eldoret businessman Jackson Kibor was early yesterday spotted in PM Raila's office at The Treasury. Our moles say Kibor was carrying an old briefcase full of documents which formed the basis of the discussion with the PM. Kibor who is said to have fallen out with minister Ruto is said to be working on a new political arrangement with Raila.

It's hard to remember the last time when the expected arrival of a foreigner generated such anticipation in this country.

Maybe it was the keenly awaited arrival of Kofi Annan early last year when we were steadily sliding towards some form of civil war and needed outside intervention.

But we were a shocked and traumatised people then - and much has changed since. So why is Moreno Ocampo's expected visit considered very important?

Will he bring food for our starving millions in the semi-arid areas? Will he rebuild the bridges and houses recently washed away by floods? Or does he perhaps have some grand plan for the resettlement of the IDPs as well as those who will soon be displaced when the Mau Forest evictions begin in earnest?

No, it is none of these. What Ocampo is supposedly coming here to do is to "end impunity". To begin a process that will allegedly see the high and mighty brought down to the dust; seized and placed in handcuffs; and marched off to The Hague to be tried for "crimes against humanity" or some other such grievous offences.

And there are those who argue that he already has all the evidence he could possibly need, to see all this through. And that the sight of handcuffs on wrists which at present wear Rolex watches can only be a matter of time.

In the circumstances, it may seem almost unpatriotic to cast doubt on the likely consequences of Ocampo's intervention. After all, it is indelibly in our historical records that our elections are often accompanied by organised violence and mass evictions, and if there is any chance that this man can help us end this shameful tradition, then we should support him unconditionally.

Still, I must express my reservation. First, as to whether he wants the same thing that we want.

And secondly, whether his methods will work at all, even if we all want the same thing.

As concerns his intention, I would say that the famous Argentinian is out to make history. He has said himself that he wants to "make Kenya an example". Thus, he is in pursuit of abstract justice, and Kenya just happens to be a convenient vessel for this purpose. He is not really interested in what happens to the country after he has successfully brought some of our more prominent politicians to trial.

What he wants is to be able to tell the rest of Africa, perhaps the rest of the developing world, "Do you see what I did to those leading politicians in Kenya? Well, you better behave yourselves, or I will do the same to you."

The election-related violence in many developing nations happens mostly because politicians believe they can get away with it. But also because appealing to ethnic sentiment - particularly if you can inject a massive dose of victimhood into the mix - it is often a surer path to victory than trying to unite diverse communities and peoples.

For victims always believe that they were acting in self-defence when they committed whatever atrocities are attributed to them.

And this brings us to the nuts and bolts of where think Ocampo - with the best intentions in the world - cannot fail to disappoint.

Consider, for a start, the mass eviction, murder, arson attacks, thefts and destruction of property, and so on, that was inflicted on members of the Kikuyu community in the northern Rift Valley. There has long been a suggestion in some quarters that some leading Kalenjin politicians in that region actively planned and financed these operations.

Now if any such leader should be taken before some tribunal, either here in Kenya or in The Hague, do you seriously imagine that there will be a single Kalenjin witness coming forward for the prosecution? Is it not more likely that the witnesses will all be Kikuyus or perhaps from some other tribe? And if this leader is found guilty, will any Kalenjin really believe that justice has been done?

Or will they instead see this as yet another case of the Kikuyu trampling on 'the Kalenjin - a trampling that they will no doubt look forward to repaying at some future date.

The thing to bear in mind is that the schisms that run through our country are so deep, that something which up to now has been said of the Middle East protagonists is equally true of rival Kenyan communities: One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

Muga comments on topical issues.