AFRICA HOBBLING OUT OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

Africa, it seems, has begun the long-talked about process of withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Last week, Burundi was the first country to declare serious plans to pull out of the 124-nation organization. For a country that has an illegitimate government and a devastatingly deplorable record of human rights abuses that decision was not entirely surprising. And for good reasons.

The tiny eastern African country has been on the eye of the world Court since President Pierre Nkurunziza unleashed a wave of extra-judicial killings a year ago in an attempt to retain power for the third term against a promise he made to his people in 2005.

Street violence erupted and the African Union (AU) unreasonably blocked any moves to deploy international peace-keeping forces leaving the government there to butcher its people for months on end. Many were killed and thousands fled to refugee camps in neighboring countries.

That Burundi's decision was a pre-emptive move to avoid criminal proceedings at The Hague against some known personalities is obvious. Only last month, the UN named a number of Burundians it claimed perpetrated the alleged atrocities and demanded accountability. With the proposed pull-out, Nkurunziza feels, rather irrationally, that he would be safe from any punitive action by the world Court. He may be wrong.

Nevertheless, Burundi's action has opened a Pandora's box. A few days after the Bujumbura Parliament endorsed the move, South Africa fired a letter to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressing an interest to leave.

South Africa is, in many ways, the leader of the pack in the continent, and its shift away from the ICC - which a former South African Justice Richard Goldstone has described as "unfortunate on legal, moral and political grounds" - could trigger an exodus of African countries out of the Rome Statutes.

That proved to be somewhat true this Wednesday when the small West African country of Gambia joined the fray with President Yahya Jammeh charging that the ICC had become the "International Caucasian Court" because it only prosecuted people of color. The irony to be noted here is that the ICC's abrasive Chief Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, is a citizen of Gambia and was once Jammeh's adviser.

The push for a possible mass exit by African nations has been in the books at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, since six Kenyans were indicted by the ICC for their alleged connection to the 2007/2008 post-election violence in the East African country. The six including President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto were acquitted separately largely due to lack of evidence.

The ruling Jubilee Party in Kenya endorsed the country's departure from the ICC as early as 2013, and in 2016, Parliament passed a Bill to sever ties with the Court, emboldening Uhuru to declare emphatically that no Kenyan will ever again follow "the Hague-route" in future. Since then authorities in Nairobi have maintained a grim silence over whether or not to move ahead with the decision. Last week, the President's spokesman said the issue was still in the Cabinet. But this latest development could inspire Kenya to move ahead with speed.

There is already speculation that more African countries will leave for the same reason that the ICC is targeting only Africa leaving many other 'bad' countries to go scot free.

For the record, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Tunisia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, objected to a mass walk-out by African countries when it was proposed by among others Kenya during the AU Summit in July. They won that fight and are now advocating for reforms rather than a mass pull-out.

Unfortunately, the nascent AU-driven African Court of Justice and Human Rights which was created as Africa's answer to the ICC has not made any progress to address the crucial issue of widespread political and social killings under dictatorial regimes in the continent. This leaves the ICC as the only overseer of serious human rights abuses.

However, until the year-long notices expire and the long process of withdrawal is complete, Burundi, South Africa and Gambia will still be subjected to watch-dogging by the ICC and will be held responsible for any actions that breach ICC rules

.

And that is my say.

(ALL MY BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE IN KENYA AND VIA AMAZON.COM)

AFRICAN LEADERS DOING LITTLE TO STEM ILLICIT DRUG TRAFFICKING

Over the past decade Africa has moved closer to the top tier of countries most involved in international smuggling of illicit drugs.

Global drug syndicates driven by criminal gangs, crafty businessmen and greedy politicians and aided and abetted by crooked policemen and border customs officials, have successfully and effectively stretched their nefarious activities into the continent to take advantage of unpatrolled borders, weak justice systems and official corruption.

Africa is now being described by US officials as the "new frontier in narcotics smuggling" and by UN officials as "the market of the future" for illegal drugs.

An estimated 200 million people worldwide are said to be consumers of illegal drugs and Africa represents a good chunk of that figure. Estimates say up to 40 metric tons of drugs pass through Africa every year.

Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Djibouti, Eritrea, Mozambique, and nations in West Africa, are some of the countries used as passage-ways for cocaine and heroine from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Thailand, India, Russia and several other countries. From Africa, a large amount of the narcotics is trans-shipped to Europe and America while some of it remains, turning young African men and women into zombies.

In Kenya several big boats - among them an Australian ship which was caught in 2014 with a ton of cocaine worth 240 million US dollars - have been seized at the port of Mombasa. In some cases, the government has ordered their destruction at sea. For some unknown reasons, the crew is always left free to go.

Containers filled with drugs and disguised as sugar or relief food have also been nabbed at Mombasa, many of them linked to prominent businessmen and politicians. In addition, huge amounts of the dangerous substances find their way through porous borders across many African countries.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the UK National Crime Agency (NCA), and the UN Office of Drug and Crime (UNODC), which have been working closely with the Kenya government to stem the infiltration of narcotics have identified a number of well-known Kenyans they say are directly linked to the drug trade. At least two are county governors and others are members of parliament. Despite such revelations the government has taken no action against the individuals who are left to flaunt their illegal wealth in politics and in real estate; and own expensive vehicles, motor-boats and choppers.

As I write, two high-profile cases are in court involving, among others, family members of a one-time international drug baron, Ibrahim Akasha, who was murdered in 2000 as he strolled along a street in Amsterdam. At the time of his murder, Akasha was said to be pursuing money from a drug king for the supply of a large consignment of heroine. Five years later, one of his sons was silenced at close range in a gang-like assassination in Mombasa.

Another case currently in court in Kenya involves the grandson of a Scottish aristocrat who is accused of smuggling 100 kilograms of cocaine in containers that arrived from Brazil.

In Tanzania, a notorious drug king operating under a cartel known as the Hassan Drug Trafficking Organization was caught earlier this year and in his possession were five different passports issued in Zanzibar under different names. The individual was known to be travelling around the world dealing in narcotics and using some of his proceeds to bribe senior government officials to look the other way.

There is another related problem: Thousands of Africans caught carrying illegal drugs for their masters are serving long prison sentences abroad. According to one report, South Africa alone has more than 1,500 of its citizens in jails overseas on trafficking offences. Some of them have been executed in countries such as China and Indonesia which have some of the toughest anti-drug legislations in the world.

The drug smuggling menace is a huge challenge for Africa. Leaders must do much more than just give lip service to the fight against narcotics. They must strengthen their borders, boot out corrupt officials, and arrest the big boys - whether local or foreign - and not concentrate only small fish.

And that is my say.

(My books THE POLITICS OF BETRAYAL, DASH BEFORE DUSK and THE WRETCHED AFRICANS, are available in Kenya and at Amazon.com)

NO LET-UP ON ILLEGAL AFRICAN MIGRATION TO EUROPE

"Just like a Slave Boat' was the headline the New York Times chose last Thursday to describe the dehumanizing conditions in decrepit wooden boats African migrants use to escape misery, authoritarian regimes, ethnic massacres and poverty, to seek a better life in Europe.

The respected American broadsheet splashed on its front page a five-column six-inch-deep color picture of a vessel laden with African runaways. The coverage spread to an inside page and carried four large images of people in different stages of distress at sea. One of the pictures showed frantic immigrants pulling half-naked people from a near-capsized rubber raft at sea. According to Rick Gladstone, the writer of the story, 29 dead bodies were found in one boat that had a capacity of 150 people.

The Times headline was not misplaced. The environment in the overcrowded boats is not any different from what existed in slave ships to America in the 17th century, or in the Arab dhows that plied between the eastern African coast and Arabia, a narrative of which is covered extensively in my book the Wretched Africans, now available at Amazon.

The New York Times images are not only depressing, but tell a poignant story of people who risk their lives for illusions of greener pastures abroad.

Years ago it was a trickle. Then it turned into an avalanche of humans paying large sums of money to agents to get a sitting or standing space in unseaworthy boats leaving the east and west African coasts for the long torturous journey north.

The majority of the immigrants come from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somali and Nigeria. From north Africa and the Middle East, Libyans, Syrians and Tunisians dominate the flow - leaving their war-torn countries through the Mediterranean Sea for Italy, Germany, or England. On one day in May this year, 4,000 immigrants from Libya were plucked out of the sea.

Thousands of Africans in deadly circumstances have been rescued by European Coast Guards and many more - 20,000 in the last two decades - have died from suffocation, hunger, and disease. Many children are born at sea and many die after their dinghies capsize.

Those who manage to reach the shores of Europe - an estimated 295,000 in 2016, according to the International Organization of Migrants - are either welcomed on humanitarian grounds, or sequestered in squalid, overcrowded detention camps for long periods of time before being deported to their countries of origin.

The immigration crisis has reached such a monumental level that receiving countries have been forced to tighten entry restrictions, some barring altogether, immigrants from entering their countries. The European Union has occasionally and zealously organized vessels to ferry the immigrants back home against protests from human rights organizations.

So what is the fundamental solution? Simple. Better management of our countries. If African countries could improve their people's standards of living and avoid civil wars, Africans would not want to flee their countries to seek better fortunes elsewhere.

And that is say.

CONGO'S JOSEPH KABILA MUST GO

RAILA ODINGA HAS AN EQUAL CHANCE OF WINNING THE PRESIDENCY AS UHURU KENYATTA

"We will not settle for perfunctory peace that is disrupted every five years by an election cycle, Uhuru Kenyatta confidently remarked at his first-term inauguration on 10 April 2013. "Rather, we are calling and working towards a permanent peace... A peace that fosters unity."

Since that day in Nairobi, a lot of water has passed under the bridge. Three years later though, even Uhuru himself must agree that a permanent peace remains perfunctory and unity is an illusion.

As Kenyans prepare for elections next August, the question is whether the ruling Jubilee Party under Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto have fulfilled the promise to foster peace and unity, or have promoted a hegemonic society in which a few have benefitted at the expense of the majority; and have allowed political wars to fuel divisions.

That Kenya is a class society is not a matter of argument. The country has some of the richest as well as some of the poorest people in the world. The gap between the rich and the poor is so wide that the country's top 10 percent households control 42 percent of total income while the bottom 10 control less than one percent according to a report by the Society for International Development.

Even with improvements that have taken place over the years, the majority of Kenyans still have no access to affordable health and quality education. More children from poor households are dying before they reach their fifth birthday than those from wealthy households.

And, while rich families can afford to send their children to good schools, poor children in some rural areas still study under trees. Millions of Kenyans eat poorly and subsist under squalid, subhuman conditions in hardscrabble townships that are expanding fast and getting more dangerous.

True, Kenyans have seen considerable progress under both President Mwai Kibaki and now Uhuru Kenyatta. Railway lines and roads have and are being upgraded and extended, airports have been refurbished and new ports are coming up. Women are benefitting from free maternity services; electricity connections have doubled; and primary school children are, for the first time, being educated freely and have access to digital learning instruments.

What we are not seeing is progress on the political front. It is in this front that unity is required to maintain peace. Since independence, the Kenya elite has deliberately and systematically promoted political polarization by perpetuating tribalism, ethnic fears and hatred.

Presently, the country is monstrously divided on tribal and party lines. The fractious relationship between the ruling party Jubilee and the opposition CORD stokes deep concern for national unity. And although no serious combustion of violence has occurred during Kenyatta's time, we have nevertheless, seen violent demonstrations that have led to loss of life and destruction of property.

Based on figures from the last elections, half of Kenya supports Kenyatta and the other half Raila Odinga. The situation is unlikely to change even with the political realignments we have seen in recent weeks.

If things are not managed properly, the country could be thrown into deeper, darker waters, and peace could be disrupted before, during, and after the next election circle.

My crystal ball tells me that Raila has a chance of winning the presidential contest next year as much as Uhuru if he can capitalize on the above issues as well as dwell on the rampant corruption that has now festered into a ripe boil under Kenyatta.

However, all depends on whether or not the polls will be free and fair. Past experiences cast such expectations into doubt.

I should mention that Kenya is entering the second part of its first century as an independent nation with great expectations for positive changes that can improve substantially the lot of underprivileged citizens.

If setbacks and mishaps continue, permanent peace and unity will continue to be a mirage.

And that is my say.

NOTE: All my books are available in bookshops in Nairobi and at Amazon.com

ZIMBABWE'S UNCLE BOB TRUDGES ON DESPITE RIDICULE AND FAILING HEALTH

If there is one African leader who has persistently been vilified, decisively eviscerated by opponents, gleefully caricatured by cartoonists

and habitually "killed" by social media psychopaths, that leader is Robert Gilbert Mugabe.

There are reasons why the man called "Uncle Bob" appears to be a magnet of interest. But first an African proverb.

A tree full of fruits entices the highest number of strikes from passer-byes.

Uncle Bob is that tree.

After he took over as Prime Minister in 1980 and then President of Zimbabwe in 1987, the southern African country became a prosperous nation. He implemented a development plan and carried out sound policies that allowed agriculture, manufacturing, and mining to grow. He built health centers and schools in the rural areas and the country folk were happy. The economy was rolling at around 6 percent, one of the strongest in Africa.

Then in 2000, he nationalized big farms - 70 percent of the most arable land - owned by white people and distributed them to black Zimbabweans, or more precisely, former colleagues in the liberation army.

That is when hell broke loose.

As whites protested - and some left - accusing the President of racism, a rage-filled Mugabe tightened his hold on the country. The result is that the economy slumped, and last year it crashed to around 1.5 percent growth rate. Almost all the key sectors have collapsed following nationalization. The government can no longer pay salaries to civil servants; unemployment is unprecedentedly high; and the opposition is disabled.

This week the government suspended surgeries in public hospitals due lack of drugs, and people are on the streets protesting poor services and non-payment of salaries.

Until 2009 when the Zimbabwe dollar was suspended, the largest note had a face value of 100 trillion. Theoretically, every Zimbabwean was either a millionaire, a billionaire or a trillionaire. Cash was carried in sacks and wheel-barrows.

Today, Zimbabwe is the only African country using seven different currencies in its monetary portfolio - the South African Rand, the US Dollar, the Chinese Yuan, the Japanese Yen, the Australian Dollar, the British Pound, and the Euro.

Meanwhile, the African upper-crust of society - the gilded elite - who grabbed the white farms and left them to waste because of lack of farming and managerial skills, are unsurprisingly inviting back whites to return; surprisingly some of them are doing so.

Many feel the solution to Zimbabwe's current fiscal and political problems is for the pugnacious Mugabe to go. Mugabe refuses, saying his departure must be hinged on a democratic process. Unfortunately, democracy has entirely evaporated.

The problem for the opposition is that Uncle Bob and his ruling ZANU-PF keep on "winning" elections term after term. As a result, the opposition is broken, fatigued, and incapable under the current circumstances to do anything. To make it worse, the army is weak and corrupt.

The result? Zimbabwe is bleeding.

But the 92-year old former freedom fighter in failing health keeps on trudging on.

He spends millions of dollars on his and his wife's birthdays; travels the world like a spoilt despot; cares less whether peasants eat or not, or diplomats abroad are paid their dues. Whatever belongs to Zimbabwe belongs to him, his wife Grace, and his family.

His reputation as a feisty speaker against colonialism and imperialism is well-known, but the former school teacher has certainly reached his sale-by date, and should give way to a younger leader who can rekindle the old Zimbabwean charm.

To those who wish him dead, Mugabe sarcastically tells them: "I have died many times. I have actually beaten Jesus Christ because he only died once."

To Uncle Bob I say this: Africa still needs you, but it needs you far away from power.

And that is my say.

KENYA'S POLITICAL 'BATTLE OF THE TITANIC' ONLY A YEAR AWAY

After the weekend of political jamborees, defections, financial wastages, hyperboles, and sideshows, the race for the 2017 general elections in Kenya has begun in earnest.

In the remaining eleven months until the watershed August polls, there will be elevated rhetoric, hate speeches, and even (God forbid) violence, as Uhuru Kenyatta struggles against fierce opposition to retain the presidency for a second five-year term.

It is clear now, after the successful opposition rally in Mombasa over the weekend, that Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Movement, not Kalonzo Musyoka of the Wiper Party, not Moses Wetangula of Ford Kenya, will be the presidential candidate for the Coalition for Reform and Democracy (CORD).

Officially, the event was to celebrate the 10th anniversary of ODM, but the optics pointed to a coronation ceremony for the former political detainee.

Raila is 71 years old and this could be his last chance to State House. He has missed the presidency three times. We have to wait and see if he will succeed this time around. For him, this is a do-or-die battle.

This week, Raila and a team of 50 of his officials are leaving for a retreat in Germany to strategize. No details are forthcoming as to who is funding the trip and why they have to go all the way to Europe to brainstorm about the forthcoming polls. What is known is that Raila schooled in Germany, speaks German fluently, and has lots of friends there he can call upon to bankroll the stay

If Uhuru loses, he will be the first president in Kenya's history to rule for only one term.

In 2007 Kenya rode through a major crisis after Raila alleged theft of votes by Kibaki. Over a thousand people were killed in post-election violence that followed. He repeated similar charges in 2012 when he battled Uhuru. That time around, common sense prevailed and no serious cases of violence occurred.

That Kenyans and the world are worried about the fate of the next Kenyan elections is not a secret. The political temperatures are high and are likely to climb further as the election approaches. A taste of that was seen a few days ago when Uhuru and Raila exchanged nasty words during the funeral of a veteran Maasai politician, William Ole Ntimama.

The good news is that both Uhuru and Raila have publicly pledged to avoid violence next time around. The question is whether they can contain their overzealous supporters from engaging in looting and destruction of property.

Uhuru has made it clear that he wants to keep the presidency in the Jubilee stable well beyond 2017, and has already picked up his successor, deputy president William Ruto. But 2022 is too far away and anything could happen, depending also on whether or not Uhuru will retain his seat next year.

Of course Uhuru surrogates, beneficiaries of government tenders and favors, as well as elements that have made corruption a career, would not want to see Uhuru leave office any time soon.

In recent years, corruption has taken a huge leap for the worst. The malaise started during Mzee Jomo Kenyatta; it deepened during 24 years of President Daniel Arap Moi's rule; spiraled when Kibaki was in power for eight years; and has multiplied exponentially in the last four years.

The situation is so bad that even Moi - who many consider to have presided over the most corrupt regime so far - remarked earlier this year

that corruption had become "a national security threat".

Back to the elections. The ICC has already warned that it wouldn't hesitate to prefer charges against anyone who would be involved in any type of activity that could be classified as crime against humanity. After the nasty experience that led to six top Kenyan officials going to the ICC - Uhuru being one of them - I doubt Kenyans would want to go through that again.

It is imperative therefore that leaders and their supporters show tolerance and restrain from now, and all the way to election time and beyond.

And that is my say.