[kictanet] Why It’s Wrong For Kenya To Try Pac ifying Angry Bashir

Tue Dec 6 13:45:30 EAT 2011

Dear all,

I think David Makali made a number of very good points, including:

   - 'The Kenya constitution clearly stipulates that “the general rules of
   international law shall form part of the law of Kenya” and further, that
   “any treaty or convention ratified by Kenya (such as the Rome Statute)
   shall form part of the law of Kenya law (2)'
   - 'Kenya’s rightful policy should be support to the people of Sudan, not
   necessarily its contested leadership, which Mr Wetangula and the Kenya
   government have elected to suck up to.'
   - 'It is unfortunate that the government should be speaking out of turn
   with our new Supreme Law and the reality of the new Kenya. It should tone
   down its panicky diplomatic rhetoric and refer the matter to the Attorney
   General to pen a polite notes verbates to el Bashir regretting that there
   is nothing that can be done about the court order and advice him to turn up
   at The Hague to clear his name or avoid visiting us.

This isn't about foreign media - that's a weak argument and a red herring,
because it doesn't address what David actually said.

I found it distasteful how Kenya's government representatives hurried up to
appease a man who is sought for mass murder. But what I think or don't
think doesn't matter, because this is a legal decision:

A Kenyan judge ruled that under its current constitution and international
laws that Kenya committed to, the country is obliged to arrest Bashir when
he enters Kenya. The only way around this is, I assume, a new court case
that would would come to a different conclusion on what Kenya's legal
obligations are.

If you don't want to get into that whole brouhaha, there are subtle ways of
addressing this as many other countries have done - they told Bashir
informally, and discretely, that regrettably he can't visit/if he attends a
function, their president won't/their president won't sit next to him (I
can't find the article with a fun list of country examples that did just
this).

Also, I was wondering if we could please generally go back to ICT topics
for this list, as someone had earlier asked?

Asante everyone,
Andrea

On 6 December 2011 13:21, samuel ochanji <sochanji at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Daktari, I completely agree with you on this. Our media does not set the
> agenda on global events/issues and give a Kenyan or an African perspective
> on these issues. Instead it simply regurgitates whatever the global media
> provides us with.Anything from CNN or New York Times is the default
> position of the Kenyan media.
>
>   ------------------------------
> *From:* "bitange at jambo.co.ke" <bitange at jambo.co.ke>
> *To:* sochanji at yahoo.com
> *Cc:* KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, December 6, 2011 6:48 AM
> *Subject:* Re: [kictanet] Why It’s Wrong For Kenya To Try Pac ifying
> Angry Bashir
>
> Grace,
> Our media too needs to set the agenda right.  Much of what David wrote was
> heavily influenced from what he read in foreign media.  Earlier I made a
> comparison between what happened in Daffur and in Congo.  In 2003 some 5
> million people died in the Congo.  You may recall the Banyamulenge
> atrocities inside Congo but in spite the fact that there were indictable
> people by ICC, the issue was brushed under the carpet.
>
> Congo is a mineral rich country with a government that hadly know what is
> going on in their country.  Some people want it that way.  Below see a
> quote from the Financial Times and see why I made that conclusion.
>
> "Given the muted response to the evolving fiasco in Congo, there is
> much less international appetite for outrage, or even for an accurate
> count. Western countries are less enchanted with Mr Kabila than they
> were in 2006, when he won a UN-supervised election, promising to bring
> peace and economic recovery. He has done neither.
>
> But unlike Mr Ouattara in Ivory Coast, Mr Tshisekedi does not enjoy
> significant backing from anyone outside the Congo.
>
> He is his own man. That is one reason a large number of Congolese
> persist in believing that he might turn things round. At 78, he is
> representative of a generation of opposition leaders who dedicated
> decades to the fight against dictatorship. Most, including Mr Gbagbo
> have proved disastrous in government."
>
>
> You cannot be your own man in Africa if you need the support of Western
> countries.  This is a worrying statement and confirms that our media has
> largely failed in setting the African agenda and begin to influence the
> rest of the world.
>
> Virtually all mineral rich African countries are at war from the west to
> central and eastern Africa.  Is is a coincident?
>
>
> Ndemo.
>
>
>
> Sent from my BlackBerry®
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Grace Githaiga <ggithaiga at hotmail.com>
> Sender: kictanet-bounces+bitange=jambo.co.ke at lists.kictanet.or.keDate:
> Mon, 5 Dec 2011 17:30:12
> To: <bitange at jambo.co.ke>
> Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions<kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> Subject: [kictanet] Why It’s Wrong For Kenya To Try Pac
> ifying Angry Bashir
>
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> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>
>
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> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform
> for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and
> regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT
> sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
>
> KICTANetiquette : Adhere to the same standards of acceptable behaviors
> online that you follow in real life: respect people's times and bandwidth,
> share knowledge, don't flame or abuse or personalize, respect privacy, do
> not spam, do not market your wares or qualifications.
>

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