Peter Wanyonyi

30 August 2010

opinion

The ODM half of the governing coalition is in paroxysms over, apparently, the "surprise" appearance of Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir, at the promulgation of the new Constitution last Friday.

Prof Peter Anyang' Nyong'o, easily ODM's most formidable intellectual heavyweight, looked quite genuinely annoyed when he told the press that he had not been informed that Mr Al-Bashir would be popping over.

The whole mess is, of course, because Mr Al-Bashir is under indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for "crimes against humanity" that his government is alleged to have committed in its western region of Darfur, where a civil war has been raging for just over seven years.

There is little doubt that Mr Al-Bashir has an appetite for blood: his actions in the run-up to Sudan's recent presidential elections, included clobbering opponents into submission, with some running off to neighbouring countries - principally Kenya - for sanctuary.

As far as African dictators come, Mr Al-Bashir is the real business end of the lot: as nasty as they come.

Not that you would have known from the grin that ODM minister Najib Balala wore as he escorted Mr Al-Bashir to the podium.

The irony of it all was probably not lost on those that were watching: Kenya's only Arab Cabinet minister escorting to the dais an Arab president of an African country, a man who has been accused of deliberately seeking to exterminate Sudanese who are not of Arab stock.

The ICC says Mr Al-Bashir is suspected of genocide, a loaded accusation in Africa. It perhaps did not help matters that the hard-as-nails President Paul Kagame of Rwanda was sitting right next to Mr Al-Bashir.

Three years ago, President Kagame threatened to intervene in Darfur if the genocide there continued.

Some reckon this might have been part of the reason that Mr Al-Bashir relented and let the Darfuris escape into neighbouring Chad: such is the power of the word "genocide" in Rwanda, which suffered a horrific version of that crime itself in 1994.

The ODM wing of government has officials sprinkled all through the diplomatic and security machinery of the country. They also seem to have a redoubtable intelligence-gathering team all across the country.

One recalls that it was ODM leader, now Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, who first broke to Kenya the news of the notorious Artur brothers being in the country and having been allocated police uniforms, firearms, and vehicles - ostensibly for a hit job on someone.

Or so ODM claimed then.

The Arturs turned out to be not so lethal, save for suspicions of having invaded a newsroom under cover of darkness.

Rather, they became a laughing stock as they tried to navigate Kenya's poisonous political environment using a combination of bumbling, guesswork and even romance.

With such an intelligence network and with its own minister, Mr Balala, having been tapped to escort Mr Al-Bashir to the dais, it is unbelievable that ODM can claim it had no idea that the Butcher of Khartoum was dropping by for the jamboree.

They would sound more credible if they told us that they knew he was coming, but were powerless to do anything about it.

Saying this would, however, be an admission of failure and a lack of power, an impression that ODM has gone to great lengths to avoid.

Mr Al-Bashir should not have been at our party.

The American ambassador is reported to have had "furious" discussions with the Sudanese ambassador on the podium when Mr Al-Bashir appeared.

This was silly: America has not even signed the treaty that gave birth to the ICC in the first place, and refuses to do so.

The reasons are obvious: under any international reckoning, various American presidents would be accused of having committed crimes against humanity - including Bill Clinton's unexplainable bombing of a Sudanese Aspirin factory in 1998.

To see the US envoy pretending to be annoyed at the presence of Mr Al-Bashir at the function is amusing. America breastfeeds murderous thugs all over and its pretensions are ridiculous - Mr Al-Bashir can surely not have done anything near as nasty as America's erstwhile bosom buddy in Angola, Jonas Savimbi.

The Americans should spare us the holier-than-thou act and focus on how Kenya uses their money. And ODM should quit whining and get down to the business of co-governing.

Mr Wanyonyi is an information systems professional working in the Middle East .