The death penalty is a legal process whereby a person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime. The judicial decree that someone be punished in this manner is a death sentence, while the actual process of killing the person is an execution. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences.

The UN General Assembly  adopted, in 2007, 2008 and 2010, non-binding resolutions calling for a global moratorium on executions, with a view to eventual abolition.  Although many nations have abolished capital punishment, over 60% of the world’s population live in countries where executions take place, such as the People’s Republic of China, India,  Indonesia, and surprisingly the the United States of America most respected  human rights defender. The four most-populous countries in the world, which continue to apply the death penalty (although in India, Indonesia and many US states it is only used rarely), It is therefore not surprising that each of these four nations voted against the General Assembly resolutions.

With the United States still practicing this cruel and inhuman punishment under the cover of the law, it will be very difficult to convince other nations to drop this barbaric act in their respective legislation. Execution of criminals and political opponents has been used by nearly all societies—both to punish crime and to suppress political dissent. In most places that practice capital punishment it is reserved for murder, espionage, treason, or as part of military justice. In some countries sexual crimes, such as rape, adultery, incest and sodomy, carry the death penalty, as do religious crimes such as apostasy in Islamic nations (the formal renunciation of the state religion). In many countries that use the death penalty, drug trafficking is also a capital offence. In China, human trafficking and serious cases of corruption are punished by the death penalty. In militaries around the world courts-martial have imposed death sentences for offences such as cowardice, desertion, insubordination, and mutiny.

Can Mr. Yahya Abdul-Aziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh learn from his neighbor Samuel Doe?

On April 12, 1980, Doe led a military coup, killing President William R. Tolbert, Jr., in the Executive Mansion. Twenty-six of Tolbert’s supporters were also killed in the fighting. But it was the merciless public execution of thirteen members of the Cabinet of President William Tolbert that shocked the World. Shortly after the coup, government ministers were walked publicly around Monrovia in the nude and then summarily executed by a firing squad on the beach. Hundreds of government workers fled the country, while others were imprisoned.

Similarly in another neighboring country Nigeria under Sani Abacha  Saro-Wiwa was arrested in June 1994 with his colleagues under the umbrella MOSOP which represented the movement of Ogoni people fighting for equality and human rights, they were accused of inciting the people which resulted into death of the Ogoni Chiefs.  They were imprisoned for over a year before being found guilty and sentenced to death with his colleagues ,Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, and John Kpuine by a specially convened tribunal

Nearly all of the defendants’ lawyers resigned in protest against the trial’s cynical rigging by the Abacha regime. The resignations left the defendants to their own means against the tribunal, which continued to bring witnesses to testify against Saro-Wiwa and his peers. Many of these supposed witnesses later admitted that they had been bribed by the Nigerian government to support the criminal allegations. At least two witnesses who testified that Saro-Wiwa was involved in the murders of the Ogoni elders later recanted, stating that they had been bribed with money and offers of jobs with Shell to give false testimony.

It is tragic that all the above circumstances lacked impartial judicial process; it was rather a judicial comedy that aimed to legalize the murders in the name of executing the decisions of the court. However, both leaders of Liberia and Nigeria who ordered the murdering of innocent people paid a price.  Let us go through in what I will call a heavy price paid by President Samuel Doe of Liberia who was captured by the rebel leader Prince Johnson. President Doe was accused by his captors to have lost his ears in his entire presidency by not listening to the wishes of his subjects. Prince Johnson accused the former president of human rights abuses and persecution of the Liberian people, “His ears were cut off because apparently he could not hear the cries of the 300 Gio children he threw down a well,” he said. “It was war. It was the Law of Moses.

Similarly, President Abacha of Nigeria after presiding over a regime tainted with blood of many Nigerian politicians and human rights activists, including incarceration Chief Moshood Abiola who later died mysteriously, was under pressure from all the sides of the political spectrum, although his death still remains a mystery, many political analysts believe that there was a foul-play involved and that he may have been poisoned by political rivals via prostitutes. On the contrary, Nigerian military rulers cited his cause of death as a sudden heart attack. Whether there was a foul-play or not, what is certain is that, President Abacha had a stock of many enemies of different breeds that would play any role in bringing him down. That’s the price any leader who does not hear will pay, unfortunately many leaders in Africa don’t learn from history.

Rwanda is not immune from all the above tragic history of successive oppressive regimes, all the successive governments in Rwanda have been killing indiscriminately its people and these killers(RPF under President Kagame) who replaced Habyarimana’s dictatorship promising peace, unity are  worse than STALIN’s. Extra-Judicial killings have characterized the regime of President Kagame despite abolition of death penalty in Rwandan legislation, indeed it is believed that the Kagame regime abolished the death penalty just to tap the donor money but in principle people   still die on daily basis.

Leaders have plenty of trouble learning from the lessons of history. Maybe it’s because political leaders are supposed to be looking forward. As Warren Buffet once said, “it’s more important to look out the windshield than in the rear view mirror.” But a few looks in the rear view mirror of history would help leaders who have become embroiled in scandals, cover-ups and gross human rights violations. A few looks back may have even helped them prevent the same mistakes that others have committed.

Is it a failure to appreciate the lessons from history or a sense of superiority and arrogance that one is above the law? What prevents people in power from exercising the perceptive judgment that enabled them to reach the pinnacle of success? In some cases, it may be their ability to take big gambles and succeed that sets in a false sense of security and invulnerability. It may be that they fail to seek advice or actively discourage differences of opinion when they move up the organization. Will there be more efforts to hold leaders accountable for their actions in the 21st century? I hope so, but the plethora of scandals failed cover-ups and human rights violations in the last 20th and 21st century does not bode well. Pearl S. Buck once wrote that “knowledge of history as detailed as possible is essential if we want to comprehend the past and be prepared for the future.” Political leaders would do well to heed this advice. History does not have to repeat itself, but it will if we fail to respect it.

Jacqueline Umurungi

Brussels..