Through the Rwandan Minister of Justice and Attorney General Mr. Busingye Johnston  Rwanda is appealing to the ICC to allow the embattled  Kenyan leaders  the President and Vice- President respectively flexibility in  attending  the ICC proceedings  so that the duties of the Kenyan State are not affected  while both leaders are absent. The Rwandan Justice Minister argues that these two leaders should not attend the proceedings at the same time as this will erode the Kenyan people the services of these two leaders.

ICC 1

These remarks are not only opportunistic in nature but fundamentally wrong and contrary to the principles of justice and leave many questions unanswered.  Why should the Rwandan government get involved in these issues at this moment in time?  Why are they giving the so called advice on the expense of thousands of families who lost their lives, children and women included?  Isn’t the same advice the President of Tanzania Mr. Jakaya Kikwete was giving to his Rwandan counterpart to talk peace to FDLR which the Rwandan government reject outright?

Does the Rwandan government have any moral authority in the first place to make such suggestions or utterances?  I will argue that Rwanda a non- member of the ICC and country whose Human Rights credentials are questionable should not and is not the right country to talk on the credibility of the ICC.

Whereas it’s true the ICC has its own problems in terms of applicability of its provisions and its impartiality questionable, never the less, it has been very instrumental in bringing to justice the cruelest people on the continent and beyond.  Imagine what would have happened the likes of Charles Taylor the former leader of Liberia or Tomas Lubanga of Congo actually who was a right hand of Kagame and his regime that was responsible for exporting terrorism and human rights abuses in Congo who were later indicted and convicted by this court?

Would the Rwandan government make the same argument if in unlikely circumstances the most wanted men by the Rwandan government Sylvestre Mudacumura and  Wenceslas Munyeshyaka are elected  the President and Vice –President of Rwanda respectively?  My guess is as yours; Rwanda would definitely call it utter nonsense and will wait for you at the right time and place and hit you.

It is unfortunate that Mr. Busingye who is not only a Minister of Justice but also an Attorney General an advisor to the government could brand that cheap popularity which does not hold both legal and moral merit especially from a country that has not only suffered the most horrendous human rights abuses including genocide in the world apart from the holocaust of the Jews in Europe. Indeed, Rwanda should have stood upright with the Kenyan people not siding with the leaders who are responsible for the crimes against humanity.  Are Mr. Busingye and his boss Kagame love Kenyans more than Kenyans who by even the Kenyan standards mentioned their leaders (William Ruto and Uhuru Kenyatta) in The Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission of Kenya (TJRC) headed by the most respected commissioners like  Bethuel Kiplagat,  Tecla Namachanja, Ahmed Sheikh Farah, just to mentioned a few. The reason for this cheap political shopping is not hard to find, Kagame is slowly losing out international credibility and most importantly his neighboring Tanzania who are now at loggerheads on the political strategy on how to deal with Rwandan adversaries both armed and unarmed.

Indeed, Kagame himself should be at Hague not in Rwanda for both war crimes he committed during the genocide, he ordered enormous massacres in different parts of the country including the Bishops of the Catholic Church who were mercilessly butchered together with civilians including a baby. Therefore it’s not surprising that the Rwandan government illusionary is throwing weight to his counterparts in Kenya hoping to change the status quo of the International Court of Justice.

Indeed, Mr. Busingye a lawyer by profession should know or ought to know that the ICC does not succumb to the so called status of the suspects irrespective of their ranks as long as are indicted suspects:  Article 27 of the ICC clearly states that holding any office shall not exonerate any person any legal responsibility.

Irrelevance of official capacity

1. This Statute shall apply equally to all persons without any distinction based on official

Capacity. In particular, official capacity as a Head of State or Government, a member

of a Government or parliament, an elected representative or a government official

shall in no case exempt a person from criminal responsibility under this Statute, nor

shall it, in and of itself, constitute a ground for reduction of sentence.

2. Immunities or special procedural rules which may attach to the official capacity of

a person, whether under national or international law, shall not bar the Court from

exercising its jurisdiction over such a person.

It is in this context that Mr. Busingye as the highest senior   government  legal advisor  should tell his boss honestly and frankly  that their adventures don’t have any legal basis and therefore should not waste Rwandan tax payers money in travels around the region, instead this money should be put to proper use  like schools fees for the most impoverished children of our country who have been deprived of their educational fundamental right, due wrong  policies which have withdrawn all the bursaries from the University students on wrong and political statistics of his officials who don’t tell him the truth either because they fear him or want to buy cheap political popularity. Apparently Mr. Busingye is unlikely to give good advice to his boss (Kagame) as he knows very well what happened to his predecessor Mr. Karugarama who is still nursing and licking his wounds for just advising his boss that it will be in his best interests, those of the party (RPF) and the country in general to stand down after his term of office expires in 2017.

Indeed, Busingye is not alone, all Rwandan government officials are suffering from political paranoia, hardly could you find any RPF official concerned to the future of their party in particular and the country in general because they all know that any truth and honest opinion or a fact for that matter is a bitter pill to swallow by their boss. Therefore all of them even the elders of the RPF party have chosen to keep quiet and keep their jobs or save their own lives. It could be therefore submitted that Busingye who lacks any political shock absorbers will dare to tell his boss what he thinks is right but rather will tell him what he thinks his boss likes to hear.

Jacqueline Umurungi

Brussels.