CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Names are floating to the surface in Nairobi.
Kenya's National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) has published a report on those suspected of funding and inciting the post-election violence, just a week after peace broker Kofi Annan handed a list of top suspects to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, a prelude to the suspects being tried in the Hague if Kenya's authorities fail to judge them, fairly, here.
The KNCHR named over 200 people as suspects in organizing or financing the violence that killed around 1,500 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. The names include many who were already rumoured to be on the Annan list, although the KNCHR did not confirm that. They named Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Tourism Minister Najib Balala, Police Chief Hussein Ali, plus other ministers and members of parliament. Many of those named in the KNCHR report have denied the allegations, faulting the report's conclusions as rumour or hearsay.
So what next? Kenyan authorities are supposed to come up with a concrete plan by September on setting up a local court, which should then be in place by next July.
But according to a survey, most Kenyans -- 68 percent of those questioned -- want the suspects tried at the Hague. It's not hard to see why -- in a state where corruption is a way of life, the idea that the powerful will be fairly judged is a tough one to embrace.
The coalition cabinet is due to meet on Monday to discuss the problem. They already met once since Annan handed over the envelope and failed to agree on a way forward -- no surprise to Kenyans who have watched the unlikely bedfellows squabble over policy and even protocol for months now. However, maybe the threat of international prosecution of members from both President Mwai Kibaki's PNU and Prime Minister Raila Odinga's ODM will at some point bring the rivals together to craft a solution to avoid the Hague.
That might not be the best result for Kenya.
I guess the options are fairly obvious:
-- The Kenyan authorities could set up a special tribunal to try the top suspects, but the leaders will have to persuade parliament, which has already rejected this idea once in February.
-- They could try to create a special court of some kind by decree bypassing parliament-- always knowing that the eyes of the ICC will be fixed on them to make sure they meet their standards.
-- The tottering government could, I suppose, call a snap election. Yes, that might unleash violence and chaos, but it might also delay the day of judgment and that might be worth the risk for some. In any case, no option is danger-free. This New York Times article quotes a former government human rights official, Maina Kiai , as saying that ethnic gangs are rearming themselves across the country, this time with guns not machetes or bows and arrows.
"(Kiai) contends that unless the culprits are punished for the killings last year, which included hacking up old men and burning toddlers to death, the next time there is a disputed election, which he thinks there surely will be, people will be emboldened to wreak havoc again."
Among those favouring the ICC option, some hope for the purging of a leadership that has become a byword for corruption. In this post, the writer says it is high time those who have milked the country for their own benefit be forced out. I would simply ask: are there enough clean, experienced political heavyweights on the bench to take their place?
I do think it is encouraging that a process is underway to attribute responsibility for the post-election killing. Too often, such violence in Africa is blamed on tribal tensions, as if that explained everything. But like anywhere else, tensions, tribal or otherwise, have to be inflamed, intimidation and retribution have to be funded, people have to be persuaded to set aside years of fraternity and turn on neighbours.
Away from pure politics, the drought is really beginning to take its toll on Nairobi (of course, it has been causing deaths and havoc in other parts of the country for many months now). Water rationing is getting tougher. Our house will have water from 9am on Monday until 3 pm on Tuesday, that's it for the week. And we are the lucky ones -- not least because someone before us had the foresight to install a really big water tank. Some neighbourhoods have had no water in three weeks. And while Mother Nature can be blamed for some of the shortages, she's being given a helping hand by criminal cartels working with some officials at the Nairobi water distribution company who have been selling water meant for the city to farmers upcountry.