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Kenya to US: Keep your cash, we’ll keep our dignity - (US bribe for ICC immunity)

by Open-Publishing - Monday 30 May 2005
6 comments

Wars and conflicts International USA

Officials in the Kenyan government reacted harshly today to the news that the US will suspend military aid until Nairobi decides to sign the bilateral agreement guaranteeing immunity for US citizens - civilian and military - before the International Criminal Court (ICC), in case they are charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes or genocide. The main Kenyan daily ‘Daily Nation’, opened today’s edition a long article entitled, ”Kenyans tell Americans enough of This Blackmail”.

The article presents the reactions of representatives, ministers religious leaders to an article from the ‘Sunday Nation’ revealing that Washington has already suspended military aid, which will remain frozen until Nairobi signs the aforementioned bilateral accord. The US has already obtained such agreements using analogous tactics from tens of countries around the world.

The US, in fact, left behind a group of Kenyan officers ready to leave for a training course in the US while they have threatened to cancel the latest military aid package and joint training exercises. “We have to uphold our principles and resist the blackmail from the Americans,” said the minister of the interior Newton Kulundu. “They can keep their dollars and we our dignity.

Americans are not the only ones capable of training our military, perhaps it’s time we started looking elsewhere, the EU, South Africa, China or even Japan,” said parliamentary representative Muite. The cabinet minister Kulundu then noted cases of violence committed by US military personnel against prisoners in their custody, in Iraq or in Afghanistan or in Guantanamo. “Precisely because America is a democracy it should be committed to follow international rules and abstain from applying two weights and two measurements”.

The Kenyan Anglican Church also exhorted the government to resist pressure from the US. “It’s only a question of ethics and if someone has made a mistake it is right that they be handed over to the organisms entrusted to judge their behavior,” said archbishop Benjamin Nimbi. The reaction of the local Council of Imams, Sheikh Mohammed Dor, according to whom the decision to suspend military aid unless Kenya signed the immunity agreements “is an excellent example of the type of democracy that Washington intends to export around the world”. “The US government continues to provoke and threaten the weakest governments while defending its own interests or those of its soldiers. For this reason we strongly uphold the Kenyan leadership asking it not to fold under pressure”. “In any case, after all, US military aid is not so important; we have far more urgent problems tied to AIDS and the reduction of poverty. We can do without the military support,” said Khelef Khailfa, head of the National Commission for Human Rights.

But Washington’s behavior seems not to have pleased the US Ford automotive group in Kenya - Ford Kenya - that fears the ‘blackmail’ over the ICC risks jeopardizing the relationship between the 2 countries. Kenya ratified the Treaty of Rome last March becoming the 98th government to adhere to the ICC, the world court with jurisdiction on violations of humanitarian rights in countries unable or unwilling to refute persecuting such crimes.

The US represents one of the main obstacles to the ICC, which refuses to recognize it, while trying with every means at their disposal to dissuade (and not just in the military context) adhering especially in terms of the poorest countries. Up to now, the US has convinced 60 or so governments to sign bilateral agreements ensuring the ICC has no jurisdiction over US citizens.

Forum posts

  • source:

    http://www.misna.org/news.asp?lng=1...

  • It is most reasonable for any nation to look towards itself and its collective conscience. But I am afraid that the U.S. will seek out some chance to punish a relatively powerless nation such as Kenya and eventually get it’s way. Perhaps, with the next set of rulers that the U.S. will bring forth in Kenya.

    Pity.

    • By the way, FORD Kenya is the acronym for one of the political parties in the governing coalition in Kenya.

  • First of all I would like to know how much military aid does Kenya receive from the United States of America? Is it worth it and can Kenyans as a people afford to do with out it? Does Kenya really need that type of military aid in the post Cold War era?

    The last time (April of 2004) I saw Kenyan airforce jets plying the skies above Thika, Nanyuki, Nyahururu, Wajir and Mombasa, they resembled the old F-5s and "tiger sharks" jet-fighters that have outlived their usefullness since their last tour of duty in Vietam. My point is, why should Kenyans continue to accept what - US military aid - has not benefited the country in any way, shape or form since the days of the Cold War era?

    Kenyan doesn’t need used military hardware or discarded US "military-left-overs" (US-MLOs) from the Middle East theatre of operation. I am sure that the cost of two ancient F-5 jet fighters - as obsolete as they are - is enough to construct fifty brand new primary schools and fifty seconday schools with mordern educational facilities that meet Kenyan standards and urgent needs.

    Or even several hospitals can be built around country, for instance, in places like western, eastern, Nyanza and north eastern provinces, where they are really needed, rather than waste resources ’disguised as military aid’ with so many strings attached to it.

    Where are the so called ’friends of Kenya’ in the US when they are needed most? Especially those who love to champion the rights of the "voiceless," downtrodden masses, women, and poverty stricken children of East Africa? Where are their "voices of concern" and articles in the national US newspapers like the Washington Post, New York Times, Washington Times, Chicago, Boston Globe among others ? This would be a worthwhile case scenario to use when advocating for rightful usage of American tax payers’ money that is being used - rather wasted - on unneccesary Kenyan military machines that never really benefit the nations in terms of education, health, basic infrastructure and the preservation of the environment. that’s being eroded on a monthly basis.

    As far as Kenya’s national security is concerned, light, efficient and mordern weaponary should be the next best alternative for the Kenyan armed forces rather than obsolete military hardware disguised as generous aid from friendly and powerful nations like the US.

    Concerned.

  • The American forces played only during the WW II a role as liberator. In the latter, starting with two nuclear bombs on Hiroshima/Nagasaki on an already defeated Japan they committed one war crime after another, blaming on other countries being rogue states.
    We can tell by the history which country is may be the first amongst other rogue states: the United States of America.
    Kenya - Africa and South America is turning the back on the neo colonialist policies of U.S. and Britain.

    Instead of working on their own history the U.S and Britain refer all the time to German war crimes.
    But Germany is no longer a military state! United States has not only turned into a military dictatorship , but also into plutocratism.

    • We in the U.S. like to think that every other country has corrupt governments like ours. Isn’t it nice to see some honesty in a government somewhere on the planet? Americans think that Africans are stupid and uneducated, this shows who is really stupid and who is really uneducated.