Kenyatta swearing-in to cap disastrous ICC run

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Kenya’s newly elected President Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi. REUTERS/Noor Khamis

Compelled by longterm strategic interests to play nice with the nascent government in Nairobi, Western and European nations will send envoys to attend the inauguration of Kenyan President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta, who along with his running mate faces trial for human rights violations at the International Criminal Court in the Hague later this year.

The scene will mark the low point in what has been a brutal stretch for the Court, its legitimacy in doubt after enduring repeated accusations of anti-African bias, and, indeed, the seeming evaporation of any clout it might have once enjoyed outside the capitals of Europe. But the endorsement or semi-endorsement of Kenyatta, who stands accused of using his family fortune to hire roving street gangs that carried out ethnically-tinged election warfare in 2007, reflects resignation among international leaders vis-a-vis naming and shaming from afar. Better to make a show of support and maintain cordial ties with the new regime, which, having cleared the hurdle of Supreme Court challenges to its narrow majority win, is ready to bask in the glow of foreign validation — even if qualified.

It is oddly fitting that Kenyatta — who slammed the ICC on the campaign trail, tapping into a legacy of Kenyan resentment of meddlesome colonial elites — will be flanked by representatives of the nations that dreamed it up in the first place as he takes power. In fact, we may end up looking back at the Kenyatta win as one of the first big nails in the Court’s coffin. After all, the American-educated politician seems to have a perfectly good sense for global human rights norms, but has gotten away with paying mere lip service. What good is the ICC doing if Kenyatta can not only win an election by triangulating against it, but, his trial on the horizon, actually command respect from foreign dignitaries? The answer is precious little, and with Kenyatta evidently succeeding in intimidating witnesses into withdrawing their testimony, it likely won’t even be able to convict him from afar after the fact.