Is Karim Khan professionally doomed at the ICC after Kenya fiasco?
Reputational damage can be debilitating. ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan (pictured below) has recused himself only under duress; in fact, more as an afterthought, as it were.
Article written by L.A.A. Wang
The people he was associating with, like the founder of Mt.Kenya University, are connected directly by close friendship to one or more of the suspects in the Kenyan cases now being brought up before the ICC. He must have known this prior to his arrival in Kenya. Mr. Khan should have done the obvious, and recuse himself proactively, without waiting for people to push him by raising doubts about the propriety of his friendships with some of these evidently toxic local actors.
It's actually a question of perception, but perception is extremely important. It may not even be true that Mr.Khan has any underhanded dealings or connection(s) with one or several of the suspects. His sojourn in Kenya was a perfect example of poor judgement. It can also easily be misconstrued as a case of conflict of interests.
While it is true he defended Mr. Ruto at the Hague as his lawyer, and the case has not been definitively closed; that does not make him biased in his new role as an ICC Prosecutor. But most of us were not born yesterday, and we know Mr. Ruto's propensity for engaging in corrupt underhanded influencing of all and sundry.
Ruto can corrupt even the Pope, if given as much as half a chance.
Ruto is now the president of Kenya, but his sociopathic criminal nature has not changed. In fact, the presidency has emboldened him even more as an active practicing criminal, with a free hand and without fear of any immediate consequences.
And so, Ruto is obviously in the process of criming again, directly or through official and/or informal proxies and accomplices, while expecting no consequences, because he has fully captured the Kenyan state judicial machinery.
Mr. Khan's visit, in a private capacity, in the midst of all the turmoil, including the recent ethnically targeted massacres in cold blood of dozens of protestors and non-protestors on Ruto's orders, certainly doesn't look proper. The most innocent interpretation is: that it looks insensitive. That's in the best case scenario. In the worst case scenario, it may be taken that he came to give a heads-up to some individuals by divulging confidential information on outstanding cases, or to advice a suspect(s) on defense strategy. Of course, that's speculation, but you never know. And that is also the problem with perception when you yourself open certain doors.
Besides, the reason given for Mr Khan's 'private' visit was flimsy and nonsensical, at best. The conferment of a Doctorate in Law from a nondescript ramshackle local Kenyan University doesn't look like much of an argued proper reason. He could defer this very easily to a later date. So, agreeing to come for that reason alone, looks more like an excuse, really.
People are hurting. The murders in cold blood of their relatives, from a particular ethnicity, is not an academic matter. Nonchalantly glossing over what happened to the murdered people, would be the worst form of disrespect for human life.
The lives of those murdered on the orders of Ruto and Gachagua regime by Police and carefully chosen tribal gangs embedded in the Police, may be meaningless and not valuable to the top two criminals, their accomplices and deluded supporters, but these victims have their families, and before their lives were cut short in a horrifying way, were having the same dreams and aspirations in life, as that same Ruto and his criminal accomplices.
Justice must not only be done to the victims, but it must also be seen to be done!
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