{{Former Prime Minister in Kenya, Raila Odinga has lashed out at African Leaders whom he says are demonising the International Criminal Court (ICC).}}
He defended the ICC from accusations that it targeted African leaders saying the continent was a victim of its own failures.
Odinga added that African leaders facing charges at the ICC were referred by their countries.
He said Kenya voted to have the post election violence suspects tried at The Hague while Laurent Gbagbo, Charles Taylor and Joseph Kony have all been referred to the same court by their respective countries.
Odinga made the remarks while addressing students and staff of the University of Pretoria on Wednesday saying said increasing attacks on the International Criminal Court by Africa’s leaders were disturbing and hypocritical.
Odinga said it was difficult to understand why leaders who voluntarily appended their signatures to the Rome Statute that set up the ICC have turned around to condemn the same institution.
The Kenyan politician said he is disturbed by attempts to demonise institutions that seek to provide relief to citizens who have suffered abuse in the hands of the leaders asking African governments to come up with concrete steps to provide justice to its citizens.
He said that Africans are suffering as a result of the betrayal of the ideals that informed the struggle for independence.
“Independence has come. The leadership comprised those who had fought for basic freedoms of expression, speech, association and movement. We assumed the leaders understood the pain of being denied these freedoms. They understood the pain of inequitable distribution of resources.
“They knew the pain of being discriminated against on the basis of tribe, race, religion and place of origin. They would not commit such sins against their own people. Today, we know we were wrong,” Odinga said.
He lamented that the struggle that the African people have had to endure in the years after independence have been as vicious and sometimes more vicious than what they waged against the colonialists.
“It has been a struggle laced with the pain of being betrayed by a brother, an uncle, a father, a neighbour, and a friend. Where are we to turn?”
{Nation}
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