Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, on Friday, called on the International Criminal Court (ICC), to investigate and prosecute heads of security agencies responsible for the killing of innocent protesters in Kenya which constitutes crime against humanity.
He also called on President William Ruto to urgently apologise to the people of Kenyan for attempting to make a legislation that was manifestly anti-people before he was forced to beat a retreat by the angered youths.
Frank, who disclosed this in a statement in Abuja, said he was standing solidly behind the youths of Kenyan for rising up to oppose dictatorial tendencies on the part of the government of Kenya in a democratic setting even though President Ruto is his personal friend.
He further called on the international community, especially the United States, United Kingdom, European Union (EU) to place a visa ban on the heads of the security agencies that would be indicted by the ICC after wholistic investigations.
“Those who issued orders to security agencies to shoot at and kill innocent and peaceful protesters must be urgently fished out and prosecuted according to international law,” Frank said.
According to him, the right to protest is enshrined in several international treaties and declarations, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
He insisted that recognising this right inevitably imposes an obligation on the state including the government and armed forces of Kenya to facilitate protest, including by ensuring protesters are safe and not to kill them.
Frank said: “Protest is a public demonstration of disapproval and it not a criminal action, therefore to kill lawful citizens for protesting is a crime against humanity which must be condemned by all with attendant sanction on perpetrators to serve as a deterrent.
“We stand with the Kenyan protesters and we mourn those who have paid the supreme price. However, we urgently demand the International Criminal Court to go after those that killed protesters.”
He lamented that “majority of Kenyans including the youths now being massacred voted massively to elect Ruto to office because of the trust and confidence that they had in him and people believed he was going to be a people’s president and that is what we expect him to be.
“So apologising to the youths and by extension Kenyans is not a sign of weakness but an action that will further endear him to the people and bring the much needed stability and peace in Kenya.
He called on Ruto to listen to and prioritise the wishes of Kenyans because they were the ones that voted him into power.
In a similar manner, he called on the youths of Nigeria to wake up the spirit of Occupy Nigeria in 2012 and the #ENDSARS Protests to curb the excesses of the present administration through legitimate protests.
“Let Nigerians wake up and pay the sacrifice that Kenyans have paid because that is the only way we can have a better country,” he stated.
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