Goon Financiers Should Be Cursed and Sent to Hell, Chief Justice Koome Declares, Linking Goonism to Rome Statute Crimes

Chief Justice Koome on Thursday said "goon financiers should be cursed and sent to hell," in remarks in Kenya that classified goonism as organised serious crime.

According to The Standard, which reported the statement, the Chief Justice said goonism falls under organised serious crimes that go against the Rome Statute and humanity. Her condemnation was directed at those who finance goon activity, not only at the people who carry it out.

The Rome Statute is the treaty that established the International Criminal Court (ICC). It was adopted at a diplomatic conference in Rome, Italy, on July 17, 1998, and entered into force on July 1, 2002, with the stated aim of ending impunity for the most serious crimes of concern to the international community. The court sits in The Hague, Netherlands, and is the first permanent international tribunal able to prosecute individuals for such offences.

The statute gives the court jurisdiction over four crimes: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. Crimes against humanity are defined in Article 7 of the statute as acts including murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, imprisonment, torture, sexual violence, persecution, enforced disappearance of persons and other inhumane acts, when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not require the existence of an armed conflict.

The ICC has jurisdiction over crimes committed on the territory of states parties or by their nationals, generally from July 1, 2002 onward. More than 120 countries are parties to the statute, and Kenya ratified it in 2005. The country's most prominent engagement with the court came through cases arising from the 2007-2008 post-election violence, in which ICC prosecutors charged several Kenyans with crimes against humanity. Those cases were later withdrawn or terminated without any convictions.

The statute rests on the principle of complementarity, under which the ICC acts only where national courts are unwilling or unable genuinely to investigate and prosecute. Situations reach the court through referral by a state party, referral by the United Nations Security Council, or an investigation opened at the initiative of the Prosecutor. The court is composed of 18 judges elected by the states parties to nine-year terms, its assembly of states parties oversees its administration and budget, and it may impose prison sentences of up to life imprisonment.

The language of organised serious crime also carries its own international framework. The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, adopted in Palermo, Italy, in 2000, defines an organised criminal group as a structured group of three or more persons, existing for a period of time and acting in concert, with the aim of committing one or more serious crimes for financial or other material benefit. Kenya is a party to that convention as well.

As Chief Justice, Koome heads the Judiciary of Kenya and is the most senior judicial officer in the country. She serves as President of the Supreme Court, established under the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 as the apex of the court system, and chairs the Judicial Service Commission, the body that recommends judicial appointments and handles the discipline of judicial officers.

Goonism has been a trending subject of debate in Kenya in recent days, and the Chief Justice's remarks added the voice of the country's highest judicial office to that discussion. Her statement tied the financing of goons to conduct she described as falling within organised serious crimes that go against the Rome Statute and humanity.

The Chief Justice spoke on Thursday, and her remarks were reported the same day by The Standard newspaper.