Nairobi — Pay day: Having invited al-Bashir to his big day, Kibaki must expect pay day from Khartoum President Kibaki had a chance to cock a snook at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and, by extension, the international community and he seized it with both hands, glee and gusto.

He stuck out two fingers smack in the face of the ICC. Yes, President Kibaki led Kenya and the African Union (AU) in defying international law and daring it to come after one of AU's own.

You see, you know your neighbour holds you in high esteem when you are invited to celebrate her or his big occasions. Conversely, you know you are not well regarded when you get to hear of these occasions from those who were invited or, worse, the grapevine.

Those who are invited to these events can count themselves among the friends of the family hosting the party. Indeed, those invited are asked to feel at home which means to become part of the success being celebrated.

Among my people, it is highly unlikely that omulosi or omufila (consumers and practitioners of deadly witchcraft) will be invited to such gatherings. Now if they do, the hosts will have made a massive statement.

Like it or not, they will be saying, omulosi or omufila is one of us and we happily partake of their obulosi or obufila (witchcraft). The host will own the omufila or omulosi.

It will be up to the invited guests to decide whether to keep the company of omulosi or omufila or to shun them and the party altogether. President Kibaki rightly threw a party in the eastern African neighbourhood on August 27.

He was the instrument of the review process tasked with promulgating the new Constitution. The new Constitution is homegrown and a significant part of his legacy.

The Constitution was overwhelmingly endorsed by his people and it has been hailed by many as a fabulous basic law. And the new basic law was arrived at in peace time.

That's the kind of success you celebrate and showcase. It is the kind of success story you invite neighbours to witness and Kibaki duly did. Among Kibaki's invited neighbours was an omulosi called President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan.

President Kibaki likes al-Bashir. He invited him to Nairobi to attend the last meeting of the Inter-Governmental Agency on Development (IGAD) in June. President al-Bashir did not show up, but one can argue that that was not a big enough stage.

So, how could he skip the huge stage the promulgation of the Constitution presented? How could he miss the glare and stare of international media that would witness him and Kibaki lead AU in laughing at the ICC?

So Nairobi is not invoking AU in its battle to stem the fast and high tide of criticism it has drawn for inviting al-Bashir to the promulgation? Al-Bashir was invited by President Kibaki and therefore his visit is owned by the President.

Nairobi is just saying look folks; we just provided the stage for AU to slap ICC in the face. Nairobi is leading the way in saying that AU has had a change of heart and mind about the ICC.

Suddenly, AU saw Frankenstein's monster standing in its Addis HQ gate! Please permit me to illustrate my view with quotes from an interview AU Commission chairman Jean Ping granted Diplomat East Africa magazine last month:

"For instance ICC wants to open an office in Africa and specifically in Addis Ababa, the AU headquarters. We are asking ourselves why they cannot open an office in Asia or Latin America. We read a lot of mischief in this."

"In the case of Sudan, we were not requested to investigate the allegations made against President Omar al-Bashir."We are working for a peaceful Sudan but Luis Moreno-Ocampo doesn't care. All he wants is to catch Bashir. Let him go and get him."

Let him go and get him! You get it? AU member states who are also signatories to the Rome Statute that ratified the ICC will not arrest al-Bashir.You get it? After working so hard to create the ICC and representing the single largest block in the court, African leaders have realised most are likely to appear before it.

Get it! The ICC's warrant of arrest against al-Bashir shows that the long arm of international law is no respecter of sitting presidents and that has sent AU into a frenzy of indignation.

Having invited al-Bashir to his big day, Mr Kibaki must expect pay day from Khartoum. Love thy neighbour.