Politics
Kenya: Parliament votes to withdraw from ICC – an angry snub of The Hague-based tribunal
Kenya’s parliament on Thursday passed a motion to withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) just before the country’s deputy president face trial at The Hague for allegedly orchestrating post-election violence more than five years ago. This is an angry snub to tribunal ahead of next week’s trial of Deputy President William Ruto.
Citing the fact that the United States and other world powers are not members, the majority leader of Kenya’s parliament on Thursday argued that Kenya should withdraw from the statute that created the ICC.
Adan Duale told a special session of Kenya’s parliament that U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush both argued against the United States becoming a party to the Rome Statute, which regulates prosecutions for war crimes and crimes against humanity at the ICC.
The motion “to suspend any links, cooperation and assistance” to the ICC was overwhelmingly approved by the country’s parliament through a vote. “The house resolves to introduce a bill within 30 days to repeal the international crimes act of 2008, and that the government urgently undertakes measures for the withdrawal of the Rome Statute” that set up the ICC, House Speaker Justin Muturi said.
Kenya can only withdraw from the ICC by formal notification to the United Nations Secretary-General by the government, not the country’s parliament.
Clinton and Bush, Duale said, refused to join the ICC in order to protect U.S. citizens and soldiers from potential politically-motivated prosecutions. “Let us protect our citizens. Let us defend the sovereignty of the nation of Kenya,” Duale said.
The Kenyan debate is a reaction to the start next week of the trial at The Hague of Deputy President William Ruto. Ruto and President Uhuru Kenyatta face charges of crimes against humanity for allegedly helping to orchestrate post-election violence in 2007-08.
Kenyatta, who was elected president earlier this year, faces trial in November. Both leaders have said they will cooperate with the court. The country’s parliament has voted to withdraw before, but the executive branch took no action. The Rome Statute says a “state party” may withdraw with written notification to the U.N.’s secretary-general; withdrawal takes effect one year later.
If Kenya were to withdraw, it would be the first nation to do so.
Kenyatta’s and Ruto’s indictments led the United States and European powers like the U.K. to openly advocate for the two leaders’ electoral defeat. When the two were declared the winners in March’s election with 50.03 percent of the vote, both countries gave only lukewarm congratulations. However, U.S. and U.K. relations with Kenya since then have appeared to be at least “normal”, though when U.S. President Barack Obama embarked on a tour of Africa in June and July he did not visit Kenya, his father’s home country.
The ICC has only indicted Africans, a fact that has opened the court to severe criticism on the continent. The chairman of the African Union earlier this year said that ICC prosecutions “have degenerated into some kind of race hunt.”
The ICC stepped in to investigate Kenya’s postelection violence after the country failed to prosecute any of the organizers of the attacks. Kenya suffered two months of post-election violence that dented the country’s reputation as a stable democracy, however, the country has worked very hard in the last five years to correct the mistakes that led to the violence, and is now one of the fastest growing economies on the African continent.
Sources: Associated Press, Daily Nation