Roundup: Kenya mulls withdrawal from ICC

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said on Monday that his government is considering pulling out of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which indicted him and his deputy following the 2007/8 post-election violence.

Kenyatta said the government will consider two motions passed by the parliament for Kenya's withdrawal from the court.

"Twice, our Parliament has passed motions to withdraw. We have sought the changes that will align the ICC to respect for national sovereignty. Those changes have not been forthcoming. We will therefore need to give serious thought to our membership," Kenyatta said during his address to the nation at the 53rd Independence Day celebrations in Nairobi.

The president, whose case at the ICC was terminated in March 2015 due to lack of sufficient evidence, said the government will not allow the international court to continue "tormenting innocent Kenyans".

The president and his deputy William Ruto, whose case was also abandoned by the ICC in April this year, had been facing crimes against humanity charges over the 2007/8 post-election violence.

Kenyatta said the ICC has become a tool of global power politics who wanted to undermine Kenya's sovereignty and not pursuit of justice for which it was set up to dispense.

"Our experience at the ICC demonstrated a glaring lack of impartiality in this institution. We have started to see many more nations openly recognizing that the ICC is not impartial," Kenyatta said.

His remarks come as a number of African countries have in recent years threatened to pull out of the ICC.

Already, Burundi and South Africa have signed memorandums to pave way for the exit from the court in October this year. Gambia in the same month also followed and became the third African country in announcing membership withdrawal from the ICC.

Kenyatta said that Kenya's latest decision is informed by the failure by the ICC to reform so that it can have respect for national sovereignty of member countries.

He said the ICC showed an open lack of impartiality when it dealt with Kenya and many more nations have recognized the same.

"We are not the world's richest or most powerful nation, but we are entitled to an equal share of respect for our nationhood, our sovereignty, and our laws," Kenyatta said.

He said Kenya has been a champion of global institutions grounded in fairness and respect for national sovereignty as part of its pursuit of a more stable and just world.

"The Kenyan cases at the ICC have ended but the experience has given us cause to observe that this institution has become a tool of global power politics and not the justice it was built to dispense," Kenyatta said.

He said the choices Kenyans make are the basis for how Kenya will steer its destiny as a sovereign state. "Our founders fought bravely to have the right to make choices free of external interference," he said.

Ex-President Mwai Kibaki and his close rival, ex-Prime Minister Raila Odinga, fiercely contested the 2007 presidential elections which resulted into a two-month long post-election violence.

The violence was blamed on election malpractices and the fierce competition for a share of the national wealth between the various tribal groups. Most of it had to do with the distribution of land and access to State power.

Kenyatta and Ruto who were on opposite sides of the political divide in 2007-2008 were accused of organizing attacks against one another's supporters. They were elected in March 2013 on a joint ticket. Endit