Parliament pulls Kenya from ICC treaty

Kenyan MPs on Wednesday night rallied behind a motion seeking to withdraw Kenya from the Rome Statute.

The MPs fully supported the motion by Chepalungu MP Isaac Ruto for Kenya to cease being a signatory to the statute which creates the International Criminal Court.

Only Gichugu MP Martha Karua disagreed.

And during the debate on Wednesday night, MPs poured vitriol on the ICC and its chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo.

They expressed solidarity with the six people named as perpetrators of the post election violence.

They resolved that cases arising from the chaos be handled by local judicial systems.

The motion had been thrown out on Tuesday by Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim for violating the constitution.

However, Mr Ruto amended it to suit constitutional requirements and after giving notice to the House on Wednesday, it was placed for debate.

Supporting the motion, Energy minister Kiraitu Murungi dismissed the ICC as a colonial imperialist court.

“It is only Africans from former colonies who are being tried at the ICC. No American or British will be tried at the ICC and we should not willingly allow ourselves to return to colonialism,’’ he said.

“The fears that we had when we were introducing the international criminal justice system are no longer there.

“There is nothing we cannot handle. As a sovereign country, no other Kenyan who will be tried on foreign land. Let the six go but we have now learnt our lessons.’’

And he defended Head of the Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet Francis Muthaura whose name was among those in the Ocampo list saying: “I cannot imagine somebody like Ambassador Mutthaura raping anyone.’’

Ms Karua was the lone voice against the motion, which she described as unfortunate and misguided and pleaded with MPs to think about the interests of poll violence victims.

The Narc Kenya leader challenged President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to accept responsibility for failing to support the establishment of a local tribunal.