House to discuss pulling Kenya out of the Hague

Parliament will sit on Thursday in a special session to discuss pulling Kenya out of the International Criminal Court.

Quitting the Rome Statute, which is being spearheaded by MPs from the Jubilee Coalition, will have no effect on the impending crimes against the trials of President Kenyatta, Deputy President William Ruto and radio journalist Joshua arap Sang.

Kenya, the members claimed, will set the stage for the withdrawal from the ICC of other African countries. The Rome Statute is the treaty setting up the court.

By Tuesday, MPs had successfully petitioned National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi to recall the House on Thursday to discuss the Hague motion. MPs have, in the past, passed another motion asking the government to withdraw from the ICC.

The court’s spokesman, Mr Fadi el Abdallah, has already warned that withdrawing from the treaty at this stage is an exercise in futility — the trials will continue.

The MPs say, however that their push is not about the trials, but about protecting Kenyan citizens from the court, which they described as “political”.

The trial of Mr Ruto starts on Tuesday next week, and that of the President on November 12.

At the Senate, Majority leader and Tharaka-Nithi Senator Kithure Kindiki said he will introduce a motion to discuss “the relationship between Kenya and the ICC”.

The TNA senator will also introduce another motion to require Kenya to withdraw from the Rome Statute.

Both Houses are also to discuss the resolutions of the African Union Summit in May, which expressed solidarity with Kenya and asked the ICC to send the cases back to Kenyan courts.

“We believe that the trial of the Deputy President and subsequently that of President of Kenya in a foreign court while occupying office has serious implication on our sovereignty, dignity and stability of our country,” Prof Kindiki said in Mombasa.

“The Senate will also discuss, during the special sitting, the state of devolution and in particular why the national government was yet to send money to counties even after they had fulfilled all the functions,” Prof Kindiki said.

In a gazette notice on Tuesday, Deputy Speaker Joyce Laboso said the special sitting of the National Assembly will only consider the motion “relating to membership of the Republic of Kenya to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court”.

Leader of the Majority in the National Assembly Aden Duale will move the motion asking the government to implement a resolution of the last Parliament for a repeal of the International Crimes Act.

The motion, passed in December 2010, was moved by the current Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto, then Chepalungu MP. His motion supported unanimously by then President Kibaki’s side of the ruling coalition, also demanded that the Kenyan case be transferred to the country and to Arusha, Tanzania.

CORD TO AGREE POSITION

The opposition Cord coalition has called an urgent parliamentary group meeting ahead of the House sitting to apparently agree on the position to take.

The meeting, to be chaired by coalition leader and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, will be held at Orange House at 9am.

On Tuesday, Jubilee MPs said they were aware that their move for a withdrawal would have no impact on the cases facing President Kenyatta, Mr Ruto and journalist Sang.

“My motion and my repealing (of the relevant law) has nothing to do with the cases at The Hague. Those cases at The Hague will be dealt with by the two leaders by the legal process. I want Kenya to join other nations which withdrew from the Rome Statute in the interests of their citizens. For my motion, I have no business with the Uhuru and Ruto cases,” Mr Duale told the Nation.

“We want to set the pace for Africa to delink itself from that court and act in tandem with what African leaders believe in — that this is a political court. Although we are confident the court will deliver justice (in the current Kenyan cases), we want, as a country, to emulate other democratically elected governments like USA, Russia, China, India and Israel, who are not members of the ICC,’’ Tiaty MP Asman Kamama said.

Mr Duale said that after the House approves the motion on Thursday, the committee on Defence and Foreign Relations would then table for debate the African Union leaders’ resolutions.

Mr Duale’s motion will be the only agenda in tomorrow’s special sitting from 2.30pm to 6.30pm after which the House will adjourn and resume on September 17, according to the parliamentary Calendar.

But his counterpart, Minority Leader Francis Nyenze, cautioned against a rush to repeal to the Rome Statute.

Mr Nyenze said even as the opposition Cord meets to take a stand, it was important that politicians tread carefully on the “sensitive issue.’’