State House explains UhuRuto absence

What you need to know:

  • President Kenyatta left the country on Wednesday for a brief visit to Juba at the request of the East African Community, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad), and the government of South Sudan. He departed mid-morning and returned late afternoon.

State House issued a statement Saturday on the circumstances in which President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto were out of the country at the same time last week.

The two appeared to have shot themselves in the foot on Wednesday when President Kenyatta left for Juba, South Sudan, while Mr Ruto was away in Nigeria.

Both, who are facing crimes against humanity charges at the International Criminal Court (ICC), have managed to convince the judges to stagger their cases arguing that the law prohibits both of them from being away from the country at the same time.

State House Spokesperson Manoah Esipisu said the President’s trip could not be postponed owing to his responsibility as the current chair of the EAC and as a mediator in the South Sudan conflict.

“It must be emphasised that the Juba visit was occasioned by the extraordinary nature of the South Sudan conflict, and its obvious implications to the peace, security and stability of Kenya,” Mr Esipisu said in a statement.

“Their brief absence, enforced by emergency, is consistent with the Constitution and laws of Kenya.”

President Kenyatta left the country on Wednesday for a brief visit to Juba at the request of the East African Community, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad), and the government of South Sudan. He departed mid-morning and returned late afternoon.

Earlier, Mr Ruto had left the country to attend the 17th Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) Heads of State summit, which was held on February 26-27, and thereafter for an official event in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

This meant that the two were out of the country on Wednesday, a scenario the two have ruled out in the past citing a power vacuum.

That the government found it necessary to explain the situation is seen as an attempt to pre-empt any move by the ICC prosecutors to use this as proof that the two could be outside the country at the same time.

Last September, a tough talking Mr Kenyatta told off the ICC over a schedule that could have seen him and Mr Ruto at The Hague at the same time.