State takes Ruto case to the AU

What you need to know:

  • According to a government brief seen by the Nation, the Kenyan delegation will lobby for the speedy ratification of the resolution to expand the African court to handle charges like the ones against Mr Ruto at the ICC.
  • While charges against President Uhuru Kenyatta were withdrawn due to insufficient evidence, Mr Ruto is being tried at the ICC for crimes against humanity charges alongside former Radio journalist Joshua arap Sang.
  • “We have to understand that justice is delivered within its context, something which the ICC doesn’t do,” said Mr Murkomen.

The Kenyan delegation to an African Union meeting will launch a battle to have charges against Deputy President William Ruto transferred from the International Criminal Court to an African court.

This time, the government has enlisted the support of MPs and some NGOs to lobby member states to ratify a resolution to bring into force the African Court of Justice and Human Rights with an expanded mandate to try crimes against humanity cases.

CALL FOR SIGNATURES

According to a government brief seen by the Nation, the Kenyan delegation will lobby for the speedy ratification of the resolution to expand the African court to handle charges like the ones against Mr Ruto at the ICC.

“Lead from the front by calling for signatures by all states within the next one year in accordance with the Executive Council decision by which states undertook to commence ratification of AU instruments,” reads the brief in part.

It states that the government will lead the process by asking the National Assembly to give its approval — as it is required by the Constitution — on the court.

“Signing the protocol is in keeping with other progressive reforms to international justice sphere that Kenya has been seeking at the ICC-Assembly of State Parties,” it says.

The decision to be robust came after one of the greatest critics of the ICC, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, appeared to soften his stand on the court when he allowed The Hague-based court to try Ugandan rebel leader Dominic Ongwen.

While charges against President Uhuru Kenyatta were withdrawn due to insufficient evidence, Mr Ruto is being tried at the ICC for crimes against humanity charges alongside former Radio journalist Joshua arap Sang.

Yesterday, government sources said Kenya failed to push through its bid to cushion President Kenyatta and Mr Ruto from the clutches of the ICC at the ASP meeting in New York due to lack of support from lawmakers and NGOs.

Yesterday, Elgeyo-Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen and Kenya Citizens Coalition head Ngunjiri Wambugu confirmed that they were heading to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the meeting which begins tomorrow.

“We are going there because we want to have an African court, which understands the context in which certain things happen.

“We have to understand that justice is delivered within its context, something which the ICC doesn’t do,” said Mr Murkomen.

He said a team of 10 MPs and senators would be part of the Kenyan delegation.

“It is important that African problems be solved by Africans. The context in which conflicts in Africa happen is alien to the white man,” said Mr Wambugu.