INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT:

PHOTO: DP William Ruto with his lead lawyer, Karim Kan, during court proceedings at ICC.

SHOULD KENYATTA ATTEND COURT PROCEEDINGS AT ICC?

By Maritim Kipngetich
Politicians are always blamed for radicalizing one group of a particular people who are politically affiliated to one political party against other group who are pro-other parties. This has cost politicians a lot with some being summoned before the international courts. Kenya is a marvelous example of such countries which have got their leaders appeared before International Criminal Court.

Currently, two key leaders in the country, Kenya, have the cases before ICC. It is an elusive moment for them since it is difficult to run the country while you have a pending case in the court. It is a challenging issue which has made the African leaders and leaders of other countries who have an interest in the African soil to support the withdrawal of the cases. The ICC prosecutor has turned a deaf ear on the leaders’ plea saying that international court is an independent judicial system which does not have to make decisions which are contrary to the law. The Gambian-born prosecutor has track records of being aggressive when it comes to the matters of the law.

The President of the Republic of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, has a case before the court and there has been a debate whether he should appear before the court in person or be represented by his lawyers. The court has an uphill task in dealing with Uhuru who is the head of state and government and his government is expected to give court a crucial information which may show whether the President gave financial and material support to the then Mungiki sect: which is accused to have caused the mayhem among the people, who were ODM party affiliates, in Naivasha during 2007-2008 elections.

PHOTO: President Kenyatta during the past court proceedings.

The current talks in the ICC about the case before Kenyan leaders are whether Uhuru should attend the court proceedings in The Hague, the Netherlands, or communicate via a video link from Nairobi, Kenya. The Jubilee leaders have a feeling that the order given to the President to appear before the court in 8^th October this year, is meant to frustrate the operation of the government. The Kenyan Attorney General, Gitu Muigai, said “the prosecutor has either failed in her job or she has lacked the evidence she can use to prosecute the president”.

The African leaders have a notion that the ICC was only meant to humiliate African leaders since the only leaders who have appeared before the court since it came into existence in 2002 are from African soil.

It is indeed a good thing to respect the international judicial systems like ICC who deal with criminal injustices, but the respect of the leaders should also be considered at some point during the trials. The International Criminal Court, in its binding laws, gives the right to individuals, who may not have time or resources to appear before the court in person, to participate in the court proceedings via a video link. The leaders of Kenya are not exceptional. They also have a right to participate via a video link just like eight witnesses who were given chances to give their testimonies from Nairobi, Kenya.