MPs vow to continue with plan to ditch Rome Statute

The Leader of Majority in Parliament Aden Duale during a past interview. He led others in opposing the trials of three Kenyans at The Hague. FILE 

In Summary

• There have been suggestions from Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed and others that President Kenyatta could refuse to go to The Hague next month for his trial but he declined to discuss that.

By Nation Reporter
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A section of MPs Thursday described former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan’s defence of the International Criminal Court as “dishonest” and accused him of coming to Kenya in 2008 to farther the goals of the Rome Statute, under which the court is established.

They repeated the claims made by many African leaders that the ICC is meant to punish Africans as it had not prosecuted perpetrators of atrocities in other countries where thousands have been killed.

“This is a very unfair approach and we need to ask the following questions; is it about skin colour, is it about race, what scale does the ICC use to weigh crimes against humanity to pursue and which ones to let go?” asked Majority Leader Aden Duale.

Flanked at the press conference in Parliament Buildings by the chairmen of the Defence and Foreign Relations committee, and National Security, 15 Jubilee MPs and Mr Joseph Nkaissery and Mr Victor Munyaka of Cord, Mr Duale (right) said the motions in Parliament would have no bearing on the current Kenyan cases at the ICC.

The Majority Leader vowed to push ahead with the process to repeal the International Crimes Act and have Kenya withdraw from the Rome Statute as resolved by the National Assembly at a special sitting on September 5.

He said the Bill he had been drafting would be ready for presentation in the National Assembly either next week or the week after, noting that, the decision made at the AU Summit in Addis Ababa would have no impact on their process, he said.

“We are saying (that) never in the history of Kenya shall we allow any of our citizens, whether it’s a president or a deputy president or an ordinary citizen including the journalist (Walter) Barasa … to be tried by a foreign court,” said Mr Duale.

There have been suggestions from Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed and others that President Kenyatta could refuse to go to The Hague next month for his trial but he declined to discuss that.

“If other African countries decide to do the same in their summit in Addis, that is within their right as countries within the Rome Statute. They won’t and they don’t need to seek the permission of anybody including Kofi Annan, who in our opinion left his country of origin, Ghana, 35 years ago,” said the MP.

In the afternoon, six Cord MPs came to Mr Annan’s defence and argued that it would be counter-productive for Kenya to withdraw from the Rome Statute.

They said that as much as they wished President Kenyatta, Deputy President William Ruto and former journalist Joshua arap Sang well, it wouldn’t make much sense to withdraw and vilify Mr Annan.

Arguing that many of the cases at the ICC were from Africa because many African countries are led by “dictators and despots,” Mr Junet Mohammed said the international court was more of a deterrent.

Mr Mohammed said the Majority Leader “should be suspicious of African countries that advocate for breaking of ties with the ICC because they want to take Kenya’s position as a leader on the continent.”

“We should not vilify Kofi Annan. He is an eminent person and you remember in 2008 when we were butchering each other, he is the one who came to our rescue,” said the Suna East MP.

“Sovereignty is like virginity and once you go butchering each other in your country, you lose your sovereignty. Once you lose virginity you don’t go around complaining. It is you who decided to go around butchering each other. You lost your sovereignty,” said Mr Mohammed.

Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi said if Kenya was so intent on leaving the Rome Statute, there would be no need for much hullabaloo as all it would have to do is write to the UN secretary-general.

David Ouma Ochieng’ (Ugenya, ODM) said Kenya is better off cooperating with the ICC and that the current activity around the matter “is linked to President Kenyatta’s imminent appearance at the ICC.”

They said they would talk to as many MPs as possible to ensure that the Bill to repeal the International Crimes Act does not go through.