ICC to rule on non-cooperation in Uhuru Kenyatta case

ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. She has appealed the Trial Chamber's ruling not to take Kenya before the Assembly of States Parties. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP. 

By VALENTINE OBARA
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By WALTER MENYA
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The International Criminal Court will decide on August 19 whether the Assembly of States Parties should take action against Kenya for alleged non-cooperation in the case against President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda had requested the court’s Appeals Chamber to overturn the Trial Chamber's decision not to take Kenya before the Assembly of States Parties.

“The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court, in the appeal of the Prosecutor against the decision of Trial Chamber V (B) entitled 'Decision on Prosecution’s application for a finding of non-compliance under Article 87(7) of the Statute', of 3 December 2014, issues the following scheduling order. The judgment in the above mentioned appeal will be delivered in open court on Wednesday, 19 August 2015,” the scheduling order by ICC reads.

CHAMBER DECLINED

Trial Chamber V(B) had declined to refer Kenya to the Assembly, a decision Ms Bensouda appealed.

She had submitted that the Kenya Government’s reluctance to fully cooperate with the ICC led to the termination of proceedings in the case against Mr Kenyatta.

The crimes-against-humanity case stemmed from the 2007/08 post-election violence in which 1,133 people were killed and 650,000 others uprooted from their homes.

Ms Bensouda’s appeal was helped by an amicus curiae submission by a local human rights organisation, the Africa Centre for Open Governance (Africog).

Africog Executive Director Gladwell Otieno said in the filing that there were sufficient grounds to have the country declared non-compliant with the Rome Statute, a situation that would pave the way for referring Kenya to the Assembly of States Parties for punitive measures.

FREEZE ASSETS

One such instance, Africog had argued, was the government’s refusal to freeze any of President Kenyatta’s assets, a clear violation of Part 9 of the Rome Statute.

The government, through Attorney-General Githu Muigai, however, had opposed the appeal.

Furthermore, Prof Muigai accused Africog of misrepresenting facts and misleading the court.

The judgment will be made in public at 10am local time in The Hague.