Bashir Receives Phone Call From Uhuru

{{The Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir on monday received a phone call from Kenyan president-elect Uhuru Kenyatta.}}

According to Sudan official news agency (SUNA) Kenyatta thanked Bashir for his cable of congratulations he sent upon his victory in the presidential polls held last month.

The report said that Kenyatta expressed gratitude to Sudan’s supporting positions towards Kenya. The two men also discussed bilateral ties and ways to strengthen it.

Earlier in the day reports that the Sudanese president, wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), would be present at the inauguration ceremony had observers and diplomats buzzing and speculating about its implications.

In late 2011 a Kenyan judge ordered the government to arrest Bashir should he set foot in the country and issued a provisional arrest warrant in January 2012 for that purpose.

“Whereas the High Court of Kenya Hereby issues this provisional warrant of arrest against the said Omar al-Bashir and commands you, Professor George Saitoti, E.G.H., M.P., Minister of State for Provincial Administration and Internal Security and, failing you, the Minister for the time responsible for matters relating to national security, to apprehend the said Omar al-Bashir should he come to Kenya, and to surrender him to the International Criminal Court”, said the warrant signed by then judge Nicholas Ombija.

The ruling was in response to a filing made by the Kenyan chapter of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) that sought to compel Nairobi to detain the Sudanese leader if he visited again.

The government appealed the ruling which remains pending and its officials stressed that Bashir enjoys full immunity as a sitting head of state.

Kenya is a member of the ICC which in 2009 and 2010 issued two arrest warrants for Bashir on ten counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide he allegedly committed in Sudan’s western region of Darfur.

Despite the country’s legal obligation under the ICC’s statute, it chose to receive Bashir in August 2010 without arresting him, prompting the ICJ to move the issue to the High Court.

ST