{The post-election violence case against Deputy President William Ruto will once again feature prominently at the 26th African Union Summit, as Kenya prepares to push for the adoption of the outcome of the ICC\u2019s 14th Assembly of State Parties.}<\/p>\n
Mr Ruto\u2019s legal adviser Dr Korir Sing\u2019oei told the Nation that Kenya wants the AU to \u201cadopt and affirm\u201d its position on the use of the Rule 68 of the ICC\u2019s Rules of Procedure and Evidence on the use of recanted testimony.<\/p>\n
\u201cKenya is going to ask the African Union to reaffirm that Rule 68 should never have been applied against the Deputy President. This is one of the major things we will be seeking,\u201d Dr Sing\u2019oei said.<\/p>\n
The theme of the AU Summit that started in Addis Ababa on January 21 is African Year of Human Rights with a particular focus on the rights of women. The biannual summit ends on January 31.<\/p>\n
President Uhuru Kenyatta is expected to travel to Addis Ababa for the heads of state and government summit proper which takes place on January 30 and 31.<\/p>\n
But lawyer Haroun Ndubi termed Kenya\u2019s proposed AU agenda as \u201ca political statement equivalent to a roadside declaration.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is meaningless and wasteful because the matter of Rule 68 is a judicial matter in the hands of the ICC\u2019s Appeals Chamber,\u201d said Mr Ndubi.<\/p>\n
ICC CASES<\/p>\n
The AU at its last summit in South Africa directed the AU Commission to ensure that the AU is added as an amicus curiae (friend of the court) in on-going cases of African leaders at the ICC.<\/p>\n
As a result, the ICC received submissions from the AU on the appeal by Mr Ruto against the application of the Rule 68 on the use of recanted testimony.<\/p>\n
The ICC Appeals Chamber however rejected the submissions of Namibia and Uganda who also wanted to be included as amicus curiae in the case.<\/p>\n
The appeal decision on whether ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda can rely on the recanted testimony is one of the two major decisions that Mr Ruto and his legal team are looking out for. The other one is Trial Chamber decision on the no case to answer motion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Assembly is expected to hear progress on implementation of previous decisions on ICC and adopt a declaration on the same,\u201d head of Oxfam International Liaison Office to the AU Mr D\u00e9sir\u00e9 Assogbavi.<\/p>\n
Besides the Rule 68 agenda, Dr Sing\u2019oei also revealed that Kenya will also be pushing ahead with its agenda for the rapid expansion of the criminal jurisdiction of the African court to handle international crimes, otherwise known as the Malabo Protocol.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is something Kenya will be pursuing and the president (Uhuru Kenyatta) will also be talking about to his colleagues,\u201d said Dr Sing\u2019oei.<\/p>\n
This has been Kenya\u2019s agenda for quite some time as the Jubilee lobbies African governments to sign the Malabo Protocol so as to operationalise the African court and bypass the ICC.<\/p>\n
During the 24th AU Summit in Addis Ababa, President Uhuru Kenyatta even pledged Kenya\u2019s donation of $1 million (Sh102 million at current rates) to set up the court.<\/p>\n
Despite Kenya\u2019s push, its continental peers have been hesitant to sign the Malabo Protocol.<\/p>\n
Kenya will also feature when the AU leaders review the state of peace and security on the continent and likely to adopt an omnibus decision on each situation.<\/p>\n
Source:Daily Nation:[Ruto\u2019s case to feature at African Union forum->http:\/\/www.nation.co.ke\/news\/Ruto-seeks-AU-backing-in-Hague-case\/-\/1056\/3047790\/-\/o0madv\/-\/index.html]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{The post-election violence case against Deputy President William Ruto will once again feature prominently at the 26th African Union Summit, as Kenya prepares to push for the adoption of the outcome of the ICC\u2019s 14th Assembly of State Parties.} Mr Ruto\u2019s legal adviser Dr Korir Sing\u2019oei told the Nation that Kenya wants the AU to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000071730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[100],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-22757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-africa","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":{"id":2000071730,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22757.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22757.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22757.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22757.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22757.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22757.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000071730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22757"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=22757"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=22757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}