{{The Kenya High Court has dismissed a case filed by a Non-Governmental Organisation seeking to bar President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto from attending his trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC).}}
The case was filed by the National Conservative Forum which had argued that Kenyatta and Ruto’s absence was likely to cause imbalance of power in the country, if both were left to travel to The Hague for their crimes against humanity trials.
On Thursday, Justice Mumbi Ngugi ruled that the reasons given by the NGO were “purely speculative”.
The judge also declined to declare that the Rome Statute is inconsistent with the Constitution as argued by the NGO.
“There is no evidence to this effect, and this court has no jurisdiction to do so,” the Judge said, and added that the powers to declare the Rome Statute inconsistent rest with the Legislature.
A Bill to remove Kenya from the Rome Statute is set to be tabled in the National Assembly after MPs adopted a Motion that paved way for the Bill.
A bid by Kenya to rally other African countries for a mass walk out from the statute flopped during last week’s African Union summit where a resolution was reached for Kenya to ask for a deferral of the cases facing its two top leaders.
Ruto on Tuesday announced that Kenya has already filed a deferral request and is awaiting its response.
The AU has advised the Kenyan leaders against attending their ICC trial pending the AU request, but Ruto says he will continue attending the trial while awaiting the resolution.
Uhuru and Ruto argue that they need time to fulfil their constitutional mandate as elected leaders.
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