NO WAY! Odinga rubbishes Uhurus ICC withdrawal statement

The opposition Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) leader, Raila Odinga, has lashed at President Uhuru Kenyatta over remarks that Kenya is headed out of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

President Kenyatta, during the Jamhuri Day celebrations on Monday, December 12 at the Nyayo National Stadium, said that the government was considering two motions passed by Parliament seeking to withdraw from the Hague-based court.

The President accused the ICC of failing to reform and targeting African nations without respecting their sovereignty.

“We have sought the changes that will align the ICC to respect for national sovereignty. Those changes have not been forthcoming.  We will therefore need to give serious thought to our membership,” said the President.

“The Kenyan cases at the International Criminal Court have ended but the experience has given us cause to observe that this institution has become a tool of global power politics and not the justice it was built to dispense.”

President Kenyatta was among six Kenyans who were facing charges of crimes against humanity at the ICC. Others who were facing similar charges following the 2007/08 Post Election Violence in which over 1,300 people were killed and over 600,000 others displaced included Deputy President, William Ruto, former Head of Public Service Ambassador Francis Muthaura, former ODM chairman Henry Kosgey, former Police Commissioner Hussein Ali and journalist Joshua Arap Sang.

Odinga faulted the Head of State saying that Kenya is in ICC to stay and that the opposition will not allow any move to pull the country out of the international court.

He said that the President and his deputy should be grateful that the court allowed them to contest in the 2013 elections while undergoing trial

The ICC issue dominated the 2013 presidential election with Kenyatta and Ruto joining forces and viciously attacked the Hague-based court over what they termed as political-machinations.

They accused the international community and the West of dictating to the court what to do to an extent of ‘fabricating’ evidence against them.

On the other hand, Odinga defended the court saying that it has helped address cases of crimes against humanity especially in African states.

Odinga was speaking during the Wiper Democratic Movement National Delegates Conference in Nairobi’s Kasarani gymnasium on Tuesday, December 13.