Deputy President William Ruto slams ICC at summit

Deputy President William Ruto with Attorney General Githu Muigai during the 56th annual session of Asian African Legal Consultative Oraganisation at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre. (Photo: Moses Omusula/Standard) 

Kenya differed with the position of a major international legal summit on the role of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Deputy President William Ruto termed the Hague-based court "a tool of global power politics".

While the leadership of the ongoing Asian African Legal Consultative Oraganisation (AALCO), taking place in Nairobi, lobbied member states that have not signed the Rome Statute to ratify the agreement to help fight impunity, Kenya led in castigating the international court.

Moments after AALCO General Secretary Kennedy Gastorn called on countries in Africa and Asia who are not signatories of the Rome Statute that establishes the ICC to join it, Mr Ruto, who was opening the forum, dismissed the court, saying it no longer served its intended purpose.

Ruto told delegates from 47 countries, who are AALCO member states, that from experience, ICC was no longer serving justice, especially in developing nations, as was expected of it.

"Our experience gave us cause to observe that this institution and similar ones have become tools of global power politics and do not deliver the justice that they were built to dispense," Ruto said.

He said member states should look for ways that would give them, and other partners, more say in the international judicial system.

Prof Gastorn said only by joining the ICC would the countries be able to fight impunity.

The four-day international forum brings together eminent legal experts from Africa and Asia, and ends on Friday.