How President Kenyatta handled the Hague Crisis

Like walking on a tight rope in mid-air, President Kenyatta faced a tough dilemma when the International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled that he had to appear in person at the Hague status conference on October 8.  Though lawyers differ(ed) on the matter, failure to honour the summons could have attracted a warrant of arrest for President Kenyatta and Kenya could suffer sanctions by members of state of the Roman Statues for not cooperating with the Court.

Spoken words and unspoken actions can catalyse a crisis. A prolonged silence from the President whether or not he would honour the summon threatened to create a crisis as debates laced with rumours, and speculations raged at national and international level with one side in support of the president attending the conference and the other strongly opposed to it. All these were warning signs of crises for Kenya.