Deputy President William Ruto to stay at The Hague pending UN Council’s move

By PKEMOI NGENOH

Deputy President William Ruto will continue to attend court sessions at the International Criminal Court at The Hague to ensure that due process is not affected, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Cabinet Secretary Ambassador Amina Mohamed has said.

She said that Ruto would attend his cases as the country awaits the processing of African Union’s request for a deferral of his case and that of President Uhuru Kenyatta.

In a press statement, Ambassador Amina Mohammed said that Kenya has, from the beginning, fully cooperated with the ICC and conformed to the Rome Statute adding that both the President and his deputy have continuously and without fail attended court sessions when required to do so.

She however said that President Kenyatta will not appear before the ICC until the concerns raised by the African Union and its member states in meetings held last weekend in Addis Ababa Ethiopia have been adequately addressed by the Security Council and the ICC.

“The President’s case is due to begin on November 12, – in a month’s time. The AU made requests to the Security Council, first under paragraph 9 (iii) for a suspension of the proceedings until the end of the terms in office of the President and his Deputy,” said Ambassador Mohamed.

She said the AU Council and Summit recognized that President Kenyatta must be left to govern as he was a democratically elected sitting Head of State with a clear mandate from the Kenyan people.