Kenya won’t quit international court

BRUSSELS: Kenya backed down from its threat to quit the International Criminal Court (ICC), saying fellow member states had given it the assurances it wanted over the trial of its vice-president, but warned that any adverse ruling could change its view.

Vice-President William Ruto is facing charges of crimes against humanity including murder, deportation and persecution linked to an outburst of ethnic killings after the 2007 presidential election.

Kenya said member states at the court’s general assembly in The Hague had clarified that a new rule allowing the court to use testimony from witnesses who had since decided to withdraw could not be applied retroactively to cases like Ruto’s.