Kenyatta has day in court
President accused of fomenting violence
KENYA’S Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday became the first sitting president to appear before the International Criminal Court, with his lawyer seeking an acquittal on charges of crimes against humanity.
Kenyatta, who handed power to his deputy before flying to The Hague, was summoned to answer questions for allegedly masterminding deadly post-election violence in 2007-08.
“The case has failed. It has failed in a way that there’s no prospect to go further,” Kenyatta’s lawyer, Steven Kay, said after the prosecution admitted it did not have enough evidence because Nairobi was allegedly not cooperating.
“It would be an affront to common sense to say that we are not entitled to an acquittal,” Kay told the court watched by a public gallery packed with Kenyatta supporters.
Judge Kuniko Ozaki told Kenyatta he was in court “solely in your capacity as an accused individual”.
The repeatedly delayed case has seen at least seven prosecution witnesses drop out through bribes and intimidation.
Judges could decide to send the case to trial or to abandon it, after the prosecution said it did not have enough evidence.
They could also find, as the prosecution has requested, that Kenya is found to be not cooperating, and postpone the case pending a referral to the Assembly of States Parties of countries that have signed the ICC’s founding Rome Statute.
A handful of demonstrators sang and danced outside the ICC ahead of Kenyatta’s arrival.
Kenyatta, 52, faces five counts at the ICC over his alleged role in orchestrating unrest in 2007 and 2008 that left 1 200 people dead and 600 000 displaced.
The Kenyan leader has appeared at the ICC before, but not since he was elected president in March 2013.
Kenyatta arrived in The Hague on Tuesday, having temporarily handed power to his deputy and erstwhile political opponent William Ruto.
Ruto is already on trial at the ICC for his part in the violence, while Kenyatta’s trial has yet to begin despite a drawn-out, 3½year legal saga.
ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda last month asked for an indefinite postponement, saying Nairobi had refused to cooperate with a request for financial and other statements, so she did not have enough evidence.
The prosecution wants Kenyatta’s bank statements, tax records and telephone records relating to the period of unrest.
They believe the documents could prove Kenyatta’s part in bankrolling and orchestrating the violence.
Bitter memories are still fresh from 2007, when elections escalated into ethnic conflict, for which Kenyatta and Ruto were charged with crimes against humanity. Both reject the charges. Kenya’s post-electoral unrest shattered the East African country’s image as a beacon of regional stability.
What began as political riots quickly turned into ethnic killings, plunging Kenya into its worst wave of unrest since independence in 1963. – AFP