William Samoei Ruto and a Kenyan journalist, are accused of crimes against humanity.
The trial opens on September 10, 2013 at the International Criminal Court, ICC in The Hague, The Netherlands, of Kenya’s Vice President, William Samoei Ruto. He faces charges of crimes against humanity following the 2007-2008 post-election violence in his country, the ICC website reported.
Ruto and a Kenyan journalist, Joshua arap Sang, are accused of murder, deportation or forcible transfer of population and persecution. The first hearings will be held from September 10 to October 4 and October 14 to November 1, 2013, in the presence of the accused. Ruto, 46, is the most senior Kenyan politician to date to face ICC judges, the AFP news agency recalled yesterday, September, 9, 2013.
His fellow accused, Joshua arap Sang, a radio boss, is accused of inciting and helping to coordinate attacks during the violence. The Kenyan Parliament in an emergency debate on September 5, 2013, approved a motion urging the country to pull out from ICC, BBC recalled. The withdrawal has to be approved by an Act of Parliament and could take a year or more to come into effect after notification.
No country has withdrawn from the ICC since it was set up in 2002 to deal with genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression. The Rome Statute that set up the court has been ratified by 122 countries, including 34 from Africa. Even if Kenya withdraws from the ICC, it will not halt prosecutions currently underway. However, this could embolden other nations to follow suit.
The debate in Parliament on withdrawing from the ICC is expected to portray President Kenyatta and his deputy as victims, rather than the alleged perpetrators of injustice, BBC said. This notion is gaining support not just in Kenya, but across Africa. Last May, African Union Chairman, Ethiopian Prime Minister, Hailemariam Desalegn, accused the ICC of racist bias and of "hunting Africans."
The ICC withdrawal motion tabled in Parliament last week by Majority Leader, Adan Duale, said Uhuro Kenyetta and William Ruto, were "lawfully elected." He argued that the US refused to sign the Rome Statute to protect its citizens from politically-motivated prosecutions, urging Kenya to do same.
