PRESIDENT UHURU KENYATTA AND DEPUTY WILLIAM RUTO WILL NO LONGER ATTEND IN PERSON TRIAL AT ICC

Ambassador Amina Mohammed has finally let the president out of ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda fishing net when Kenya forced an amendment to Rules of Procedure and Evidence at the ongoing Assembly of States meeting at The Hague..

President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy William Ruto will no longer attend in person trial at the International Criminal Court and instead will be represented by their lawyers.

“I am happy that we have achieved what we wanted to achieve. We wanted the President and his deputy to be excused from trial and we have achieved that through the amendment to Rule 134,” said Ambassador Mohammed.

Article 134 allows the accused persons to be represented at the court by their lawyers.

The Kenyan delegation also ensured that the use of recorded testimony of dead or unavailable witnesses will may not be used in the case of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy William Ruto.

€”œWe were opposed to the use of testimony of absent witnesses and we have achieved that through introduction of a caveat to Rule 68″ added Amina.

ICC Chief prosecutor had applied to use recordings of absent witnesses citing massive interference in the two Kenyan cases. Earlier, Bensouda had alluded that the level of witnesses withdrawal in the Kenyan cases has been the highest in the history of the court.

Already, one Kenyan case against former head of public service Amb Francis Muthaura was stopped purely because of lack of witnesses.

 Other members of the Kenyan delegation at the ICC include Attorney General Githu Muigai and Director of Public Prosecutions Keriako Tobiko.