Breaking news - Kenya: Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta to step down from office to attend ICC

Nairobi (Kenya) - The Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta, will temporarily step down as president while attending a hearing at the international criminal court this week, he said in a national address on Monday.
Kenyatta faces charges of crimes against humanity at the ICC, which is based at The Hague, Netherlands, over allegations that he helped instigate violence that followed Kenya’s December 2007 presidential election, when more than 1,000 people were killed.
The court ordered him to attend a status hearing on Wednesday, denying his request that he participate by video. The hearing will be the first time a sitting president has attended an ICC session, a milestone Kenyatta’s political supporters have urged him to avoid.
Seeking to bypass that notation in history, the president said on Monday that he would invoke a hitherto unused article of the constitution that will see the deputy president, William Ruto, temporarily become president.
The short-term abdication is Kenyatta’s way of fulfilling the court order while insisting that he is attending the hearing as a private citizen.
In his speech, Kenyatta maintained his innocence, noted that the ICC prosecutor had been admonished by the court for her faltering case and recalled that the African Union had passed a resolution granting immunity from international tribunals for sitting presidents.
Kenyatta also claimed that Africa’s “century of exploitation and domination” by the west was continuing. Critics of the ICC note that it has only prosecuted Africans.
Lastly, Kenyatta said the accusations he faced occurred before he became president.
“It is for this reason that I chose not to put the sovereignty of more than 40 million Kenyans on trial since their democratic will should never be subject to another jurisdiction,” Kenyatta said.
“Therefore let it not be said that I am attending the status conference as the president of Kenya,” he continued. “Nothing in my position or my deeds as president warrants my being in court.”
George Kegoro, executive director of the Kenyan chapter of the International Commission of Jurists, praised the president for following the rule of law. If Kenyatta had refused to go, he risked an international arrest warrant and international condemnation or economic sanctions against Kenya.
“If he had refused it would have destroyed our economy. The economy would not have recovered during his tenure,” said Gitobu Imanyara, a lawyer and former legislator.
The case against Kenyatta appears to be collapsing as witnesses refuse to testify or recant their statements. A once-rocky relationship with the US and Europe also seems to be improving.
Kenyatta, Ruto and Joshua arap Sang, a Kenyan radio presenter, all face charges of crimes against humanity before the ICC for inciting massive violence following the 2007 election. That violence – often ethnically motivated – killed more than 1,000 people and uprooted 600,000 from their homes.
Kenyatta has appeared before the court before but was not president at the time.
Kenyatta and Ruto, who were on opposing sides of the 2007-08 conflict, formed a political alliance that won the presidency and a majority in parliament after they were indicted for the crimes against humanity. They used the ICC charges as a rallying cry of us v the world.

Associated press in Nairobi

Kenya: le président Uhuru Kenyatta en route pour la CPI à La Haye

Nairobi (Kenya ) - De source officielle kenyane, le président du Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, accusé de crimes contre l'humanité par la Cour pénale internationale, est en route pour La Haye.
Selon nos informations, il a quitté Nairobi la capitale kényane mardi matin, pour La Haye où il doit comparaître mercredi devant la Cour pénale internationale.
Uhuru Kenyatta a annoncé qu'il se rendait à la CPI à titre "personnel" et non en tant que chef de l'Etat à la CPI. Il a en outre délégué ses pouvoirs à son vice-président William Ruto, le temps de son séjour à La Haye.
C'est à bord d'un vol régulier de Kenya Airways, accompagné de sa femme et d'un de ses enfants, que Uhuru Kenyatta s'est envolé pour Les Pays Bas.

Michèle Laffont avec AP