“Mr. Kenyatta is excused from continuous presence at other times during the trial. This excusal is strictly for purposes of accommodating the discharge of his duties as the President of Kenya”. With these words the ICC trial Chamber in the case The Prosecutor v Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta made one of the most significant decisions regarding the trial of senior state officers. The court was faced with an unprecedented situation: the leader of a country is, for the first time, due to stand trial before an international tribunal on charges of having committed war crimes. Continue reading →

Syria. Egypt. Libya. The Democratic Republic of Congo. These are just a few of the countries where international crimes continue unabated. Nations where the perpetrators of impunity continue with their activities confident that there is little that the international community can do. In Kenya, two international crime suspects were elected to the two highest offices in the land[1]. Which then begs the questions: What went wrong with the enforcement of the resolutions of the Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries convened in Rome in 1998? [2] Apart from creating an administrative body based at the Hague and thousands of well paying jobs for the boys what else is there to celebrate about this treaty?  Continue reading →