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Kagame, Museveni back Uhuru but won’t go to ICC

An official in Kigali told capital FM News that President Paul Kagame supports President Kenyatta but will not be in a position to accompany him to the The Hague/FILE

An official in Kigali told capital FM News that President Paul Kagame supports President Kenyatta but will not be in a position to accompany him to the The Hague/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 3 – The presidents of Rwanda and Uganda will not accompany President Uhuru Kenyatta to The Hague next week contrary to earlier reports that the two would be part of a delegation going with him to the Netherlands.

An official in Kigali told Capital FM News that President Paul Kagame supports President Kenyatta but will not be in a position to accompany him to the The Hague.

“It’s not true that President Kagame is accompanying President Uhuru Kenyatta to The Hague. We support Kenya and we support President Kenyatta but President Kagame is not accompanying him to The Hague as earlier reported,” the official calling from the Rwandan President’s office told Capital FM News.

The official complained that President Kagame learnt of his purported trip to The Hague on Kenyan media yet he had not given such indication.

Ugandan Special Presidential Assistant for Communications Sarah Kagingo also said President Yoweri Museveni would not travel to The Hague with President Kenyatta though he supports him.

Immediately after the International Criminal Court (ICC) judges ordered for the physical presence of President Kenyatta during the status conference scheduled next Wednesday, news spread on mainstream and social media that African leaders would accompany him to The Hague.

In October 2013, the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia asked for a deferral of the trial against President Kenyatta.

The summit attended by African leaders agreed that no sitting Head of State in Africa should appear at an international court.

AU leaders threatened to pull out of the Rome Statute but the move was not implemented as African countries including Kenya are still signatories.

The leaders further pledged to support immunity for sitting heads of state and asked Kenya to write to the UN Security Council and seek for a deferral in the case against President Kenyatta.

The case against President Kenyatta has been on a shaky trend after ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda requested for postponement of his trial on three occasions.

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Bensouda last year informed the court that she did not have evidence against President Kenyatta but urged the court to allow her more time to solidify her case.

President Kenyatta is the only accused person in Kenya Case 2 in which he is accused of implementing a ‘joint common plan’ to execute attacks and killings in Naivasha and Nakuru during the violence that followed the disputed 2007 presidential poll.

Charges against former Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura and ex-Police Commissioner Hussein Ali were dropped.

The prosecution has accused the Government of Kenya of failing to furnish the court with several documents which it wants to use to show that President Kenyatta funded the attacks.

So far, there are no witnesses lined up to testify and the prosecution is relying on documents from Kenya to build its case.

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