Kenya votes to withdraw from I.C.C.

Members of the Kenyan National Assembly on Thursday passed a motion to initiate the process of withdrawing the Country's membership from the Hague based International Criminal Court (I.C.C) ahead of the trial of Kenya's Vice president William Ruto due next week.

Kenyan National Assembly in session as they discussed the
Country's intended withdraw from the I.C.C.

ICC prosecutors however say that despite Kenya's decision to withdraw her Membership, all the pending trial of all those implicated in the 2007/8 post-election violence in Kenya would still continue.

The violence led to loss of thousands of lives and more than 600,000 forced to leave their homes to much safer places. 

There was drama as the debate on withdraw proceeded in the Assembly Chambers. Cord MPs stormed out of the chambers saying they would not want to be part of a process they said would end in Kenya being a pariah state and jeopardize the cases at the International Criminal Court.

The passing of the motion means that the government can now write to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon notifying him of Kenya’s intention to withdraw from the Rome Statute.

The National Assembly also resolved to have a Bill introduced within the next 30 days to repeal the International Crimes Act through which Kenya domesticated the Rome Statute.

President Uhuru Kenyatta, his deputy William Ruto and journalist Joshua Sang are facing charges of crimes against humanity in The Hague court.