Kenya's Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs Amina Mohamed. The Cabinet
secretary arrived in the US city on Sunday to join a high level
delegation of the African Union Executive Council which is seeking to
meet members of the UN Security Council over Kenya’s ICC deferral
request.
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Foreign Affairs Cabinet secretary Amina Mohamed is in New York
in a bid to push for deferral of Kenya cases at the International
Criminal Court through the United Nations Security Council.
Ms
Amina Mohamed arrived in the US city on Sunday to join a high level
delegation of the African Union Executive Council which is seeking to
meet members of the UN Security Council over Kenya’s ICC deferral
request.
Ethiopia’s Foreign minister Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus, chairman of the AU’s Executive Council, is leading about
half a dozen top AU officials to put the case for deferral to Security
Council members.
A UN diplomat who spoke to Daily Nation
on condition of anonymity said the AU delegation is expected to meet
individually with most council members to lobby for Kenya’s case.
“So
far the Security Council members are listening and they may hold an
informal session with the entire council on Oct 31,” said the diplomat.
Last
Tuesday, the African Union secretariat wrote a letter to the United
Nations Security Council seeking the deferral of the international
criminal cases facing President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy, William
Ruto.
The AU urged the Security Council to “positively”
consider their request and expressed regret that previous requests
“were not acted upon.”
And in another letter from the
Kenyan Mission to the United Nations, Ambassador Macharia Kamau asked
the Security Council to take into account threats to peace or an act of
aggression “likely to transpire in light of the prevailing and
continuing terrorist threat existing in the Horn of and eastern Africa.”
He argued that there was need to prevent “an aggravation to peace and security in Kenya and neighbouring countries.”
The
envoy said a delay would provide time for Kenya to consult the
International Criminal Court “to consider how best to respond to the
threat to international peace and security in the context of the Kenya
situation.”
“Kenya therefore seeks action of the United
Nations Security Council to prevent the aggravation of the threat,
breach of peace or act of aggression that the terrorism menace poses to
national, regional, continental and international peace and security,”
Kamau said.
Last
May, Mr Kamau wrote a strongly worded letter to the Security Council
which sought the termination of the Kenyan cases, citing possible
violence in Kenya if the proceedings in The Hague were not halted.
But
when the Kenyan deferral request was discussed by the 15 council
members in, eight were opposed and seven were more sympathetic.
Amb
Amina Mohamed argues that following the move by members of the African
Union to back Kenya in its quest, The Security Council should see the
gravity of the matter and grant the East African nation its request.
“Kenya
requires her leader to be in full control of the country in her fight
against terror, especially in the wake of the Westgate mall attack in
which at least 67 people were killed by Islamic extremists,” she said in
a recent media statement.
However, some diplomats
within the United Nations circles have expressed pessimism over whether
there will be a major shift in the Security Council.
“The
council previously rejected this bid for impunity because there’s no
basis to stop the case,” Richard Dicker, director of international
justice at Human Rights Watch, said in a media briefing in New York on
Monday.
“For the victims, for the witnesses, and for
the dangerous precedent that could be sent, we expect the council to
again reject Kenya’s request for a deferral.”
The
Security Council has fifteen members and for Kenya to get a deferral,
the UN body would have to pass a resolution which would require a
minimum of nine “yes” votes and no veto by a permanent member — the US,
Russia, China, Britain and France.
The move by the
African Union member States to seek deferral as an entity has no
precedence and is therefore being watched keenly by different stake
holders and political scientists.
The Rome Statute that
established the International Criminal Court mandates the UN Security
Council to refer can refer cases to the court, and, if deemed necessary,
to defer an investigation or a prosecution for up to a year.