TNA MPs tell Uhuru to comply with AU on ICC

TNA MPs tell Uhuru to comply with AU on ICC Wednesday, October 16, 2013 - 00:00 -- BY PETER NG?ETICH DON'T GO: TNA chairman Johnson Sakaja addresses the media after the TNA Parliamentary Group meeting at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Nairobi yesterday. Photo/Charles KimaniTNA legislators yesterday urged President Uhuru not attend his trial at the ICC. Seven senators and 63 MPs from the party said Deputy President William Ruto should also ignore the trials since the presidency includes his office as well. Addressing a press conference at Crown Plaza Hotel, Nairobi, TNA chairman Johnson Sakaja said the ICC no longer delivers justice and is instead being used by the western world to advance political interests. “Non-governmental organisations are being given more attention than government officials like the Attorney General,” said Sakaja. The party secretary general Onyango Oloo said Uhuru should heed the AU resolution in regard to ICC. “As a party that nominated him to vie for the presidency, we say that he must comply with the AU resolutions,” Oloo said. President Uhuru’s case is scheduled to start on November 12. An AU executive council meeting in Addis Ababa last week ruled that Uhuru as a democratically elected sitting Head of State should not be hauled before ICC. The 47 members of the union who attended the meeting said Uhuru’s case should be deferred and proceedings in the Ruto case stopped. The summit decided that until concerns raised by the AU have been addressed by the UN security council and ICC, Uhuru should not ap- pear before the court. The summit said sitting presidents are usually granted immunity and can only be charged after their term is over. On Monday, Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed said Uhuru’s case ceased to be a personal challenge the day he was declared winner after the March 4 general election. She said the only person whose case is personal is that of radio journalist Joshua arap Sang. She said the country was not only focusing on the plight of Uhuru and Ruto following the 2007 post-election violence saying AU was informed that Internal Displaced Persons had been settled since the two assumed leadership. - See more at: http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/article-139882/tna-mps-tell-uhuru-comply-au-icc#sthash.TM5WzuAf.dpuf