Kenyan president Kenyatta to attend International Criminal Court
Nairobi (AFP) - Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said Monday he will go to the International Criminal Court, where he faces charges of crimes against humanity, becoming the first sitting president to appear.
But the son of Kenya's first president and independence hero Jomo Kenyatta he said he would first temporarily hand over power to his deputy to "protect the sovereignty" of the east African country.
"Let it not be said that I am attending ... as the president of Kenya," he told a special session of parliament as several lawmakers stamped their feet in support.
"Nothing in my position or my deeds as president warrants my being in court," said Kenyatta, who is due to appear in The Hague-based ICC on Wednesday.
Kenyatta, 52, faces five counts at the ICC over his alleged role in masterminding post-election violence in 2007 and 2008 that left 1,200 people dead and 600,000 displaced.
The Kenyan leader has appeared at the ICC before, but not since he was elected president in March 2013.
He is due to attend a "status conference" hearing, after prosecutors asked for an indefinite delay until Nairobi handed over documents they believe could clinch their case.
Bitter memories are still fresh from 2007, when elections escalated into ethnic conflict, for which Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto were charged with crimes against humanity. Both reject the charges.
- 'My conscience is clear' -
Kenyatta said he would take an "unprecedented" move to temporarily hand power over to Ruto -- whose trial at the ICC has already begun.
The African Union had previously called for the ICC cases to be withdrawn and transferred to Kenyan courts, accusing the ICC of targeting Africans.
"My accusers, both domestic and foreign, have painted a nefarious image of most African leaders as embodiments of corruption and impunity," Kenyatta added.
"My conscience is clear, has been clear and will remain forever clear," Kenyatta said, noting that he had "cooperated with the prosecutor to assist in establishing the truth at all material times."
Kenyatta has repeatedly argued he needs to remain in Kenya to fight militants from the Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab group and manage state affairs.
He stressed he was going to the ICC in a personal capacity.
"To all those who are concerned that my personal attendance at the status conference compromises the sovereignty of our people, or sets a precedent for the attendance of presidents before the court, be assured, this is not the case," he said.
Kenya's post-electoral unrest shattered the east African country's image as a beacon of regional stability in late 2007, when opposition chief Raila Odinga accused then president Mwai Kibaki of rigging his way back to power.
What began as political riots quickly turned into ethnic killings of Kenyatta's Kikuyu tribe, who in return launched reprisal attacks, plunging Kenya into its worst wave of unrest since independence in 1963.
Kenyatta and Ruto, rivals in 2007, ran together in 2013 elections for the presidency, beating Odinga by a narrow margin in largely peaceful polls.
The Kenyan leader's lawyers previously asked that he be excused from travelling to the ICC, citing a summit in Uganda's capital Kampala on the same day he was called to attend.
Calls last month to indefinitely postpone Kenyatta's trial was met with both celebration and frustration by supporters and opponents, although many Kenyans appear to have resigned themselves to trying to move on past one of country's darkest periods.
