Breaking News: Uhuru may skip Hague hearings

Wednesday, October 09, 2013, http://kumekucha.blogspot.co.uk

In the strongest indication yet that President Uhuru Kenyatta does NOT plan to attend any sessions of his trial at the ICC foreign secretary Amina Abdallah in a lengthy but guarded briefing with the press just a few moments ago emphasized that no sitting president in history has ever been tried in any court internationally or locally while still in office.

And although she was very guarded and avoided answering questions directly from the press about whether or not the president will attend his trial at the ICC, it was very clear reading between the lines of what she said that Uhuru has no intentions of ever going to the Hague and the very best that he will do with co-operating with the ICC will be to agree to attend via a video link from Nairobi.

When you analyze Amina Abdallah's press briefing today with what is happening in the background it is almost a certainty to analysts that the president has NO intention of ever setting foot at the Hague.

For instance the trial of his co-accused deputy President William Ruto is not going well (see my earlier raw notes today).

The authoritative Associated press said just a few minutes ago that the Kenyan foreign secretary's statement appeared to be "laying the groundwork to avoid having President Uhuru Kenyatta appear at the International Criminal Court next month."

There is also the fact the GOK has been dragging its' feet over the handing over of former journalist Walter Barasa whom the ICC wants to try for interfering with witnesses in the Kenyan ICC cases. The government did nothing for two months and when the arrest warrant on Barasa was made public after 60 days it was said that the matter would be determined by the courts (even before Barasa had filed any case in any court opposing his arrest warrant).

Not to mention the fact that African Union chief Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma yesterday asked U.N. Security Council envoys on how they might react if asked to defer the international trials of Kenya's leaders so they can deal with the aftermath of the Nairobi mall attack.African leaders are due to meet in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa for an extra-ordinary meeting this weekend to take a common stance on whether to join Kenya's planned pull-out from the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the prosecution of its leaders.

Zuma said African leaders felt that after the attack by al Qaeda-linked group al Shabaab on the Westgate center in Nairobi last month, Kenyatta and Ruto needed to be in Kenya instead of traveling to The Hague for their trials.

These new developments are NOT good news to Ruto who could easily be detained at the Hague if a confrontation ensues with the ICC as is likely to happen the way things are going.