16:24, UK, Monday 06 October 2014
Kenya's president has announced he will temporarily step down from office to avoid being the first head of state to appear before the International Criminal Court this week.
Uhuru Kenyatta said he would be attending the hearing in The Hague in a personal capacity to face charges of orchestrating ethnic killings after the country's contested 2007 election.
He said he would invoke an article of the constitution, never used before, to appoint his deputy, William Ruto, as acting president in his absence to avoid putting the "sovereignty of more than 40 million Kenyans on trial".
The temporary abdication is Mr Kenyatta's way of fulfilling the court order that he attend, while not being the first president to sit before the court.
He said: "It is for this reason that I chose not to put the sovereignty of more than 40 million Kenyans on trial since their democratic will should never be subject to another jurisidiction.
More than 1,000 people were killed in post-election violence back in 2007
"Therefore let it not be said that I am attending the status conference as the president of Kenya.
"Nothing in my position or my deeds as president warrants my being in court."
If Mr Kenyatta had refused to go, as some members of his political party had urged, he risked facing an international arrest warrant, international condemnation or economic sanctions against Kenya.
Mr Kenyatta, Mr Ruto and a Kenyan radio personality all face crimes against humanity charges at the ICC.
The ICC's prosecutor has accused all three of inciting widespread violence in 2007, which killed more than 1,000 people and saw 600,000 flee their homes.
Mr Kenyatta has appeared before the court before but was not president at the time.
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