HAGUE COURT TO DECIDE ON KENYA'S/UHURU'S ISSUE IN A FORTNIGHT

The International Criminal Court will in two weeks time make a ruling on whether the Assembly of States Parties should take action against Kenya for non-cooperation in the case against President Uhuru Kenyatta. Yesterday, the ICC appeals court scheduled August the 19th, at 10:00 Hague local time, as the date in which it will issue the final decision on an appeal filed by Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda following  Trial Thamber V (B)’s decision, dated December 3, 2014, not to refer Kenya to the Assembly of State Parties (ASP).
“The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Court, in the appeal of the Prosecutor against the decision of Trial Chamber V (B) entitled'Decision on Prosecution’s application for a finding of non-compliance under Article 87(7) of the Statute', of 3 December 2014, issues the following scheduling order. The judgment in the above mentioned appeal will be delivered in open court on Wednesday, 19 August 2015,” the scheduling order by ICC read.
In the lower chamber’s decision, the judges agreed that cumulatively, Kenyan government actions with regard to the case investigations fell short of good faith required of it by the Rome Statute.
They also agreed that Kenya government actions reached the threshold of non-compliance but said Bensouda failed to demonstrate that the government’s conduct warranted such a finding.
Ms Bensouda’s appeal was helped by anamicus curiaesubmission by a local human rights organisation, the Africa Centre for Open Governance (Africog).
Africog Executive Director Gladwell Otieno said in the filing that there were sufficient grounds to have the country declared non-compliant with the Rome Statute, a situation that would pave the way for referring Kenya to the Assembly of States Parties for punitive measures.
One such instance, Africog had argued, was the government’s refusal to freeze any of President Kenyatta’s assets, a clear violation of Part 9 of the Rome Statute.