The International Criminal Court is set to have Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and vice president William Ruto for trial on allegations that the two are involved in crimes against humanity, which resulted to over a thousand people dead, Bloomberg report said. Uhuru, who is the son of independent Kenya's first President Jomo Kenyatta, was elected on March 4 last year in despite being accused of organizing ethnic clashes six years ago alongside with Ruto, the news agency said. The two had since denied all charges against them.
Because of the looming ICC trial, it has been said that Kenyatta was distracted with his reign as Kenya's chief executive. The economy of Kenya under his reign has reportedly slowed down. In a December survey polling company Ipsos-Synovate Kenya said that even 60% Kenyans no longer believed that the company's economy will be improving since Kenyatta took office.
Director Alex Awiti of Aga Khan University's East African Institute said, "We have not seen real ground work to support robust growth and income inequality is still a huge challenge. The ICC has been a huge distraction for him."
Reuters, on the other hand, painted a very different picture. The news agency said that ICC had the most difficult task of attempting to put Kenyatta to trial. Since a string of witnesses had withdrew from the case four years after the charges were filed, the ICC has to postpone the trial for prosecutors to rebuild their case. Kenyatta, said Reuters, had been using his position as a country president to rally allies in the African Union to encourage the United Nations Security Council defer the crimes against humanity case. Moreover, prosecutors were quoted by the news agency as saying that Kenyan authorities weren't allowing them to interview police officers or gain access to files crucial to the case against Kenyatta and Ruto.
