Kenya PM: Inviting Bashir was wrong
2010-08-29 21:29
Nairobi - Prime Minister Raila Odinga said on Sunday that Kenya was wrong to invite Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted on genocide charges, to last week's promulgation of the new constitution.
Odinga told a special church service for the ratification of the new constitution that the invitation contravened the statutes of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to which Kenya is a signatory.
"It was wrong to invite President Bashir because he was indicted on crimes against humanity - as much as we want to foster good neighbourliness with countries in the region," he said at the Kinoo Pentecostal Church of East Africa on the outskirts of Nairobi.
Odinga's remarks come in the wake of international criticism of Kenya's decision to invite and then failure to arrest Bashir at Friday's ceremonies.
The first sitting head of state to be targeted by warrants from the ICC, Bashir faces charges of crimes against humanity and genocide for atrocities committed in Sudan's Darfur region.
"Kenya wishes to reaffirm its commitment to the ICC," Kenya's junior foreign affairs minister Richard Onyonka said on Sunday, after former UN chief Kofi Annan who said Kenya should clarify its position on the ICC.
Kenya's Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula brushed aside criticism on Friday by saying that Bashir was invited "because we invited all neighbours and he is a neighbour".