Kenya mulls ICC immunity for US
2005-03-31 21:35
Nairobi - Threatened with a loss in US military aid, Kenya said Thursday it may grant US citizens here immunity from prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC), drawing sharp criticism from human rights groups.
Government spokesperson Alfred Mutua said Nairobi would soon consider a request from Washington to sign a so-called "Article 98 agreement" to protect US nationals on Kenyan soil from being turned over to the ICC.
"We have not yet looked at it (request) seriously, the cabinet has to sit and make a decision," Mutua told reporters. "We shall bear in mind our relationship with the United States and our national interests as we do."
He said US officials had approached the Kenyan government about the matter in March, a month after it ratified the treaty creating the world's first permanent war crimes court.
At the time an ICC advocacy group praised Kenya's ratification, saying it would send a powerful message to other African nations and urged Nairobi to resist US pressure to sign an Article 98 deal.
Officials at the US embassy in Nairobi confirmed that a request for Kenya to sign the immunity accord had been made and said they were following US law in threatening the suspension in aid if one was not signed.
The United States fears the ICC could become a forum for politically motivated prosecutions of US citizens, particularly its troops serving abroad, and has embarked on a campaign, backed by the aid threat, to seal as many immunity deals as possible.
The exact amount of assistance to Kenya in jeopardy was not immediately known although local media reports have put it at about $20m.
Shameful
Mutua said Kenya would not be swayed in its decision by US aid but human rights groups immediately took issue with the government's decision to even consider signing an immunity deal with Washington.
"Should we sell our sovereignty because of military aid?" asked Miriam Kahiga, the chairperson of the local branch of Amnesty International.
"The sovereignty of our country should not be sold at any price," she said. "It would be shameful for our government to be hoodwinked by a superpower."
Khelif Khalif, a commissioner in the state-run Kenya Human Rights Commission, said President Mwai Kibaki should ignore the US request and go ahead with enforcing the treaty.
"The ICC is an international treaty that should be respected," he said. "The Americans have that habit of compromising the sovereignty of other countries, we must never accept that."
Last month, the US state department said 99 countries had signed Article 98 agreements, but only 71 of them have agreed to be named publicly.