Kenya will for the first time not attend the United Nations General
Assembly after President Uhuru Kenyatta cancelled a scheduled trip to
New York to avert a constitutional crisis due to the ongoing cases at
The Hague. A dispatch from State House last night also indicated
president also summoned Kenya’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative
to the United Nations, Macharia Kamau for further consultations.
The decision came hours after the envoy had, in a letter, known in
diplomatic circles as note verbal, informed to the UN Secretary-General
Ban Ki-Moon that Kenya would not be represented at the High Level Week
of the Sixty Eighth Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
“Whereas very important multilateral and bilateral meetings had been
planned for President Kenyatta during the week, including a speech to
the General Assembly, we very much regret that he cannot be out of the
country at the same time as the Deputy President,” read the diplomatic
message. However, the letter noted the President and his deputy have
cooperated fully with the ICC thus far. “The Deputy President presented
himself to the Hague court of his own free will and has submitted
himself to the jurisdiction of the court.
Kenya expects the ICC to show the same level of cooperation thus
demonstrated with a state party,” it said. In the Note Verbal, Kenya in-
formed the UN Secretary-General that the political space for continuous
cooperation was rapidly being eroded and the country was weary that the
dire consequences of these developments seemed to be lost on the ICC
interlocutors.