Kenyan court issues warrant against Mutharika’s ally Bashir
A High court in Kenya has issued a warrant to necessitate and effect an arrest on Sudan President Omar Al Bashir, President Bingu wa Mutharika’s ally, wanted for alleged crimes against humanity to the International Criminal Court (ICC) should he ever set his foot in the eastern African country again.
The court ruling comes after Kenya’s President Mwawi Kibaki’s allowed the indicted Sudan leader visit to Nairobi in August this year in defiance of an ICC warrant for his arrest.
Al Bashir also visited Malawi and Chad in defiance of his warrant of arrest and Malawi refused to arrest the Sudanese leader.
Passing judgement, according to AFP news, a Kenyan judge in Nairobi has ordered that the Sudan tyrant must be arrested if he “ever set his foot in Kenya” again.
Kenya like Malawi is a signatory to the treaty which established the ICC in 2002.
In his ruling in a case brought by a non-governmental organisation, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), Judge Nicolas Ombija said Mr Bashir’s arrest “should be effected by the Attorney General and the Minister for Internal Security should he ever set foot in Kenya”.
Bashir was the first head of state to be indicted by the ICC, which accused him of genocide and war crimes in Darfur.
Al Bashir categorically denies all the charges levelled against him, saying they are politically motivated.
The African Union has lobbied for the arrest warrant to be deferred, accusing the ICC of only investigating alleged war crimes in Africa and arguing that arresting Sudan’s president would hamper the search for peace in Darfur.
President Mutharika and several other African leaders of the African union accuses the ICC of only investigating alleged war crimes in Africa and not elsewhere.
Malawi is a signatory to a number of United Nations instruments that compel it to adhere to ICC dictations.
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