ICC drops charges against Kenya’s president

                     

The dropping of crimes against humanity charges against Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta lifts a heavy weight off his shoulders and eases sometimes problematic foreign relations.

The constant threat of trial at the International Criminal Court had overshadowed domestic challenges, with Kenyatta spending much of his presidency battling the accusations, winning the support of the African Union and grappling with frosty relations with Western powers.

His first year in power has been marred by a raft of challenges, not least repeated attacks by Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab rebels, who have carried out a string of massacres including the September 2013 siege of the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi.

The withdrawal of the charges provides a major boost to his rule — with the president quickly proclaiming he had been “vindicated”.
Kenyatta took up his father’s mantle to become head of state after March 2013 elections, despite facing the ICC charges of involvement in violence in polls five years earlier.

Kenyatta, who had always maintained his innocence and spoken of his “disbelief” at the charges, became the first sitting leader to appear before The Hague-based ICC on charges of crimes against humanity.

For the powerful leader and one of Africa’s richest men, the ICC’s decision ends what he has called a “long and arduous journey to defend my name”.

Both Kenyatta, 53, and his deputy William Ruto, 47, were handed separate but similar charges by ICC for crimes against humanity over their alleged role in having orchestrated 2007-2008 post-election killings.

Kenyatta and Ruto, rivals in 2007, ran together in 2013 elections for the presidency and vice presidency, winning by a narrow margin in largely peaceful polls.