Diplomatic Coups, ICC Ruling In Uhuru Case And 2015 SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2014 - 00:00 -- BY STAR EDITOR PRESIDENT Uhuru Kenyatta’s hosting on Wednesday evening of a high- powered delegation that included UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim was read in many quarters as underscoring Kenya’s place in the community of nations. The Jubilee administration has pulled off a number of diplomatic coups long before its second year in office. A year-and-a-half ago, a delegation of the global stage magnitude of the one led by these two international bureaucrats was barely conceivable in Kenya, in the face of frosty relations with London, Washington and a number of mainland Europe capitals. The world’s superpower and the European powers damned the Jubilee coalition victory of the ICC suspect pair of Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto with faint praise. Nairobi in its turn viewed the international community through the tinted glasses of whether a government was “for” or “against” the Kenyan cases at the ICC. However, a combination of a massive campaign of diplomacy – from the neighbourhood EAC region to the AU and UN as well as individual encounters in-between such as at President Barack Obama’s US-Africa Summit and the UN General Assembly – and the Kenyan Presidency’s cooperation with the ICC has seen a sea change in Kenya-Western powers relations. Two events, both of them revolving around the ICC cases, will test the mettle of Nairobi’s diplomatic successes of 2014. The first one will be the judges’ ruling on the President’s case following his appearance before them at the October 8 status conference. The second is Kenya’s own complaint against the ICC prosecutor and judges addressed to the Assembly of States Parties. The ASP meets December 8-17, a few weeks after the ruling on Uhuru’s case. Although completely unrelated with the Jubilee administration’s thrilling trajectory of global recognition and cooperation, the judges’ ruling and the ASPs’ decision not long afterwards, and how both are received and acted upon in Nairobi, will impact the year in international relations for Kenya in 2015.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 10:40:58 +0000