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{
    "id": 69913,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/69913/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 241,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Ruto",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this formed part of the speech by the USA Under Secretary for Political Affairs a Mr. Marc Grossman. He was addressing the United Nations. I will refer you to further authorities on that. I will give the Minister copies and I am sure he will be very enlightened once he gets my documents. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Mr. Grossman warned that the USA was withdrawing because the arrangement of the ICC would actually lead to controversy, political prosecution and confusion. These are the views of the Americans and not us. The treaty threatens the sovereignty of the USA and, therefore, it is doing the same to Kenya. The most important statement from Mr. Grossman is that when a society transits from oppression to democracy, their new government must face their collective past. The State should be allowed to choose the method. The Government should decide whether to prosecute or seek national reconciliation. This decision should not be made by the ICC. This happened in South Africa. I want to emphasize that South African chose national reconciliation. Kenya may have in its wisdom, two years ago, opted to join the ICC process. However, in the recent past, there has been serious evidence in the public domain that the way the prosecutor at ICC goes about his business is not the normal judicial process that we are accustomed to. In fact, they go about prosecuting innocent people without an opportunity of hearing in a Press conference and detain all the things without the right of reply. This process is against the norms that we are aware of. I propose that Kenya can now have a judicial process under the new Constitution that can take care of all these fears. At the time we passed the Rome Statute, we had not passed the new Constitution and the judges were not necessarily independent. We have a new Constitution and a new Republic. I propose that all the issues that are pending can be adequately addressed through our judicial process. I do not support a local tribunal. I am simply saying that I have faith in a judicial process that recognizes that we are a sovereign country and that visitors can continue to visit this country without fear of arrest. Recently, the Head of State of Sudan and others or to be more clear, Kenya had to relocate to Ethiopia to hold the IGAD meeting simply because the Heads of State around the region no longer trust coming to Kenya. Our President can no longer invite his friends at will. We want to be sure that the President of the Republic of Kenya exercises his sovereignty on our behalf. This Parliament should rise to assert that sovereignty. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, since I want to allow hon. Members to contribute to the Motion, I beg to move and request hon. Kioni to second."
}