Security Council: bid to defer International Criminal Court cases of Kenyan leaders fails

A resolution before the United Nations Security Council on the deferral of the International Criminal Court (ICC) trials of Kenya’s President and his deputy failed to pass when it was put to the vote today.

Seven of the Council’s 15 members voted in favour of the draft resolution on the postponement of the trials of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto, while eight others abstained.

Council resolutions need nine votes in favour and no vetoes by any of the five permanent members – China, France, Russia, United Kingdom and United States – to be approved.

Today’s text would have requested the ICC, which is based in The Hague, to delay for one year the trials of Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Ruto, who are accused of crimes against humanity and other offences allegedly committed following general elections in late 2007.

More than 1,100 people were killed, 3,500 injured and up to 600,000 forcibly displaced in the violence that followed those polls.

Backers of the draft resolution reportedly sought the deferral so that Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Ruto can deal with the aftermath of the terrorist attack in September at a mall in Nairobi that left over 60 people dead.