(http://edge.punchng.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Uhuru-Kenyatta-360x225.jpg)The African Union summit in Ethiopia has demanded a deferral of The Hague trial of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, due to start in November, the British Broadcasting Corporation has reported.
It also agreed a resolution stating no sitting African head of state should appear before an international court.
With both Kenyan and Sudanese presidents facing ICC cases, African leaders have long complained that the court unfairly targets them.
The AU had discussed withdrawing from the ICC, but failed to get support.
Senior figures including Kofi Annan have criticised plans to quit the ICC.
Although Kenyatta has always said he will co-operate with the court, this AU ultimatum definitely gives him political wriggle-room.
Kenyatta is also considering that if he is to resist going to The Hague until the end of his presidential term, what will people feel if he wants to stand again and campaigns for a second mandate on a nationalist card of non-attendance at the ICC?
And another complication: the Kenyan constitution says he is immune from national courts but has to follow the edicts of international ones.
This whole affair is breaking new ground.
The AU leaders, meeting in Addis Ababa, agreed to back immunity for any sitting African head of state. They also asked Kenya to write to the UN Security Council seeking a deferral in the ICC case against Kenyatta, who faces charges of crimes against humanity.
Both he and his deputy, William Ruto, deny charges of organising violence after the 2007 election.
While Mr Ruto went on trial in September, Kenyatta has repeatedly requested his trial – due next month – be postponed.
Addressing the summit, Kenyatta accused the court of bias and "race-hunting."
"The ICC has been reduced into a painfully farcical pantomime, a travesty that adds insult to the injury of victims. It stopped being the home of justice the day it became the toy of declining imperial powers," the Agence France Presse quoted him as saying.
Ethiopian Prime Minister and AU chairman Hailemariam Dessalegn said the summit was not a crusade against the ICC but a call for the court to address Africa's concerns seriously.
He said the ICC's cases against the Sudanese and Kenyan presidents could hamper peace and reconciliation efforts in their countries.
"The unfair treatment that we have been subjected to by the ICC is completely unacceptable," he said.
The ICC issued a warrant in 2009 for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir over alleged war crimes in the Darfur region, but he has not yet been arrested.
The ICC relies on the authorities of national governments to hand over suspects, but Mr Bashir has avoided arrest despite travelling to countries that have signed up to the ICC statute.
Source: AU urges ICC to defer Kenyatta's trial (http://www.punchng.com/news/africa/au-urges-icc-to-defer-kenyattas-trial/)