The Kenyan Deputy President, William Ruto, departed Nairobi on Monday for The Hague, where his trial at the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity is set to begin.
Ruto will stand trial along with radio journalist, Joshua Sang, on Tuesday.
Both are accused of orchestrating murders and the forced displacement of people during post-election violence between 2007 and 2008.
Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, also indicted on separate crimes against humanity charges, said at the weekend he would cooperate with the world’s only permanent court for war crimes, which is based in the Netherlands.
“We are willing to cooperate and we have cooperated since 2010,” said Kenyatta, referring to the year when the charges were filed.
However, Kenyatta, whose trial is to begin in November, warned that regardless of what dates the ICC sets for their hearings, he and Ruto would not be away from Kenya at the same time.
“The ICC cannot have Ruto and himself at the same time, for that is translating a personal case into a national issue,” an aide to the president said.
More than 1,000 people died and hundreds of thousands were displaced after the disputed election in 2007.
The last general election, held in March, saw Kenyatta and Ruto elected to the two highest offices in Kenya, in spite of the charges against them.
While Kenyatta and Ruto were on opposite sides in 2007, they have since reconciled and ran on the same ticket this year.
Their trials will be the first international war crimes cases to feature sitting leaders of government as defendants.
dpa/NAN.
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