President John Mahama has endorsed the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) withdrawal of charges against Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Prosecutors at the ICC in The Hague last week dropped charges of crimes-against-humanity leveled against President Kenyatta.
The Kenyan President had been indicted in connection with the post-election ethnic violence in that country in 2007, in which about 1,200 people died.
[contextly_sidebar id=”Njqohy5NliuU5zSjLd8gSJMFpLyMPtUB”]Uhuru Kenyatta, who was elected President in 2013 denied orchestrating the violence.
In a three-day state visit to Kenya, President Mahama congratulated the Kenyan President for the charges dropped.
“I applaud the recent decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to drop the charges that had been brought against you my brother,” he said.
He said the charges that have been dropped “takes us back to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah saying that we [Africans] prefer self-government with danger to servitude in tranquility and it is in this spirit of daring determination of the African people to be the controllers of their own destiny.”
President Mahama’s remarks also follows a call by the Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni that African nations must pull out of the treaty establishing the ICC, amid accusations that it unfairly targets Africans.
Touching again on Ghana’s relationship with Kenya, President Mahama said it was a privilege for him to be given the opportunity to “rekindle the lights that led us and our people to freedom as sovereign nations.”
According to him, the founding fathers of Kenya and Ghana, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and Dr. Kwame Nkrumah respectively, shared a brotherhood which “preceded and ultimately led to the liberation of our continent.”
President Mahama recommended that the ideals and beliefs of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and Mzee Kenyatta must not be ignored.
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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