A Kenyan court Monday issued an arrest warrant for Sudan President Omar al-Bashir, wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on genocide charges, following a request by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).
Though Kenya has ratified the founding treaty of the IPC, it failed to arrest the Sudanese leader when he visited the country in August.
Monday’s high court ruling means that his arrest “should be effected by the Attorney General and the Minister for Internal Security should he ever set foot in Kenya,” Judge Nicolas Ombija said.
Bashir is the subject of two arrest warrants issued by the ICC for atrocities committed in Darfur in western Sudan. The first was issued in March 2009 on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The second was issued in July 2010 on charges of genocide.
The Sudanese President in August 2010 attended a ceremony in Nairobi to mark the adopting of Kenya’s new constitution.
As a signatory of the ICC’s founding treaty, Kenya was theoretically obliged to arrest Bashir when he entered the country.
Bashir came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi.
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