20101223
africanews

Members of Parliament in eastern African country of Kenya have voted overwhelmingly for the country to pull out of the treaty which created the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The move comes a week after the ICC prosecutor named six Kenyans he accuses of being behind post-election violence.

Louis Moreno-Ocampo’s list included senior politicians and civil servants. According to the BBC, the MPs do not have the power to effect any immediate change in relation to the ICC but they have sent a message to government to start withdrawing.

Some 1,200 people died and more than 500,000 fled their homes in the violence following the disputed election in December 2007.

It ended when President Mwai Kibaki and his rival Raila Odinga agreed to share power, with Mr Odinga becoming prime minister.

In the peace deal they signed it was agreed perpetrators would face justice in Kenya or at the ICC in The Hague.

It would take at least a year for Kenya to formally withdraw from the ICC.