The push to have Kenya’s Justice Njoki Ndungu join the International Criminal Court as a judge went a notch higher after President Ruto sought crucial support from French President Emmanuel Macron who is in the country.
An endorsement from France is seeking as crucial as it is seen to influence at least 40 other countries out of the 125 that make up the the ICC that is based at The Hague in the Netherlands.
On the sideline of the Africa Forward Summit, co-hosted by Kenya and France, President Ruto introduced Supreme Court Judge Njoki Ndungu (the candidate for ICC bench) to French President Emmanuel Macron.
Justice Ndungu is one of the 14 candidates (8 from Africa) shortlisted for the 6 vacant positions of the judges of the ICC. The ICC comprises 125 Party Members of the Rome Statute that created it. There are 33 African nations that are members of the Rome Statute, Kenya included.
The ICC has 18 judges drawn from all the regions of the world and are appointed by the member states that are signatories to the Rome Statute, the law that establishes the Court.
A judge seeking appointment to the ICC must be endorsed by his or her country’s government. He or she must be qualified to hold the highest judiciary office in his or her country. A judge of the ICC serves for a non-renewable term of 9 years. Every three years, 6 judges (one third of the 18) must retire.
Six of the current judges are retiring on 10th March 2027 by which date new ones must have been appointed. Their replacements will be picked at the end of this year.
Some 14 candidates have applied for the positions, 8 of them from Africa. Interestingly Uganda has forwarded the name of a candidate, despite the fact that one of those retiring is a Ugandan. It’s called fighting for your space.
Kenya’s Supreme Court judge, Justice Njoki Ndungu is one of the 8 candidates from Africa. The other seven are from DRC, Ghana, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Senegal and Gambia. Out of the 8, only the Senegalese candidate is a male.
