Kenyan MPs irked by treatment at The Hague

THE HAGUE, Netherlands, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- Kenyan lawmakers said they scuffled with Dutch authorities outside a court in The Hague during the trial for Vice President William Ruto.

The International Criminal Court recalled Ruto to The Hague, Netherlands, for his war crimes trial. The case was adjourned briefly last month so the vice president could return to Kenya to help coordinate the response to a terrorist attack on the Westgate shopping center.

Some of the lawmakers traveling to The Hague said Thursday they scuffled with Dutch police who tried to keep them at least 60 feet away from entrance to the court.

Mithika Lunturi, a member of the Kenyan Parliament, told The Daily Nation newspaper in Kenya legislators had a right to be present "because we are the accused. We are part of the Rome Statute [that created the ICC]."

The ICC issued an arrest warrant Wednesday for a Kenyan man, Walter Barasa, for trying to bribe someone he thought was a prosecution witness in the Ruto case.

The ICC said it had evidence to suggest there was "a network of people" trying to sabotage the case against the vice president.

Ruto, national broadcast director Joshua Sang and President Uhuru Kenyatta are suspected of war crimes in connection with post-election violence that left thousands of Kenyans dead in 2007. They claim they're innocent.