In handing over office to his Deputy for the period he is attending his case at the International Criminal Court, could Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, have inadvertently resigned from office?
That is the matter before Kenyan courts as a lawyer seeks orders for William Ruto to be sworn into office for the remaining three years of the current government. According to Kiprono Matagei, Uhuru Kenyatta’s speech before Parliament and the act of handing over office to his Deputy falls within the definition of resignation, according to Kenyan law.

Given the anxiety over the latter’s attendance, this was never going to be a routine transition
There was little doubt that the President would honor the appointment with the judges in a case where he is facing charges of crimes against humanity stemming from his alleged role in Kenya’s 2007- 2008 Post-election violence. Defiance of the court would have led to an international arrest warrant against Kenyatta and in the process, turned Kenya into a pariah country. A price way too high. 
The question was how he would go about appearing at The Hague, while suffering the indignity of becoming the first sitting Head of State to sit in the dock. There was also the not so little matter of the African Union resolution preventing Heads of State from prosecution at international tribunals, including the ICC. Rumours were circulating that regional leaders like Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, bitter critics of the ICC, would travel to The Hague along with Kenyatta in a show of force. Both Presidents expressed solidarity with Kenyatta but denied plans to accompany him to The Hague.
When Kenyatta got to the highlight of the speech before both Houses of Kenya’s parliament on Monday afternoon, there was palpable tension as he made the usual noises about protecting the country’s sovereignty. No one, except his closest advisors, would have predicted that the President was effectively going to strip himself of power and hand over office, albeit temporarily to his Deputy, William Ruto.
Of course, Ruto who is also facing similar charges at the ICC has been attending several sessions of his trial with little fuss. Shortly after the two were elected to office last year on a joint ticket riding on an anti-ICC wave, President Kenyatta had said that it would be unconstitutional for both he and Ruto to be away from the country at the same time. This was to rule out the possibility of their cases running concurrently.
As it turned out, Ruto’s case began in September last year while the Uhuru case, which was scheduled to begin on October 7th, has been beset by lack of evidence due to what the Prosecutor claims is non-cooperation by the Kenyan authorities in providing her with evidence required to sustain the case.
So soon after addressing Parliament, both Kenyatta and his deputy made the short walk to the building that houses the President’s office in the center of Nairobi and made the symbolic switch with Ruto leaving at the back of the Presidential limousine as Uhuru himself was driven away in a vehicle with civilian number plates.
Kenya is in unfamiliar legal territory and the case filed at the High Court may expose certain ambiguities
Despite the deliberate script that played out in Nairobi on Monday, the reality is that the Acting President is only able to carry out very limited functionsof the office in the absence of his boss. 
Legal experts have been quick to point out that though the law spells out those roles that an Acting President cannot play, he is not, significantly, barred from fulfilling the role of Commander in Chief or even declaring a state of emergency.
In fact, the clause of the Constitution that the President used in handing over power to his Deputy automatically comes into force whenever the Head of State leaves the country, which has happened a fair few times since Kenyatta and Ruto took office. However given the backdrop of the cases at The Hague and the anxiety over the latter’s attendance, this was never going to be a routine transition.
While some analysts hailed Kenyatta’s decision as a masterstroke, others like Law Society of Kenya Chairman Eric Mutua said the appointment of Ruto as acting Head of State was just a public relations gimmick. Opposition leader Raila Odinga, who had told the President to bear his own cross on the ICC cases, is also out of the country on a lecture tour of the U.S.
On the face if it, there appears to be little chance of the courts ordering the swearing in of William Ruto as President of Kenya. After all Kenyatta will be away from the country after not more than three days and may be back before the case is even determined
Then again, Kenya is in unfamiliar legal territory and the case filed at the High Court may expose certain ambiguities that exist in the law guiding the presidential line of succession.