Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta says he will go to the International Criminal Court, where he faces charges of crimes against humanity, becoming the first sitting president to appear.
"Let it not be said that I am attending the status conference as the president of Kenya," Kenyatta told parliament on Monday as several MPs stamped their feet in support.
"Nothing in my position or my deeds as president warrants my being in court," said the president, who is due to appear in The Hague-based court on Wednesday.
Kenyatta, 52, faces five counts at the ICC over his alleged role in masterminding post-election violence in 2007 and 2008 that left 1200 people dead and 600,000 displaced.
The Kenyan leader has appeared at the ICC before but not since he was elected president in March 2013.
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He said he would take an "unprecedented" move to temporarily hand power over to Deputy President William Ruto - whose trial at the ICC has already began - in order to protect the position of president in the country.
"I will shortly issue the legal notice necessary to appoint Honourable William Ruto, deputy president, as acting president while I attend the status conference," Kenyatta told a special sitting of both houses of parliament.
"My conscience is clear, has been clear and will remain forever clear," he said, noting that he had "co-operated with the prosecutor to assist in establishing the truth at all material times."
It will be Kenyatta's first appearance as president in court, as he has repeatedly argued he needed to remain in Kenya to fight militants from the al-Qaeda-linked Shebab group, and manage state affairs.
But he stressed he was going in a personal capacity.
