“It is said clearly that even if you are to pull out ... the process takes one year and does not affect cases which are ongoing,” he said, referring to six high profile Kenyans named by the ICC prosecutor that lawmakers want tried in Kenya.

“The government is not pulling out of the ICC process because this will be an exercise in futility,” Odinga told local broadcaster Citizen TV.

Lawmakers passed a motion on Wednesday urging Kenya to withdraw from the Rome Statute that established the ICC.

“But MPs are entitled to it (debate motions), they are venting their anger and frustration, that’s how it should be seen, but that is not the position of the government,” he said.

An ICC trial may destabilise Kenya’s fragile coalition, formed by President Mwai Kibaki and Odinga to end bloodshed that followed the disputed presidential polls of December 2007.

Three cabinet ministers, the cabinet secretary and a former police chief were among the six men named last Wednesday as masterminds of the post-election violence.

Kenya’s justice minister has said the government was not bound by the vote in parliament, and that the next step for the sponsor of the motion would be to draft a bill for debate in parliament to seek to pull the country from the ICC.

More than 1,220 people died and 350,000 were displaced in the mayhem that followed the general election, severely damaging Kenya’s reputation for stability in a turbulent region.