ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda during a court session recently. Photo/FILE
The first witness is expected to take the stand at the International Criminal Court on Tuesday when hearing resumes.
ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda is expected to call witness number 536 to the stand in her effort to prove that Deputy President William Ruto and radio journalist Joshua arap Sang were the architects of the violence in Uasin Gishu and Nandi districts in early 2008.
The hearing of cases facing Mr Ruto and Mr Sang started last Tuesday, but was adjourned on Wednesday because Ms Bensouda had no witnesses ready.
This week, the prosecutor is expected to try and show how Mr Ruto and his alleged syndicate of powerful allies, including his co-accused Mr Sang, sought to exploit the historical tensions between the Kalenjin and Kikuyu for their own political and personal ends.
Ms Bensouda and lead prosecutor in the case, Anton Steynberg, last week described Mr Ruto as a powerful politician, who allegedly assembled and coordinated a ‘network’ to commit serious crimes during the post-election violence.
She will seek to prove that Mr Ruto organised tribal, military, media, financial and political leaders to the network with the sole purpose of expelling the Party of National Unity supporters from Rift Valley.
Mr Sang and the Deputy President face charges of murder, deportation or forcible transfer of population and persecution during the 2007/8 post-election violence that left 1,133 people dead and displaced 650,000 others.
According to the prosecution’s updated pre-trial brief dated September 9, the prosecution claims Mr Ruto and his alleged network strategised, planned, financed, provided weapons and transportation to ensure the eviction of PNU supporters from the Rift Valley.
As the prosecution was preparing its case, there were reports that some more witnesses could have indicated unwillingness to testify.
The Nation could not reach ICC spokesman Fadi El Abdallah to confirm reports that witness number TP 002, TP 0004, TP 0410, all survivors of the Kiambaa church arson attack, may have decided to withdraw from the trial. The same claims were also made about witness C6, whose testimony was reportedly critical to confirming charges against Mr Ruto.
The reports said the witnesses sent an email to the office of the prosecutor.
In Limuru, a 60-year-old woman called a press conference to announce that she had allegedly withdrawn as an ICC witness because of poor health.
Accompanied by her three daughters, the woman who talked to the media at a hotel in Limuru constituency, said she was not willing to travel to The Hague in the Netherlands to testify.
A family spokesperson, Mr Simon Karanja, asked the Press to withhold the woman’s name and not take her pictures citing security reasons.
Ms Bensouda has named politicians, retired military generals, soldiers and businessmen she alleges were part of Mr Ruto’s network.
According to the brief, the political component of the network comprised ODM activists such as Jackson Kibor, former MPs Fred Kapondi and Frankline Bett, Henry Kosgey (Mr Koskey was acquitted by the ICC over allegations that he was linked to post-election violence and had protested his innocence) as well as a Mr Isaac Maiyo, who is a former chairperson of Eldoret North CDF committee.
However, Mr Ruto’s lawyer Karim Khan last Tuesday challenged the prosecution to drop the charges facing the Deputy President for lack of evidence. The same line was taken by Mr Sang’s lawyer Katwa Kigen, who argued that there were major gaps in the prosecution case.
Both accused have pleaded not guilty and expressed confidence that they will be cleared of all charges. Mr Ruto, says Ms Bensouda, also designed a military component of the network, with a chain of command and communication structure, which conducted training and coordinated implementation of the plan.
The hearing of Mr Ruto and Mr Sang’s cases resumes at a time African countries, through the African Union, are pushing for the Kenyan cases to be referred to Kenya or Tanzania.
The AU had written to the President of ICC, Judge Sang-Hyung Song, on the matter.
The charges against three other suspects — former head of Public Service Francis Muthaura, former Commissioner of Police Maj-Gen Hussein Ali and former Cabinet minister Kosgey — were dropped for lack of evidence last year.
Mr Sang on the other hand, said the prosecutor, actively promoted ODM and Mr Ruto through his daily broadcasts on Kass FM.
“Mr Ruto effectively used Kass FM to lay the groundwork for, coordinate and encourage the forcible eviction of PNU supporters from the Rift Valley. He continuously implored listeners to vote ODM and to unite behind Ruto as the Kalenjin leader who would restore the Kalenjin to a position of prominence in Kenya,” read the brief.
By DAVE OPIYO
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