Deputy President William Ruto's ICC case resumes Monday

The ICC case against Deputy President William Ruto resumes tomorrow at a time when Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has opened a fresh battle over admissibility of the Waki Commission documents.

The trial stopped on October 6 with the conclusion of Witness 637’s testimony. The witness was third of the nine uncooperative prosecution witnesses who are testifying under compulsion from Nairobi.

The other six witnesses are expected to take the witness stand via video-link from an undisclosed location in Nairobi from tomorrow.

Ruto’s presence at the Hague-based courtroom is not mandatory under the “conditional excusal from attendance of trial” granted on him by judges on January 25.

Under the excusal, Ruto was required to be present, among other instances, in the first five days of hearing after a judicial recess. The last judicial recess was the summer one of between July 18 and August 11. The next judicial recess is the winter one, between December 12 and January 5, 2015.

“Yes, it resumes on Monday, November 17. His attendance is not mandatory if we go by the January oral ruling as we are wont to. The ruling talked of five days after judicial recess, not after a break,” ICC outreach officer Mariah Kamara told The Standard on Sunday. Ruto’s spokesman David Mugonyi also confirmed that the deputy president would not be traveling to The Hague: “He is not required to be there.

His legal team will carry on as is the norm in such circumstances.” Ruto’s trial is expected to run up to December 12 according to a calendar of trial announced by Presiding Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji on September 23. In the new battle over CIPEV documents, Bensouda applied to have 12 documents admitted into the case as part of her evidence. Ruto and Sang’s defence lawyers have previously opposed the production of the documents.

The first document is the final CIPEV report which the prosecution says was a product of a “bipartisan initiative of the two main political parties in Kenya at the time.” Bensouda told the judges that the inquiry was impartial and largely public.

Limited conclusions

“The Prosecution submits that this document is relevant, probative and has strong indicia of reliability,” Bensouda said. The second document is the final investigations report prepared by the head of Waki Commission’s investigation’s team: “This report summarises and draws limited conclusions from the information gathered as part of that collection process,” Bensouda said.

The third document is the report on the status of Internally Displaced Persons as at July 8, 2008 produced by the then PS Francis Kimemia: “The prosecution relies on the document in support of minimum statistics and the geographic breakdown relating to IDPs who sought refuge in camps as a result of the PEV, since this is indicative of the widespread and systematic displacement of PEV victims,” she said. The fourth document is transcripts of public and in camera testimony of former chair of KNCHR Florence Jaoko when she appeared before Waki. Bensouda she needs the evidence to assist in admitting the KNCHR report.

The fifth document is the KNCHR report. The sixth document is the transcript of public testimony of former information PS Bitange Ndemo and the seventh a February 18, 2008 dated internal memo from the Information Ministry complaining about a Kass FM broadcast.

“This document is a contemporaneous, official document produced in the ordinary course of business of the Department of Information and has inherent indicia of reliability,” Bensouda said.

The rest of the documents are transcripts and verbatim testimony of Rift Valley-based medical officers, district commissioners and witnesses. Bensouda said the documents would assist the judges in determination of the truth.