By BEAUTTAH OMANGA

The conviction of a man to life imprisonment over post-election violence has opened debate on whether The Hague cases should have been dealt with under the local judicial system.

In a 14-page ruling, Lady Justice Rosaline Wendoh said she was convinced beyond reasonable doubt that Peter Kipkemboi Rutto alias Saitoti was part of a group that attacked and murdered Kamau Kimani Thiong’o due to differences in Kimura area.

According to the court proceedings, the incident was triggered by the disputed 2007 presidential election results.  The judge ruled that the killing of Thiong’o was well planned and executed.

“It does not matter whether the accused actually injured the deceased. He was in the group that attacked the deceased with the intention of doing grievous harm to him and that they did fatally injure him. The raiders set out to execute a common purpose,” said the judge. 

She went on, “ ... he may have caused the cut on the deceased’s forehead but even if he did not cut the deceased, he was part of a group that set out to execute an unlawful purpose, which was attacking another community with the other raiders, a death occurred which was properly (a) consequence of the execution of that purpose for which the raiders set out.”

She concluded that “... the accused was an accomplice to the murder of the deceased”.

Justice Wendoh in her judgement said witnesses who adduced evidence in the case told the court how a group of people assembled near a forest, while armed and set out in two groups and surrounded them.

Witnesses testified

The witnesses, the judge recalled, stated that houses and property were destroyed and that the whole attack was “premeditated and properly executed”. 

Rutto was charged with the offence of murder contrary to section 203 as read with section 204 of the Penal Code. 

He was accused that on January 1, 2008, at Kamura area, Timboroa, in Koibatek District, Rift Valley Province, with others not before the court murdered Thiong’o.

Eleven witnesses testified in the case, among them CID officers and a pathologist who conduced a post-mortem on Thiong’o after his body was exhumed on May 29, 2010. The accused gave sworn defence and called his mother as his witness.

A son of the deceased, Mr Paul Kiama, recalled how non-Kalenjins were threatened with eviction through leaflets, which were circulated. 

He told the court that a day before his father died they spent a night in the bushes after they received threats. Kiama recalled that on the fateful morning when his father was killed, about 60 people, all armed, stormed their homestead in two groups.

He said one group attacked his father as he watched. “A panga was thrown at my father but he dodged it. He was, however, shot with an arrow to his head and he fell down. It was then that Rutto emerged from the group to where my father was and attacked him with a panga,” he said.

He said he knew the suspect well as they were neighbours. Rutto’s mother, Tablet Koo, said that contrary to the evidence, all her family members, including the accused, were not in the village as they  had fled due to rising tensions between the Kalenjin and the Kikuyu.