ICC witness: my claims against William Ruto were never verified

NAIROBI, KENYA: A witness accused the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigators of failure to verify his allegations against Deputy President William Ruto and journalist Joshua Sang.

Witness number 516 told the court that had the investigators conducted more investigations, they would have discovered that he did not live where he told them.

He said he lied about where he resided in Turbo, Eldoret and that he moved there with his parents in 1997. "I was told that they had already done the investigations and they would not verify my statement," he said.

The witness, testifying from Nairobi, further denied attending meetings addressed by Ruto in the North Rift.

In the statement recorded with the investigators in November 2012, he had claimed he was present at a meeting attended by more than 2,000 youths. "I just heard the meeting took place. I don't know about the 2,000 youths. I just made it up," he told the ICC Wednesday.

The witness said the information was given to him by two unnamed people he met in Eldoret in October 2012.

"What did you want to achieve by giving the information to the investigators?" the prosecutor posed.

The witness responded, "My goal was to receive the benefits I mentioned earlier."

He said he was not a fan of Sang's political programmes and did not often listen to him.

The chamber intends to end the ongoing session on October 2. The next session is scheduled to start on November 17 and end on December 12.