President Uhuru Kenyatta's trial likely to start next year

President Uhuru Kenyatta (left) with Chief of Defence Forces Julius Karangi shortly after jetting into the country from his 3-day visit to Rwanda. (Phto:PSCU)

By Felix Olick

The Hague, Netherlands: Two officials who authored a report following a State inquiry into post election violence are likely to testify against President Uhuru Kenyatta at The Hague, The Standard can report.

This emerged as the African Union delegation lobbying for the deferral of the ICC cases against Kenyan leaders today holds talks with the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to press for consideration of the petition. 

Diplomatic sources say the UNSC will meet next week to consider in a closed session Kenya’s petition for the deferral for one year of the cases against President Uhuru and his deputy William Ruto.

Among the first seven witnesses lined up to testify on November 12, when the President’s trial is scheduled to open are two witnesses who will give evidence on the Commission of Inquiry on Post-Election Violence (CIPEV).

Waki report

Justice Philip Waki headed CIPEV whose report was among evidence ICC prosecutors relied to have charges against the Kenyans confirmed.

However, International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has concealed the identity of the two for security reasons.

Only identified by the pseudonym P0003 and P0247, they are the second and the third witnesses respectively and would testify for approximately six hours each.

The new details are contained in a document titled Prosecution’s amended order of witnesses dated Tuesday.

The other two commission members were Gavin Alistair McFadyen, a former Assistant Police Commissioner in New Zealand and Pascal K Kambale, a lawyer from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Secretary to the Commission was George Mong’are Kegoro, an advocate of the High Court of Kenya and Director of Kenyan Section of the International Commission of Jurists.

And despite a spirited effort by the Government to have the cases against President Uhuru and his deputy William Ruto deferred, Ms Bensouda has lined up her witnesses for Uhuru’s trial. 

The Gambia-born Prosecutor intends to start her case with the insider account of what transpired in Naivasha, which was the epicenter of the violence that rocked the Rift Valley.

The first witness expected to testify on November 12, is a crime-based witness from Naivasha who would take to the stand for a whopping 16 hours giving details of the bloodshed in the area.

In the filing, Bensouda has lined up a total of seven witnesses to testify against the President up to February 1, next year.

“The Prosecution now intends to call up to 7 witnesses between 12 November 2013 and February 1, 2014 (depending on the amount of time available),” the filing reads in part.

“This schedule is subject to efforts, which are currently being made to arrange travel and preparation at short notice being successful,” she added.

Fourth witness

The fourth witness, however, is a sociologist and anthropologist expert who will give an expert account of the violence.

The expert witness only identified, as P0464 will take to the stand during examination in chief for approximately 12 hours.

The next two witnesses, P0390 and P0232, are crime-based witnesses from Nakuru, another area in the Rift Valley that was hardest hit by the violence. The last witness is P0414, also a crime-based witness from Naivasha.

Bensouda had intended that Mungiki insiders dominate the first ten witnesses but the three-Judge Bench ruled they testify after February so the defence has adequate time to prepare.  

Last week after she was allowed to add two witnesses with one being a Mungiki insider, the Chamber led by Japanese Judge Kuniko Ozaki ruled that Mungiki witnesses should be among the last to testify.