Seventh International Criminal Court witness to take the stand

By Felix Olick

The Hague, Netherlands: The first phase of trials against Deputy President William Ruto and his co-accused Joshua Arap Sang enters the last leg this week with the seventh witness taking to the stand.

 The trials will be adjourned on Friday in the absence of Ruto who flew back to Kenya to take charge as President Uhuru Kenyatta leaves for an official visit to South Africa.

 However, there are indications that the two suspects would be back at The Hague before the December recess following the postponement of the trial of President Uhuru Kenyatta to February 5.

 “Kenyatta’s case has been adjourned over to February. We need to discuss the implication of that before we adjourn this session. Wether we can use the opportunity in the Ruto case,” Presiding Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji indicated Friday.

 According to the ICC calender, the Chamber takes judicial recess on December 13 till January 6, next year.

Monday, the defence of Ruto concludes its cross examination of the sixth prosecution witness - the first Kalenjin who has made damning allegations against the two.

 Sang’s defence led by Katwa Kigen is then expected to take over before the seventh witness only known by the alias P423 takes to the stand.

 The sixth witness, P268 is the first to link Ruto and Sang’s alleged involvement in the violence that rocked the country after the disputed 2007 polls. Other witnesses mainly from the Kikuyu community have only testified against Ruto and confessed before the Chamber that they did not listen to Kass FM.

 Last week, the witness claimed that Sang’s radio show Lene Emet ‘ripened’ Ruto’s political career as the de facto Kalenjin leader.

Ruto campaign

“It’s the programme that created Ruto. He would always ask if Ruto had mellowed and people would agree. At the end of the programme, Sang would also come to the same conclusion,” the witness told Trial Chamber V judges.

Today, the three Judge bench is also expected to give reasons why they excused Ruto from this week’s proceedings.

Eboe-Osuji the presiding judge said the decision to grant Ruto’s request was unanimous but suspended the giving of reasons until today.

“The Chamber has deliberated on the Ruto request. The Chamber unanimously grants the request, reasons will be given on Monday,” the judges ruled.