Ruto expected back in ICC before December

BY FELIX OLICK

Its now official that Deputy President William Ruto will have another date with The Hague judges before December as the first phase of his trials came to a close yesterday.

This even as it emerged that President Uhuru is scheduled to attend a three-day African Arab summit in Kuwait.

The three-judge bench handling Ruto’s case together with journalist Joshua Sang yesterday ruled that the trials would proceed for two weeks before the December judicial recess.

Presiding Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji said the case would run from November 21 to 29 during which Prosecution could call witness P469, 535 or Prof Herve Maupeu, a French socio-political scientist to testify as an expert. However, Ruto has been excused from attending the proceedings on November 21 because Uhuru is anticipated to be away for the summit in Kuwait. The request for excusal generated heat in the courtroom as the prosecution.

Prosecution Counsel Anton Steynberg insisted that the Ruto defence was overexploiting the provision that an accused can be exempted from trial ‘under exceptional circumstance’.

Steynberg said that since the Appeals Chamber made the ruling three weeks ago, Ruto has been excused from trial for 12 days.

But Ruto’s Counsel David Hooper maintained that his client’s presence in Kenya was compelling and described the summit as extraordinary.

Ruto later left for Addis Ababa to attend the 6th edition of the African Media Leaders Forum that brings together leaders from across the continent to discuss how to re-engineer the reporting of African narrative.

He told the Addis forum that Uhuru would refer the controversial Kenya Information and Communication Amendment Bill to Parliament.