"I see an end to my ICC woes," says DP Ruto

Deputy President William Ruto

Deputy President William Ruto has said his troubles at the International Criminal Court (ICC) are about to end.

Speaking at two different venues in Nyambene, Meru County, yesterday, Mr Ruto said the application of Rule 68 of the ICC statute was a plot to convict him.

The Kenyan delegation at the ICC's Assembly of State Parties (ASP) managed to push for the rule on the recanted evidence not to be used in Ruto's case, though the judges will have the final say on the same.

"I see our diplomatic victory at the ASP conference as the beginning of the end of this chapter," said the DP in an uncharacteristic direct comment on his troubles with the ICC.

It was the first time Ruto was speaking directly and in public over his trial at the ICC. "I know I am innocent and very soon, the devil will be ashamed when I and Joshua Arap Sang are freed to serve our country without disturbance," he said.

He also took a swipe at the ICC for procuring and using "false witnesses" to pin him down in what he said was a neo-colonial plot to dominate Africans.

"I have no doubt that we shall soon be celebrating victory, and it will be victory for the Lord," added Ruto.

He, however, urged Kenyans to continue praying for him saying the devil never tires to torment the believers and the innocent. Ruto spoke at St Cecilia Centre, Mikinduri in Tigania East, and at the Laare Catholic Church.

He was accompanied by MPs Mithika Linturi (Igembe South) Joseph M'Eruaki (Igembe North), Rahim Dawood (Imenti North), Mpuru Aburi (Tigania East), Joseph Samal (Isiolo North) and Meru Woman Representative Florence Kajuju.

The MPs echoed Ruto's words branding the ICC a Western tool to oppress Africans.

Mr Linturi said most African nations had lost confidence in the court, adding that the recent events was a warning that it could completely lose legitimacy.

"We shall never allow them to use well-intended international organisation to push their evil plot," Ms Kajuju said, defending Kenya's large delegation to the ASP as a show of intellectual might.

She pointed out that it took the intervention of an African, ASP President Sidiki Kaba (Senegal) to have the Kenyan concerns given audience at the conference.

"We are happy that we did put a lot of those people in their right place, and they will never take us for granted," she said.