From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
THE HAGUE SPECIAL TAKE-4
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2013
Deputy President William Ruto’s ICC cases may be dismissed for lack of evidence and dropping of the key witnesses alright, but as to why and who burnt Kiambaa PAG Church in Eldoret with 35 victims, who were attacked and torched inside in the church on January 1, 2008 at the height of the poll violence, remains unanswered.
A man whose father and brother were killed when armed youths set the church on fire has withdrawn his testimony against Ruto. The man, whose identity has not been disclosed, has reportedly written to chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda saying that he no longer wished to be her witness against Ruto and his co-accused Joshua Sang.
In his affidavit, the witness who asked Bensouda to delete all his evidence from her record said that he does not recall the accused uttering any inciting statements or participating in the violence.
He becomes the seventh witness to withdraw from the case in the last few months. He is however the first from the Kikuyu community to recant his evidence. The rest have been from the Kalenjin community.
At least 35 people, mostly women and children, died when marauding youths set the church where hundreds of people displaced by the fighting in Kimuru had sought refuge. Seventeen people were burned alive in the church and another 11 died in or on the way to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital.
Although Bensouda in her Pre-Trial Brief claims that on November 23, 2007, Ruto and 100 prominent Kalenjin leaders and 3,000 youths gathered at the Mimuri farm of businessman Mark Too to plan the attack, Ruot has denied the allegations.
According to Bnsouda however, Ruto addressed the meeting and stated that the youth would be taken care of and asked to be informed if there was any shortage of money. Bensouda claims it was this group of youths who attacked the Kiambaa church soon after the election results were announced. Kiambaa church was a target because it was densely populated with Kikuyu.
Although Ruto has denied any responsibility, according to former chief prosecutor Moreno Ocampo, immediately following the announcement of the 2007 presidential election results, a “Network” of youth militia was organized by Ruto to execute attacks against Gikuyus in various locations in Uasin Gishu and Nandi Districts, including Turbo town, the greater Eldoret area (Kiambaa, Yamumbi, Haruma, Kimumu and Langas), Kapsabet town, and Nandi Hills town, with the intent to expel them from the Rift Valley.
The brunt of the attacks occurred from 30 December 2007 through the first week of January 2008. Ocampo specifically noted that the investigated crimes against humanity occurred predominantly within a 25 kilometre radius of a house that Ruto owns in Sugoi (Uasin Gishu District), where he held meetings to plan the attacks.
Specifically on December 30th, 2007, according to Ocampo, Ruto’s Network of youth attacked the village of Kimuri in Uasin Gishu District forcing hundreds of women and children to flee to the neighbouring village of Kiambaa, where they sought refuge in the small Kenya Assemblies of God Church.
The next day, December 31st, 2008, word had spread around that Gikuyu speaking refugees were sheltered within the Kiambaa Church. Ocampo found that on January 1st 2008, Ruto’s Network attacked the Church, doused mattresses and blankets with petrol and threw them in the building.
They blocked all exit points from the Church and mothers and babies who were trying to flee the inferno were pushed back into the church. Kikuyu men attempting to defend their church and loved ones were hacked to death with machetes, shot with arrows, or pursued and killed.
The evidence tends to show that William Ruto promised perpetrators monetary reward in exchange for the destruction of Kikuyu buildings and every Kikuyu person killed.
Ruto was quoted in Wikileaks cable telling the American government that the Kiambaa church was the result of an accidental fire and he should not be accounted responsible for it. Ruto was meeting Ambassador William Ranneberger, Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Johnnie Carson and National Security Council director Michelle Gavin on May 12, 2009, almost 17 months later.
Ruto’s statement contradicts the Waki Commission report stated in 2009 that “the incident which captured the attention of both Kenyans and the world was the deliberate burning alive of mostly Kikuyu women and children huddled together in a church in Kiambaa on 1 January 2008.
Kikuyu men attempting to defend their church and loved ones were hacked to death with machetes, shot with arrows, or pursued and killed. Instead Ruto expressed frustration with the media, which he felt had blamed members of his Kalenjin group for locking and burning down the church.
Here is the summary of Ocampo’s file on ICC:
26 November 2009- ICC Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo files a request seeking authorisation from Pre- Trial Chamber II to open an investigation in relation to the crimes allegedly committed during the 2007-2008 post-election violence in Kenya.
31 March 2010- The three-member Pre-Trial Chamber II issues a majority decision that there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation into the situation in Kenya in relation to crimes against humanity within the jurisdiction of the Court committed between 1 June 2005 and 26 November 2009.
15 December 2010- The ICC Prosecutor requests the issuance of “summonses to appear” for six individuals alleged to be responsible for the commission of crimes against humanity in the Kenya investigation: William Samoei Ruto, Henry Kiprono Kosgey and Joshua Arap Sang (case one) and Francis Kirimi Muthaura, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta and Mohamed Hussein Ali (case two).
8 March 2011- Pre-Trial Chamber II issues the “summonses to appear” for the six individuals, as it finds reasonable grounds to believe that they committed the crimes alleged by the Prosecutor.
31 March 2011-The Kibaki government files an application challenging the ICC’s jurisdiction over the cases.
7 April 2011- The first three suspects (Ruto, Kosgey and Sang) make their initial appearance before the Court in The Hague.
8 April 2011- The second group of three suspects (Muthaura, Kenyatta and Ali) make their initial appearance.
1 September 2011-The hearing to confirm or reject the charges begins for the first three suspects (Ruto, Kosgey and Sang).
21 September 2011-The hearing to confirm or reject the charges begins for the second three suspects (Muthaura, Kenyatta and Ali).
23 January 2012- Charges against Henry Kosgei and Ali are dropped-shortly thereafter Kibaki directs AG to create a committee of experts to look into the decision of the ICC and advice his government accordingly.
11 March 2013-ICC officially drops all charges against Francis Muthaura who was accused alongside President Uhuru Kenyatta of crimes against humanity during the 2007-2008 post-election violence.
The decision came after the cases of Kenyatta and Muthaura were postponed because a key witness was discredited in Muthaura’s case and other witnesses refused to testify or have died.
Muthaura was accused of authorising police use of excessive force against protesters and of having protected youth militia members of the Party of National Unity of the election’s winner, President Mwai Kibaki. He also allegedly took part in meetings during which attacks were planned.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
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Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002