From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste
THE HAGUE SPECIAL TAKE-5
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2013
The cross-examination of the first prosecution witness did not take place at The Hague yesterday as had been expected following claims that there were threats and intimidation against the witness, including attempts to bribe them, threaten or intimidate them from testifying.
This brings us to the big question as to who exactly is telling the truth on who are bribing the witnesses. While ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda alleges that witnesses are withdrawing because they are being bribed by the accused, the Kenyan Daily Post reports that actually it is the ICC prosecution that is bribing the witnesses.
According to the Daily Post ICC is using bribes to lure witnesses to testify against Ruto and his co-accused Joshua Sang after a witness who recanted his testimony on Sunday revealed that the Office of the Prosecutor is seeking a refund of Ksh 3.2 million he was allegedly given to testify. If this allegation is true then this is a very serious matter.
The Kenyan Daily Post reports that the witness who was among the four who recanted their testimony revealed to journalists that he was expected to give false evidence about the attack at the Kenya Assemblies of God Church in Eldoret.
On the other hand, in a video clip seen by Capital FM News on Wednesday, one of the witnesses they revealed his identity but The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste has not due to directives from the court maintained that the OTP had fabricated evidence against Ruto and Sang and had even told witnesses what to say.
The report claims that the witness explained to journalists how they were told not to hesitate, scratch their noses, touch the back of their ears, faces or neck when being cross-examined because the judges would not trust their testimonies.
He claimed that he was given maps of Ruto’s Sugoi home and asked to sketch what he was seeing while at the same time verbally explaining the same in Kalenjin. This sketch shows the sitting room, the fridges, the bedrooms, despite that the witness has never been to Ruto’s house.
The witness said he was also asked to say that he was present at a place where it is alleged that an oathing ceremony took place. Almost 50 percent of Ruto’s witnesses have withdrawn.
Another witness whose name we are not going to reveal claimed he was given Sh50, 000 for his accommodation and a further Sh373, 000 for him to testify against Ruto. He also claimed that he was further given Sh 380,000 as inducement fee to remain in the case.
They said it was in Arusha, Tanzania where ICC witnesses were coached and then flown to Netherlands.
But according to Bensouda it is the accused who are actually bribing the witnesses. She claimed last year that Uhuru Kenyatta bribed witness 4 to drop his evidence against him.
In a special sitting with Pre-Trial Chamber V judges at The Hague, Bensouda said the controversial witness had confessed to accepting money last May from Uhuru’s alleged emissaries to withdraw his testimony.
“Witness 4 revealed in May 2012 interview that he had been offered, and accepted, money from individuals holding themselves out as representatives of the accused to withdraw his testimony against Uhuru,” Bensouda was quoted to have said.
The witness according to Bensouda provided emails and bank records that confirmed the bribery scheme. In light of these cumulative revelations, the prosecution considers it is not useful to call him as a witness.
The witnesses TP002, TP0004 and TP0410–all survivors of the Kiambaa arson attack–and C6 whose statement was used to confirm the Ruto cases have so far withdrawn citing pressure from family and the fact that the Kalenjin and Kikuyu communities are living in harmony.
Reports indicate that the withdrawal of witness TP002, who has been living in a safe house in the United Kingdom, will deal a serious blow to the Office of the Prosecution which has been depending on his testimony for a concrete case.
The three Kiambaa fire survivors who lost relatives and property said they have withdrawn from the case due to the prevailing peace in the country. The three are reported to have fled Eldoret and settled in Ol Kalou, Nyahururu and Nakuru following the arson attack.
Similar claims are also reported by Jackal News that the main reason why the witnesses are not willing to testify is because they are demanding more money, stressing that unless the witnesses are paid the extra money they are demanding, it is likely they would boycott attending the hearings.
On the issue of Kenya withdrawing from Rome Statute, people have expressed different opinion. Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB), Justice and Peace commission has termed withdrawal from the ICC as voting for impunity.
Chairman of the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission, Archbishop Zacchaeus Okoth said on behalf of the conference that voting to withdraw Kenya from the Rome statute would hinder the court’s ability to investigate crime in Kenya now and in the future.
This move, he added would strip Kenyan people one of the most important human rights protections. In the spirit of protection of human rights and respect for the rule of law, the bishop said Kenyan parliament, the senate and the government should note that a ‘guilty or not guilty’ is all that Kenya needs from the ICC.
On his part, former Bahati Member of Parliament and human rights activists, Koigi wa Wamwere, attempts to withdraw from Rome Statute entails that dictatorship which has always been a problem for mankind will continue.
To survive, mankind he says must fight dictatorship and ICC is one means of eradicating tyranny not just in Kenya or Africa but the whole world.
Withdrawal from ICC he insists will terminate rule of law and entrench impunity in Kenya. ICC was established in 1998, long before it was known that Uhuru would be President and Ruto Deputy President of Kenya.
Koigi wonders why ICC is being portrayed as if it was established to maliciously prosecute Uhuru and Ruto and enthrone Raila Odinga. He says ICC did not come looking for Kenyans to prosecute.
It is the other way round. It is Kenyans who took themselves to The Hague saying ICC justice was better than Kenyan justice, also believing it took ICC more than 90 years to prosecute a case and Kenyan suspects were therefore beyond prosecution.
There are 122 countries which are States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Out of them 34 are African States, 18 are Asia-Pacific States, 18 are from Eastern Europe, 27 are from Latin American and Caribbean States, and 25 are from Western European and other States. Click sources to read more.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
E-mail omolo.ouko@gmail.com
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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