Serious claims as Ruto, KNCHR tussle hots up

By Standard Team

More damning allegations on the issue of the 2008 post-election violence emerged on Wednesday, even as the national human rights body denied claims of witness bribery and coaching levelled against one of its commissioners.

Three more people alleging to be key witnesses swore affidavits claiming they were induced to incriminate Eldoret North MP William Ruto in the violence that broke out after the disputed 2007 elections that pitted President Kibaki against Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

The three disowned and withdrew evidence they allegedly gave to Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), the Waki Commission and International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo’s teams.

They spoke even as the KNCHR chair Florence Simbiri-Jaoko expressed concern over the singling out of Commissioner Hassan Omar Hassan over witness bribery and coaching claims.

Saying the commission takes full responsibility for its report on post-election violence, Jaoko added: "If Ruto has any tangible information on any wrongdoing on the part of any of our commissioners, let him present it to the relevant authorities for necessary action rather than attempt to put a whole institution into disrepute".

The rights body denied Ruto’s claims that the commission obtained its information from six people who had been compromised, instead indicating that the commission had recorded 1,102 statements from several quarters.

Among those interviewed, the commission said, were 46 senior police officers across the regions visited and 40 members of the Provincial Administration, who comprised Provincial Commissioners, District Commissioners, District Officers and Chiefs.

The informants also included 33 councillors, 10 then sitting MPs, former MPs and affected Kenyans, said Jaoko.

"All these people gave the information of their own volition. The commission did not hire, bribe, influence or coach the witnesses," she said at a press conference where Hassan declined to comment as an individual.

But in the three affidavits seen by The Standard, the three individuals said they were rented houses, given allowances and promised relocation to glitzy Western capitals.

All they needed to do was to twist their evidence and implicate Ruto "because Ocampo was only interested in prosecuting a few suspects, and for Rift Valley Hon William Ruto would be adequate".

The three fingered KNCHR Commissioner Hassan Omar as having co-ordinated the effort and asked witnesses to adjust previous testimonies and representations "to be almost similar" so that they could corroborate each other to ensure they were "more convincing to Ocampo".

The witnesses then sent the statements to the ICC, which is investigating the 2007/08 post-election violence that killed more than 1,300 people and displaced hundreds of thousands others.

Written statements

The ICC Head of Information and Evidence Unit in the Office of the Prosecutor, M P Dillon, wrote back to the witnesses on March 9, this year, acknowledging receipt of the statements.

"This communication has been duly entered in the Communications Register of the Office. We will give consideration to this communication, in accordance with the provisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court," said Dillon.

On Wednesday, one of the witnesses said they were ready to hand over their fresh affidavits — signed under the Oaths and Statutory Declarations Act — to the ICC.

"We have nothing to hide and we cannot keep quiet about this. We are ready to hand over the affidavits to the ICC," he told The Standard.

In the handwritten statements that they originally sent to the ICC, the witnesses depicted the Eldoret North MP as criss-crossing the Rift Valley giving orders, distributing arms and addressing public rallies where he allegedly incited one community against another.

They also refer to meetings allegedly attended by current MPs Joshua Kuttuny, Zakayo Cheruiyot, Fred Kapondi and other MPs now allied to Ruto in 2006 and 2007 in which inciting declarations were made.

However, Kapondi was in jail at the time he is alleged to have attended the meetings.

Another witness implicated all ODM MPs from the Rift Valley in the alleged planning of the violence.

The witnesses also claimed that a local radio station and retired military officers from the region were involved in the planning.

But responding yesterday, Jaoko said her commission had no plans or powers to influence the ICC on determination of who was guilty or otherwise.

"The ICC has its own processes and mechanisms of investigation. The commission has no mandate as far as that process is concerned," she said.

In their affidavit, the three said they had played a key role in assembling witnesses for the KNCHR when compiled its report that named politicians, including Ruto, in connection with violence.

They also assembled witnesses from the Rift Valley who testified before the Waki Commission. All the witnesses except one — a human rights activist — were officials of PNU-allied parties.

"I also retract my testimony because originally all the evidence and testimonies we gave were meant to assist in the political contest between PNU and ODM. They were not meant to incriminate or convict anyone. Later when it became necessary to refer the case to the ICC where the truth is required, I was forced to withdraw from the case," said one of the witnesses in the affidavit drawn by Letangule and Company Advocates.

One of the witnesses said that to date, Hassan Omar and a Mr Samson Omondi "are paying rent for a house they got for me".

One of the witnesses also claimed to have received a call from a Mr Ben allegedly from a Western aid agency who warned him that his life was in danger. "He offered relocation to Uganda, Tanzania or Rwanda. My family would get Sh100,000 per month if they remained in Kenya. I would get Sh200,000 per month and I also had an option to relocate with my family," he said.

Financial reward

Another witness claimed that Omar approached them in February to adjust testimonies that they had previously given to the KNCHR to suit the ICC case. In exchange, he said, they were promised financial reward.

When he spoke to The Standard at a secret location in Nairobi, the witness claimed that each of them was being paid Sh60,000 and lived in Sh120,000-a-month fully furnished rental apartment at an upmarket estate in Nairobi.

The witness said that at one time, a commissioner threatened to have him removed from the list of witnesses under protection for refusing to implicate Ruto in the violence.

During the press conference yesterday, the commission urged Kenyans not to underestimate the enormity of the challenge of impunity or engage in any activity that may endanger the safety and security of witnesses.

Jaoko said the commission was not serving the interest of any politician but had acted on the interest of the country, for the sake of national stability and for the sake of the victims of human rights abuses.