Mr Ruto, no witness was ‘coached’

By KEN WAFULA
Guest writer
A few weeks ago, William Rono and Ken Wekesa emerged from their safe houses and created a national rumpus.
They sensationally claimed they were ‘coached’ and bribed to implicate Eldoret North MP William Ruto in post-election violence.
The Criminal Investigations Department (CID), the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC), and the International Criminal Court (ICC) are investigating the matter.
As the debate on whether the duo were bribed rages, more heat than light has been produced. Confusion and obfuscation of facts have emerged.
I am well versed with the local witness protection processes, having been the first person to blow the whistle on the threats to witnesses early this year. Hence, I feel I owe this country a duty to correct the misperceptions and lies from the two former witnesses and affected politicians.
In February, Rono walked into my office, at the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Eldoret and he spewed out words to the effect that he, and other persons who testified at the Waki Commission and at the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) were receiving death threats from people close to the suspects they had named.
They particularly singled out a Cabinet minister from the area, who they alleged was using a Senior NSIS officer to trail, haunt and spy on them. A Nairobi based lawyer was also actively involved in the scheme to torment them.
Sought helpRono further alleged they had complained to the KNCHR in Nairobi, but when they returned to Eldoret, their tormentors already knew what they had said and to whom at the commission.
It was because of these leaks that he and the others had turned to me for help.
Later that day, I addressed a press conference and the matter began to receive public attention. In one of the responses, KNCHR denied knowledge of the existence of the witnesses, but later organised a fact-finding mission, which confirmed the threats. During this time, more than 15 persons had recorded statements in my office over alleged threats.
It is true Rono recorded a statement with the KNCHR in March 2008 at Race Course Inn Hotel in Eldoret. At that meeting, only KNCHR research staff were present. There was no commissioner and the statement delivered was handwritten.
Mr Wekesa did not record any statement with KNCHR. Rono and Wekesa were among the first individuals who appeared before the Waki Commission at the KICC in Nairobi and assisted by a Rift Valley based lawyer. Again, the KNCHR or any commissioner for that matter was not involved. If bribery and coaching were to happen, then these initial points in time would have been strategic. I am giving this background information to expose the hypocrisy, dishonesty and fraud on witnesses being ‘coached’.
After I had made noise over the plight of these witnesses, a local Witness Protection Programme was hurriedly put in place. It was a humanitarian response to help individuals who had sacrificed their lives to tell the "truth".
Most of these persons got subsistence support from various quarters. The support entailed some money for buying food, clothes and other essentials. More than three organisations were involved in the initial witness protection outfit. The KNCHR was not involved at all at this stage. I played a big role in developing the programme.
While KNCHR was paying apartments to the tune of Sh120,000 and subsistence of Sh60,000 a month, the other groups were also paying close to Sh70,000 to the same persons.
Interestingly, the two gentlemen hid this other monies from the public because it would expose their dishonesty.
To allege that KNCHR Commissioner Hassan Omar bribed and ‘coached’ the two to implicate Ruto does not, therefore, hold any water. The two had differences with Mr Omar from the beginning.
— The writer is the Executive Director of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy