ICC case: Prime Minister Raila Odinga listed as number two on Ruto’s witness list.

Posted by African Press International on August 19, 2011

By Korir, Chief editor API

Drama is only days away. Ten days to go to the International Criminal Court and fight it out. The prosecutor says he has a solid case. The defence say they have the evidence to counter the prosecutor’s evidence. Here we go. Drama at the ICC begins in ten days and many will be watching and waiting to see who will come out clean from the mud. All the suspects, in the eyes of the law are innocent until proven guilty. The Prosecutor, Mr Ocampo has an uphill battle and he says he is ready to hit hard on the suspects. He says he will manage to prove that crimes was committed in Kenya. Yes, this may be so, but the problem is to prove who the real culprits are.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga is listed as number two on Ruto’s witness list, while Kosgey will haveCommissioner Hassan of Kenyan National Human Rights Commission. Another witness said to be on the list is Judge Waki who presented the sealed envelope to the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan after his Commission completed the investigations to the violence. Kosgey who is said to have listed him as witness wants the Judge to explain how he collected the evidence that will be used by the prosecution. The judge will also be asked to explain how the information he collected exonerated the Prime Minister from blame. Commissioner Hassan is important to the suspects because they want to confront him about coercing and bribing of witnesses. Two who had been housed by Hassan’s Commission on claims the Commission was protecting them, have already come out in the open claiming they were paid to implicate some of the suspects.

The ICC case on confirmation hearing of charges against Suspended Higher Education minister William Ruto, Suspended Industrialisation minister Henry Kosgey and Kass FM radio presenter Joshua Sang starts on the 1st of September. The suspects have each been allowed to call 2 live witnesses only.

API can confirm that Prime Minister Raila Odinga is witness number two in Ruto’s list. This makes the whole case a good circus because Ruto will get the opportunity to cross-examine the PM who will be asked to comment on clips from broadcasting before the post-election violence started.

The suspects however, have decided to have the names confidential until the hearing date but information API has received confirms Raila Odinga as one of the two witnesses on Ruto’s list. He has been listed as the main witness. Although it is believed that he will be a hostile witness for the suspect, he will have trouble to disassociate himself from the clips from broadcasts made where he was the lead man in ODM calling for mass demonstrations.

It is believed that Raila will not deny that he called for mass demonstrations, but he will say his calls were for peaceful demonstrations, not violent because he believed the presidency was stolen from him.

If the court believes that Raila’s call for mass demonstrations caused the violence, he will be implicated because he was at the time Ruto’s boss.

Having Raila to come to the Hague as a witness, Ruto is also doing Henry Kosgey a favour who until this day is ODM’s Chairman. If Raila is found by the court to have caused the violence by his call for mass demonstrations, that will also benefit Kosgey.

In a move to try to destabilise the Prosecutor, The three suspects have decided to keep the witness list confidential allowing the judge only to have access locking out the Prosecutor from it until the hearing day on the 1st of September.

Concealing the list is a security for the suspects whose intention is to ambush the Prime Minister by calling him abruptly to the court for cross-examination.

It is not known which main witnesses Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Chief Secretary Muthaura and Postmaster General Hussein Ali intend to call. The three will be watching very carefully how PM Raila Odinga will defend his association with ODM suspects.

End