ICC wants details on claim Ruto seized land
By MURITHI MUTIGA mmutiga@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Saturday, March 24 2012 at 22:30
Posted Saturday, March 24 2012 at 22:30
The International Criminal Court has formally written to the government seeking information about a case in which a farmer has accused Eldoret North MP William Ruto of grabbing his 100 acres of land at the height of the post-election violence.
The ICC wants more details about the dispute in which Mr Adrian Muteshi contends that Mr Ruto and his agents evicted him from the farm near Turbo in Mr Ruto’s constituency.
Mr Muteshi has told the High Court that the MP evicted him and his workers and has illegally occupied the property for the last four years.
The ICC request is significant because it indicates that the prosecution is considering taking up the matter to bolster their case against Mr Ruto who faces charges of crimes against humanity in The Hague.
One of the counts Mr Ruto has to defend himself against is forceful displacement of populations. The MP last week denied grabbing the land. (READ: Ruto wants land grab claim probed)
He said he had asked the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) director to investigate the matter and prosecute those responsible for the alleged eviction. He says he bought the land procedurally from one Dorothy Yator.
“The allegations are very malicious. The land is in my constituency, and I have been an MP there for 15 years. Nobody has been living on it since 1992,” said Mr Ruto.
According to official figures, 1,133 people were killed and hundreds of thousands others displaced in the weeks of mayhem which followed the disputed presidential election results.
The allegations that Mr Ruto grabbed land from an individual during the election period may complicate his prospects when the trial begins.
On March 3, ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo’s spokesperson Florence Olara told the press that the Nairobi case may be of interest:
“The prosecution case against Ruto is for murder, deportation or forcible transfer of population and persecution,” she said while declining to discuss the details of the matter.
The ICC has also asked the government to shed more light on the controversial document tabled in Parliament purporting to show that the British Government was meddling in the investigations into the Kenya case at the ICC. The British High Commission has dismissed the letter as a forgery.
Under the Rome Statute, the State is obligated to cooperate with ICC requests for information from the court in The Hague.
Section 87 (1,a) states: “The Court shall have the authority to make requests to States Parties for cooperation.
“The requests shall be transmitted through the diplomatic channel or any other appropriate channel as may be designated by each State Party upon ratification, acceptance, approval or accession ….
“Where a State Party fails to comply with a request to cooperate by the Court contrary to the provisions of this Statute, thereby preventing the Court from exercising its functions and powers under this Statute, the Court may make a finding to that effect and refer the matter to the Assembly of States Parties or, where the Security Council referred the matter to the Court, to the Security Council.”
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