Uhuru dismisses claim key ICC witness bribed

By PETER LEFTIE pmutibo@ke.nationmedia.com  ( email the author)

Posted  Thursday, February 28  2013 at  22:30

In Summary

• Ex-Mungiki leader was offered cash to withdraw his testimony, says prosecutor Bensouda

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Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta has denied a claim by ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda that his defence team bribed a key witness to withdraw testimony against him.

Speaking through his defence team, Mr Kenyatta said two prosecution witnesses, instead, attempted to extort money from him so that they could testify in his favour.

Mr Kenyatta, who is the Jubilee presidential candidate, his running mate William Ruto, former Public Service head Francis Muthaura and radio presenter Joshua arap Sang are accused of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court.

Mr Kenyatta said it was only after he rebuffed the two witnesses that they turned against him.

“Accusations of bribery now, in the final days of the election, can only be an attempt to keep alive a collapsing case and influence the election result against the accused,” said Mr Kenyatta’s lawyers.

“The Kenyatta defence team revealed that in March 2011 Bensouda’s final remaining witnesses — OTP-11 and OTP-12 — attempted to extort money from the defence before they later became prosecution witnesses. The Kenyatta team supplied proof via emails, calls and SMS, which the OTP (Office of the Prosecutor) did not even investigate, yet Bensouda still wants to rely on the evidence of extortionists,” the defence team said, referring to witnesses 11 and 12 whose identities are yet to be disclosed.

In her submissions, Ms Bensouda claims that Witness Four, a former Mungiki leader, was bribed to withdraw his testimony after the confirmation hearings.

This is the witness who said he was present during meetings at State House and Nairobi Club where Mr Kenyatta and Mr Muthaura allegedly planned violence.

In a subsequent statement to the ICC, the witness said he lied about his presence at the two meetings.

“Witness Four revealed in an interview in May 2012 that he had been offered and accepted money from individuals holding themselves out as representatives of the accused to withdraw his testimony and provided e-mails and records that confirmed the bribery scheme,” the prosecutor said.

Ms Bensouda was responding to an application by the lawyers of Mr Kenyatta and Mr Muthaura calling for dismissal of the case due to withdrawal of evidence by the key witness.