A team of investigators from the International Criminal Court has arrived in Kenya to probe reports that its witnesses are being bribed to abandon the cases facing Deputy President William Ruto and journalist Joshua Sang at The Hague. Five ICC officials visited Eldoret yesterday and then headed to two East African countries where bribery of witnesses has allegedly taken place.
A Nairobi businessman, a top lawyer, an employee of an oil company, and two witnesses who have since withdrawn are among those being monitored by the ICC for involvement in bribing the witnesses after discovering their hideouts. Two days ago ICC Head of Jurisdiction and Cooperation Division Phakiso Mochochoko complained that “intimidation and interference with witnesses has been very unprecedented in the Kenyan case.” The ICC sent the team because it is very worried by the ongoing dropout rate of witnesses.
ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda might raise the matter with the Judges handling the 2007-08 postelection violence cases. Yesterday, ICC judges allowed the prosecutor to add two more witnesses against Ruto and Sang. The judges directed Bensouda to disclose the identities of P-604 and P-613 as soon as possible, and no later than Monday midday. Bensouda was also directed to call P-604 and P-613 among the last witnesses of her case. The trials of Ruto and Sang start next Tuesday while that of President Uhuru Kenyatta starts on November 12.
At least six witnesses have dropped out of Uhuru’s case bringing the remaining witnesses down to around 30. Sources said seven more witnesses are likely to pull out the Ruto case in the next few days. Yesterday chairman of the National Association of Human Rights Activists (Nara) Ken Wafula said in Nairobi that they had received reports that some key witnesses had pulled out of the cases after being bribed. Wafula said three former witnesses are now driving expensive cars and had bought property.
“Some of them have openly bragged that they were paid heavily to abandon the ICC cases,” said Wafula. Wafula said his organisation is compiling a report on the bribery. “The so-called withdrawals we are now witnessing are well calculated plans to portray the cases as collapsing.
We wonder why there should be such panic when some people have insisted that the cases are weak,” said Wafula. However Mochochoko said they are not distracted by the withdrawals and the court is ready to start the Ruto case next week. Some witnesses who have withdrawn complained that they had been mistreated by the ICC Witness Protection Unit.
Two said that the ICC had not properly taken care of their welfare in the foreign countries where they were taken for protection. “Some of us have been paid as little as the equivalent of Sh500 per day for survival in a foreign country. That is impossible considering that some of us had our families there,” said one witness who has since pulled out.
Speaking from a European capital, another witness said they were not sure of their fate because the ICC had not yet assured them of protection after they testified. Wafula said the ICC should sign lifetime contracts with the witnesses to guarantee their safety. Mochochoko however said they respect their witnesses and that they had put in place all necessary measures to protect them. Sources said the ICC had already negotiated with 37 key witnesses to get lifetime protection.
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