The first ICC witness in the ongoing case was worth the wait. She made minced meat of some of us who were alive when the Kiambaa Church and Naivasha massacres took place. Indeed it was one thing to read in the press and watch edited footages of the tragedy in the comfort of our homes.
Now an eye witness who stood there literally naked to save lives had her day in court. He story, despite translations was so powerful that suddenly the suspects in court started to fidget. Although none of them broke into a sweat; there is one thing that was noticeable. They were deflated and suddenly grew older by a few years.
Because of the powerful presentation of the first witness who hasn’t finished her testimony, one wonders how many more such devastating eye witness accounts are is still in the pipe line.
At another level, this witness seems to have put the Kenya government squarely in the dock.
With the release of warlord Stephen Kipleting Chamalan who led his squad in burning the Kiambaa church full of people for lack of evidence, it means the government was on a mission right from day one to cover its tracks. The ODM local supreme got away with at least 35 murders apart from displacing thousands from the area.
The question to ask is this: how many more Chamalans are still roaming free and possibly serving in the current regime like him under URP party? Was the government serious with investigations and carrying out local trials even with the new judiciary and the new Director of Prosecutions in place?
Although Day Two of the witness ended without linking his story to Ruto and Sang, nobody should celebrate yet.
Day Two of the witness had its own drama. When the memories of that tragic day came flowing, she had no choice but to blurt out the names of her relations who were hacked to death or had perished in the inferno. When this happened, the court adjourned for several minutes to let her get collected. This was due to an earlier warning that any mention of her relations by name would give her away to the public.
Another controversy that the court had to deal with was the apparent bloggers posting of pictures of witnesses on social media. The matter was so serious that it forced the court to adjourn for six hours. When the court resumed at 4pm, a normally call Justice Osuji minced no words. He promised future offenders that the court would have no mercy over them.
Should all the remaining witnesses be heard in camera?
This was the debate that preoccupied most of the evening of day two of the first witness. Whereas the prosecution argued that any further public hearing would be harmful to the witnesses, the defence insisted that the Rome Statute recommends all public hearings of any nature.
Why would the defence counsel insist on public hearing despite the obvious danger that hackers have exposed the first witness to?
In this courtroom contest, like all others around the globe, each contestant will do all it takes to win- win the case or have a conviction at any cost. It is the reason if the Defense Counsel can cause panic among other witnesses to scare them into withdraw from the case, the better for them. And so far, this has worked well as witnesses withdrew in their droves.
If there is one thing that the first witness has done to Karim Khan and William Ruto, it has deflated their egos, Now they know that there Kenyan case is no ordinary case; it was a case of mass murders that the world cannot treat lightly.
Going back to the administration of justice, it would appear like the ICC is too liberal with its rules and time lines. For example, why has it taken five years to start a trial when the facts being interrogated now have all along been known?
More importantly, did Moreno Ocampo and his team really conduct their own investigations? If they did, how come they missed out Stephen Chamalan even if a flawed investigation forced a Kenyan court to free him for lack of evidence? Did Ocampo know about this witness who stood naked as her relatives burned at stake?
As we move forward with this grand trial, we can only assume that there will be more revelations to come now that warlord Stephen Chamalan of Kiambaa church has declared his innocence and has even declared his readiness to travel to The Hague to clear his name.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment