Karim Khan, the lead lawyer for the defence team of Deputy President William Ruto in the ICC case, has said the allegations of “fixing” levelled against Permanent Secretary in the Interior ministry Mutea Iringo are true.
Khan said that the allegations were as a result of investigations conducted by his team on the alleged involvement of Iringo and other government officials in coaching witness against Ruto.
The allegations surfaced over the weekend after Kericho Senator Charles Keter demanded that Iringo should be sacked or quit over the allegations. Khan was however unwilling to discuss the matter further saying that it is before the court now.
“We cannot keep on sharing power with such individuals. Some of us are not ready to negotiate with such people. We are not going to do that because we want the truth to prevail and we do not know where the loyalty of these people really is,” Keter who is Ruto's right hand man, told a fundraising ceremony in Kericho late on Sunday.
In responding to the allegations made by Ruto’s defence team, Iringo said that he has never been part of any witness protection programme, nor was he involved in disbursement of cash to witnesses to testify against Ruto.
Iringo further demanded that Ruto’s defence team conduct themselves professionally. “I expect that the legal team that you head should avoid playing political games and instead conduct legitimate credible investigations without tarnishing names of innocent individuals using the privilege of ICC forum, when these individuals may have no means and or similar platform to respond to such accusations,” Iriongo said in a letter to Khan.
However, Majority leader Aden Duale has said there are no officials within the government who coached witnesses to fix Deputy President William Ruto at the International Criminal Court.
Duale was responding to a question by Deputy Minority leader Jakoyo Midiwo who had asked him to clarify, whether the top leaders in government were involved in helping the case against Ruto at the ICC. Duale added that there was no internal discord in the Jubilee government and that it's united.
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