• Lawyer Katwa Kigen, who was a member of Ruto's defence team at The Hague, declined to comment.
• Ruto claims a cabal that existed even in retired Presidents Daniel Moi and Mwai Kibaki administrations is behind his woes.
Deputy President William Ruto is pulling a sympathy card with his latest claims of a plan to revisit his ICC case.
This is according to observers who dismissed the fresh claims as mere attempts by the DP to use the narrative to stoke emotions in the country.
Ruto, in an interview with NTV on Thursday, alleged that the International Criminal Court had dispatched investigators to relook into his case. The Star has written to the court and is waiting for its response.
Lawyer Katwa Kigen, who was in Ruto's defence team at The Hague, declined to comment on the claim. “For now, I don’t want to say anything about the matter,” he told the Star.
Another lawyer who did not want to be named said Ruto’s assertions on the ICC case can’t be taken seriously. “Unless there is something clearer like whether there are fresh summonses to appear or a request for cooperation made to the country to facilitate the investigations.”
Political commentator Herman Manyora said that from the Kenyan standpoint, only the government, which Ruto is part of, can recommend the revival of the cases.
"Who can take him to The Hague? [He seems to be] trying to seek sympathy votes. If somebody wants to take him to The Hague from Kenya, that person can only be the government," the professor said.
"That would mean he is saying that Uhuru wants to take him to The Hague, which again is very crazy."
Following the 2008 post-election violence, the DP was among six people who were taken to The Hague, Netherlands, and charged with crimes against humanity. Others were President Uhuru Kenyatta, former Head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura, former ODM chairman Henry Kosgey, journalist Joshua Sang, and retired police boss Hussein Ali.
On Thursday, the DP claimed he was briefed on the fresh attempts by NIS boss Philip Kameru, adding that he would weather the storm should the probe proceed.
"There are characters who have already sent people to Kenya to resuscitate the ICC case against me,” Ruto said, citing it as a plot to derail his presidential bid.
ODM criticised the remarks saying it defeats logic that anyone would want to drag Ruto to The Hague and leave President Uhuru Kenyatta. Chairman John Mbadi said the remarks confirmed Ruto’s character as one good at playing the victim when he is politically frustrated.
“They were both with the President in the case at the ICC. I doubt the President can work to take him to the ICC,” the Suba South MP said.
Mbadi cautioned that the ICC tag would not work in Ruto’s favour as was the case in the run-up to the 2013 election. The DP and President Uhuru Kenyatta used the cases to rally Kenyans against a Raila candidature.
“It is not the first time. He (Ruto) came up with the issue of Mau against Raila. He used ICC in 2013, but the story is stale. I don’t think the ICC will work again,” the lawmaker said.
“Where will they get the witnesses, yet they are all gone? The same reason the case failed.”
He recounted ODM's efforts to have a local mechanism. “Many of us had agreed the ICC was not the best route. We wanted a local tribunal, but they chose the Hague route,” Mbadi said.
Ruto, however, blamed a group — referring to it as a cabal — for influencing the country’s polity every time there is a transition from one administration to another.
“They walk in boardrooms and government offices to manipulate politics with the hope they can install people who can serve them.”
He asserted that the groupings existed in retired presidents Daniel Moi and Mwai Kibaki administrations. “In the Kibaki succession, we had ICC cases instigated against us. People were also hired to go to court here in Kenya to stop us from vying.”
The DP lamented that the renewed bid to send him to The Hague is part of the plot to block him from succeeding Uhuru.
“My political competitors want to make every effort to stop my candidature,” he said, referring to the Ngong Forest land case of 2004 which was claimed to be on the DCI radar.
DCI boss George Kinoti, however, denied probing Ruto directly but said he was looking into the plunder of Kenya Pipeline Company, including the purchase of its land.
In 2004, Ruto was charged alongside two others and five companies for selling a parcel hived off from Ngong Forest. They were later acquitted for lack of evidence. Ruto said the KPC matter and the bid to resuscitate the ICC cases are among the efforts by the cabal.
“I was a very easy target in the Narc administration. They sought a ploy of slowing me down or stopping me. They have never succeeded because if I was guilty, I would not be occupying the DP seat,” Ruto said.