• The ICC website shows that both Ruto and President Uhuru Kenyatta’s matters at The Hague –based court were closed.
• The court terminated the Ruto case on April 5, 2016, about a year after President Kenyatta’s which was dropped on March 13, 2015.
Image: FILE
The ICC has no active cases or investigations against Deputy President William Ruto over the chaos that marred the 2007-08 General Election.
Sources at The Hague-based court have told the Star that the Kenyan case has not been reopened.
During an interview with NTV on Thursday, the DP sensationally claimed there was a plot to revive his crimes against humanity case at The Netherlands court.
He said some cabal of powerful people had instigated the case’s revival to block him from ascending to the presidency.
“You never know what they are cooking. Maybe there will be other cases. They have already arrived at the ICC case and are looking for witnesses so that they can say the case did not end properly,” Ruto said.
"There are characters who have already sent people to Kenya to resuscitate the ICC case against me,” he added.
The court’s website shows that Ruto and President Uhuru Kenyatta’s matters at The Hague –based court were closed.
The most recent activity was the court’s arrest warrants for three Kenyans — Walter Barasa, Paul Gicheru and Phillip Bett — on charges of obstructing the course of justice.
Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, in her statement after a review of the Kenyan cases in November, said they will be pursued on a case by case basis, making it the only active matter involving Kenyans.
“This was the first situation in which the prosecutor opened an investigation on its own impulse rather than by receiving a referral,” ICC says of the proceedings in two cases involving the trio.
Chaos erupted on December 31, 2007, after the announcement of Mwai Kibaki as the presidential poll winner in a race he closely contested with ODM leader Raila Odinga.
As a result, over 1,000 people were killed, 900 acts of rape and sexual violence documented, and approximately 350,000 people were displaced.
Following the events, Ruto was charged with crimes against humanity alongside journalist Joshua Sang and former ODM chairman Henry Kosgey.
The general charges also applied to President Kenyatta, Francis Muthaura, and former police commissioner Mohammed Hussein Ali.
The ‘Hague Six’ were accused of murder, deportation or forcible transfer of population, persecution, rape, and other inhumane acts during the poll chaos.
For Ruto, the claim was that he was behind a unified, concerted and pre-determined strategy to attack Kikuyu, Kamba and Kisiis in the Rift Valley.
The allegation before the court was that there was a plan to punish PNU supporters in the event that the 2007 presidential election was rigged.
This was argued as aimed at expelling the communities backing the party from the Rift Valley, “with the ultimate goal of creating a uniform Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) voting bloc.”
The claim was that the network was under the responsible command and had an established hierarchy and possessed the means to execute systematic attacks.
Ruto was particularly accused of organising and coordinating the implementation of the said plan.
He was equally accused of directly negotiating or supervising the purchase of guns and crude weapons as well as establishing a reward mechanism for the attackers.
Ruto also faced accusations that he gave instructions to the perpetrators as to who they had to kill and displace and whose property they had to destroy.
Sang, for his part, was accused of advertising the organisation's meetings and fanning violence by spreading hate messages.
ICC terminated their case on April 5, 2016, about a year after President Kenyatta’s, which was dropped on March 13, 2015.
Bensouda, in the case that exposed the ICC bareback, cited interference of witnesses as the core reason the matter could not proceed.
Witnesses were either missing or untraceable.
President Kenyatta — then Deputy Prime Minister — was accused of being criminally responsible in the violence that followed the disputed 2007 poll results as an indirect co-perpetrator.
He was charged with murder, deportation or forcible transfer of population, rape, persecution. The charges were withdrawn due to insufficient evidence.
“The case is considered closed unless and until the Prosecutor submits new evidence,” the ICC says on the current status of the Kenyan cases.
Ruto and Sang jointly faced three crimes against humanity, being murder, deportation or forcible transfer of population, and persecution.
However, the ICC terminated the case on April 5, 2016, while judges declined to confirm the charges against Kosgey in January 2012.
Before then, Trial Chamber II concluded that there was substantial ground to believe the attacks in Nakuru and Naivasha were preplanned.
“Kenyatta and members of the Mungiki allegedly created a common plan to commit these attacks,” the court stated then.
The prosecution reasoned that Uhuru facilitated the agreement with the Mungiki for the purpose of the commission of the crimes.
They also attempted to link him to the execution on the ground of the common plan by the Mungiki in Nakuru and Naivasha.
The judges declined to confirm charges against the former police boss Hussein Ali, who was roped into the Kenyatta case, on 23 January 2012.
Ocampo's allegations against Ruto
The trial in this case started on 10 September 2013, with the suspects appearing voluntarily before the Court in accordance with their summonses to appear and orders from the Trial Chamber.
In committing the case to trial, Pre-Trial Chamber II found that there are substantial grounds to believe that:
Immediately after the announcement of the results of the presidential election and specifically from 30 December 2007 until 16 January 2008, an attack was carried out – following a unified, concerted and pre-determined strategy – by different groups of Kalenjin people, in locations including Turbo town, the greater Eldoret area (encompassing Huruma, Kiambaa, Kimumu, Langas, and Yamumbi), Kapsabet town and Nandi Hills town, in the Uasin Gishu and Nandi Districts, the Republic of Kenya. The attack allegedly targeted the civilian population, namely the Kikuyu, Kamba and Kisii ethnic groups, which were perceived as Party of National Unity (PNU) supporters.
In particular, the violence in the Uasin Gishu District (encompassing Turbo town and the Eldoret area) allegedly resulted in more than 230 people dead, 505 people injured and more than 5,000 people displaced. In the Nandi District (encompassing Kapsabet town and Nandi Hills town), the attack allegedly ended in the death of at least 7 persons and thousands of persons were forced to seek refuge at Nandi Hills police station and in the surrounding areas. A number of houses and business premises were also looted and burned.
Allegedly, there was a plan to punish PNU supporters in the event that the 2007 presidential elections were rigged, which allegedly aimed at expelling them from the Rift Valley, with the ultimate goal of creating a uniform Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) voting block. In order to implement the plan agreed upon, a network of perpetrators has been allegedly established with the purpose of evicting members of the Kikuyu, Kisii, and Kamba communities in particular because they were perceived as PNU supporters. The Network was allegedly under responsible command and had an established hierarchy. The network possessed the means to carry out a widespread or systematic attack against the civilian population, as its members had access to and utilised a considerable amount of capital, guns, crude weapons and manpower.
William Ruto provided essential contributions to the implementation of the common plan by way of organising and coordinating the commission of widespread and systematic attacks that meet the threshold of crimes against humanity, in the absence of which the plan would have been frustrated. William Ruto allegedly: (i) overall planned and was responsible for the implementation of the common plan in the entire Rift Valley; (ii) created a network of perpetrators to support the implementation of the common plan; (iii) directly negotiated or supervised the purchase of guns and crude weapons; (iv) gave instructions to the perpetrators as to who they had to kill and displace and whose property they had to destroy; and (v) established a rewarding mechanism with fixed amounts of money to be paid to the perpetrators upon the successful murder of PNU supporters or destruction of their properties.
Joshua Arap Sang, by virtue of his influence in his capacity as a key Kass FM radio broadcaster, allegedly contributed in implementation of the common plan by: (i) placing his show Lee Nee Eme at the disposal of the organisation; (ii) advertising the organisation's meetings; (iii) fanning violence by spreading hate messages and explicitly revealing a desire to expel the Kikuyus; and (iv) broadcasting false news regarding alleged murder(s) of Kalenjin people in order to inflame the violent atmosphere.
Source: ICC