Deputy President William Ruto and former radio journalist Joshua arap Sang will not be travelling to The Netherlands for the ruling of their No-case-to-answer petition at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on April 5.
Deputy President's office confirmed today that ICC has excused Ruto from attending the session to allow him stand in for President Uhuru Kenyatta, who will be away in France and Germany during the period.
In the past, both Ruto and Sang had been required to be physically present in court during the hearing of the last batch of witnesses. Uhuru will be departing for Paris on April 4, for a three-day visit before proceeding to Germany for another two-day official visit.
The much-awaited ruling on the motion will determine whether the case against Ruto and Sang will continue or be dismissed. Ruto and Sang want the case terminated for lack of sufficient evidence by the Office of The Prosecutor. In his defence, Ruto gave five reasons why he should be acquitted after the prosecution failed to prove with evidence of an organisation dubbed: ‘The Network’ which was a key component in the case.
Ruto's lawyer Karim Khan observed in his submissions that ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda failed to demonstrate that Ruto was the head of a multi-faceted network composed of political, media, financial, tribal and military components whose sole aim was to implement an organisational policy.
The network, the prosecution alleges in its case was organised to punish and expel those in the Rift Valley in support of Party of National Unity (PNU), the re-election vehicle of President Kibaki gaining power by creating a uniform Raila Odinga-led Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) voting bloc.
Khan further argued that the 2007/08 post-election violence was spontaneous, a natural reaction to perceptions that the poll was rigged rather than an organised event attributed to one and the same group of perpetrators following a unified and predetermined strategy.
Through his lawyer, Katwa Kigen, Sang insists that he did not play any role in the violence that left more than 1, 300 people dead and thousands displaced. The lawyer also disproved the prosecution’s position that there was a network formed ahead of the 2007 election with a common plan to execute attacks in the Rift Valley.
He said the prosecution had failed to submit evidence to support allegations that such a network existed. In his view, to prove existence of the network, the prosecution should have at least furnished the court with details of the meetings of the group, its policies and plans. It was on the basis of the non-existence of the group and the alleged contribution of Sang that Kigen explained that his client did not have any criminal liability in the attacks.
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