Kenyans may have another opportunity to listen to the testimony of the next witness against Deputy President William Ruto as the second prosecution witness takes the stand Monday. Ruto’s defence team concluded the cross examination of the first witness on Friday during a closed-door session that stretched to 7pm local time. According to an earlier line up by the prosecution, the second witness is a man who allegedly implicates ODM in the violence that engulfed the country after the disputed 2007 presidential elections results. The witness claims ODM bankrolled the youths who went on a killing spree, raping women and evicting people from their homes in the Rift Valley. Testify in public The witness reportedly claims he has evidence the Orange party gave out large sums of money to one of its Pentagon member which was withdrawn from a local bank and then distributed to the youth. As they allowed the first witness, a woman only identified as Witness 536, to testify in closed-door session, the three-judge bench emphasised that witnesses should, in principal, testify in public. But even if the sessions are held in public as expected, the image and voice of the witness will still be distorted due to the high security concerns surrounding ICC witnesses in the Kenyan cases. ICC judges had issued a terse warning revealing or attempting to reveal the identity of witnesses is an offence and could lead to prosecution. “This court reminds anyone in this court, anyone in Kenya, members of the Press, bloggers, social media subscribers or participants to desist from doing anything that will reveal or attempt to reveal the identity of a witness,” presiding judge Chile Eboe-Osuji warned. “The court reminds them culprits will be prosecuted.”
Posted on: Sun, 06 Oct 2013 21:12:08 +0000