Two witnesses, who were set to testify against Deputy President William Ruto at the International Criminal Court (ICC), have now revealed how they were coached and bribed by ICC officials to “fix” Mr Ruto. Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, the witnesses revealed how they were coached not to use words such as ‘tried’, ‘really’, ‘recall’, ‘all I can say’, ‘sometimes’ and ‘I believe so’ when being cross-examined so as to convince the judges One of the witnesses, who has since recanted his testimony explained how they were also told not to hesitate, scratch their noses, touch the back of their ears, faces or neck when being cross- examined because the judges would not trust their testimonies. “We were told how the words ‘I do not know’ were powerful to the judges. We were coached about these words so as to keep them in mind when being cross-examined. We were also told not to rumble or think out loud,” the witness said many witnesses who will appear in the ICC court are false witnesses. He said him and others were forced to cram their accounts and would do so in groups so that their testimonies are corroborated. He also claimed that he was given maps of Ruto’s Sugoi home and asked to sketch what he was seeing while at the same time verbally explaining the same in Kalenjin dialect. “This sketch shows the sitting room, the fridges, the bedrooms, everything but I have never been to Ruto’s home. A map was just put on a wall and I was instructed to draw it and give an audio explanation of the sketch. I don’t know where that map came from,” he said. The witnesses also allege that he was forced by the ICC officials to admit that he was present at a place where it is alleged that an oathing ceremony took place. “I was also given details about oaths and told by the OTP to say that dogs were slaughtered at the Molo Milk Plant. But I don’t even know where this milk plant is,” he said Another witness, named Simon Rotich claimed that he was given Sh50, 000 for his accommodation and a further Sh373, 000 for him to testify against Ruto. He also claimed that he was further given Sh 380,000 as inducement fee to remain in the case. They said it was in Arusha, Tanzania where ICC witnesses were coached and then flown to Netherlands They also said they recanted their testimonies after seeing that ICC had other secret agenda on the cases facing three Kenyan suspects.
Posted on: Fri, 13 Sep 2013 08:11:47 +0000