I was paid to implicate Ruto, says ICC ‘witness’

Kenya Deputy President William Ruto attends the ICC hearing at the Hague last year. PHOTO BY AFP 

Source Monitor Reporter
editorial@ug.nationmedia.com
Nairobi.

A man claiming to be a witness at the International Criminal Court on Monday withdrew from the ongoing case in The Hague, saying his conscience forced him to pull out.

According Mr David Kiarie Kibe, who claimed that he was to testify next week, he had been coached to give false evidence against Deputy President William Ruto and radio presenter Joshua Sang.

This was after being promised to be paid millions of Kenyan shillings by ICC investigators and an international NGO.

In an affidavit he swore before a Nakuru lawyer announcing his withdrawal from the case, the visibly terrified witness alleged that the NGO had promised to pay him Ksh44 million (about Shs1.2b).

“They were to pay me Kshs170,000 (about Shs4m) per month calculating it from the time when I was displaced by post-election violence up to the time I would complete giving my evidence,” he told journalists after swearing the affidavit. He says in his affidavit that ICC investigators had promised to pay him an extra Kshs38 million (Shs1b) and a life insurance cover for 20 years.

“I had started travelling last week where I was to meet the ICC investigators in Dar as Salaam, but on reaching Arusha, I changed my mind and withdrew from the case,” the 44-year-old businessman said.

He showed the media two passports — one of which he said was issued to him by the ICC investigators based in Kampala for travel within Uganda and an international one he was to use to fly to The Hague.

The man, who campaigned in 2007, said he was identified as an ICC witness in August 2011. “They told me to tell the court that Ruto has been responsible for violence in Rift valley,” he claimed.