Witnesses retract statements against Ruto

Six supposed witnesses of Kenya’s 2008 violence living in Tanzania are ready to come back to Kenya and say they were coached and promised better life to implicate William Ruto in the chaos.

Before Ruto went to the ICC to meet prosecutors there, two of the witnesses sought to ask for his forgiveness for lying about the violence in Rift Valley Province at the time, and the role Ruto played.

And now, three witnesses in Rift Valley have agreed to speak to the media to say they were more or less paid to speak in a way to implicate Ruto.

This blog is not a sycophant of anyone’s politics. But I have reasons to believe that Kenya National Commission on Human Rights Commission (read Hassan Omar) coached witnesses to implicate Ruto in the violence.

A staffer with a foreign news agency (at CVS plaza, the same building housing KNCHR) said that Omar has been distraught since Ruto spoke about the issue. The commission chair, Florence Jaoko, has asked Omar not to make any press statement without consulting the commission on the matter.

Two people, Kipkemboi Rono and Ken Wekesa spoke out on 10 November, saying KNHCR paid them to implicate Ruto. One other person has a signed affidavit showing that KNHCR promised him better life if he implicated Ruto. (Daily Nation has refused to pick the story so far: see upcoming story next)

They two took a contributor to this blog to Nairobi’s Kilimani estate which they claimed were rented for them by the KNCHR which also allegedly paid them monthly allowances.

The other ‘‘witnesses’’ living in Tanzania, (not sure it KNHCR pays fro their stay there) have been calling relatives and friends in Eldoret saying they’d like to come back and confess their lies.

Now, William Ruto has gone to record a statement with the police seeking for the arrest of Hassan Omar and other commissioners. He will tell police that KNHCR bribed supposed witnesses to implicate him over the 2007/8 violence.

For the record, this blog has in the past said the case against Ruto at the ICC is quite difficult to prove. There are no minutes of him giving money to buy anything, like machetes etc. Unlike Mungiki State House meeting, Ruto’s links to the violence is really difficult to prove.

 

A contributor to this blog has said that two other ''human rights'' people are in panic over the issue - they are Ken Wafula, based in Eldoret, and Ndungu Wainaina. The two are some of the beneficiaries of investigations into the violence.