Witness: Joshua arap Sang used coded language to incite

Hague: A prosecution witness at the International Criminal Court (ICC) claims radio broadcaster Joshua arap Sang used a popular Kalenjin gospel song to incite the community to violence during the 2007 General Election.

The witness number 0800 claimed Mr Sang played the song during his morning show at Kass FM radio station to send coded messages to the Kalenjin in the Rift Valley.

But Sang's lawyer Katwa Kigen played the entire song in court, asking the witness to single out the sections which he claimed were used to incite the community to evict the non-Kalenjin from the region.

The song by Bureti Super Stars pleads with God to save the world from various problems including diseases such as Aids and Ebola. It mentions various communities and other countries such as Uganda, Tanzania and Somalia, asking God to save them.

The witness, who was testifying in the trial of Deputy President William Ruto and Sang, said although it was a gospel song, Sang used it to send coded messages to the Kalenjin.

He insisted that Sang used ordinary language when calling for peace and co-existence but switched to coded language when he wanted to send inciting message to the Kalenjin.

"Sang used hidden language only understood by Kalenjin but he would be open when he wanted to speak straight. He would speak on the need to stop the war and coexistence but when he turned to idioms and songs he would be different," he said.

Ruto and Sang are standing trial for crimes against humanity said to have been committed during the 2007 post-election violence in which More than 1,200 people were killed.

The witness who concluded his evidence yesterday claimed that Sang had announced a plan to rig the elections by administration police officers ferried in buses. He said Sang announced that election officials should be cautious as the elections would be rigged.

However, lawyer Katwa played an audio clip indicating that the claim of rigging had been made by ODM presidential candidate Raila Odinga during an interview by Sang at the Kass FM studios.

Raila had claimed that the APs were being deployed as PNU agents across the country to help in rigging the elections.

The witness said the rigging allegations were a subject of public debate in the media.

"Yes, many people spoke about it but it was taken serious when broadcast on Kass FM," he said, adding that the morning programme would not be enjoyable when Sang was not hosting it.

"I would tune in and find people calling in on issues not interesting to me and could not enjoy it. I only enjoyed it when Sang was in studio as he used songs, idioms and short stories and I admire him," he said.

 

Hearing continues.