Ruto returns to Hague as court orders Barasa arrest

By FELIX OLICK and ISAIAH LUCHELI

NAIROBI, KENYA: Following the ruling by High Court judge Richard Mwongo, the way is now clear for the police to arrest journalist Walter Barasa.

Deputy President Ruto’s trial, which resumed Wednesday, continues today with the testimony of the 17th prosecution witness.

Barasa lost his fight to block his extradition to The Hague-based court, to face charges of “corruptly influencing” witnesses by allegedly offering bribes of between Sh1 million and Sh1.5 million.

Justice Mwongo ruled that enough evidence had been adduced in court and Barasa has a case to answer. Justice Mwongo said the court has the power to issue warrants of arrest.

ADDITIONAL FACTS

Once the court has received the notice from the ICC it had two choices: to issue the warrant or decline, he said.

“From the information available on the record and from the additional facts that the petitioner (Barasa) appeared in court I am satisfied there are reasonable grounds to believe Barasa is the person being sought and he is in the country,” said Mwongo.

“I hereby order that a warrant of arrest for Walter Osapiri Barasa be issued,” he concluded.

The ICC wants Barasa transferred to The Hague to face two counts of corruptly influencing witnesses and another of attempting to corruptly influence a third witness.

ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said investigations showed that Barasa should be arrested urgently. ICC Pre-Trial Chamber II judge Cuno Tarfusser publicly issued the arrest warrant in August, last year.

The prosecution accuses Barasa of criminally being responsible for corruptly influencing witness P336 by offering to pay him between Sh1 million and Sh1.5 million to withdraw as a prosecution witness. The offence is said to have been committed between May 20 and July 21 in Uganda last year.

Witness 336 is among seven others who have abandoned the prosecution, but Bensouda successfully sought orders to force the Kenya Government to surrender them to ICC or arrange for their testimony in Kenya.

Attorney General Githu Muigai has joined the defence to contest the order, which he termed as a “set up” to have Kenya referred to the Assembly of State Parties for failure to cooperate with the ICC.

Barasa’s fate was sealed Wednesday afternoon after the judge declined to certify an application filed by his lawyer, Kibe Mungai, which had sought that Mwongo disqualify himself from the suit.

Barasa wanted Mwango to disqualify himself citing rules of natural justice as he had handled the matter previously. After the judge struck out the application the suit seeking to have Barasa arrested and extradited over the crimes was heard and orders issued without Barasa’s participation.

In The Hague, judges ruled the testimony today of the 17th prosecution witness in the case against Ruto and his co-accused journalist Joshua Sang will be heard entirely in camera.

The decision came amid heightened speculation that the witness — a victim of the 2008 post-election violence —had initially declined to travel to The Hague even after arriving at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

Sources indicated that the witness only identified by the pseudonym, OTP 673, prompted the postponement of the trial by two days after she failed to travel as scheduled. Wednesday, Presiding Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji only indicated that the witness had security concerns and would only testify in private session.

“We have granted protective measures for this witness. What this means for the public is that the testimony of this witness will be done in private session,” Osuji ruled.

The trial of Ruto and Sang was scheduled to start on Monday before being pushed to Wednesday. Another witness is also said to have disappeared from the prosecution in a supermarket in Eldoret town.

“The witness was being taken to The Hague to testify. He, however, told the prosecution officials that he wanted to get something from a supermarket and vanished,” a source familiar with the International Criminal Court (ICC) trials said.

Contacted for a comment, ICC Outreach Coordinator Maria Kumara declined to comment terming witness issues as “very confidential”.

“Witness issues are confidential issues. I wouldn’t know about such,” she said.

NO MERIT

In the High Court in Nairobi, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) counsel Kioko Kamula and Attorney General state counsel Stella Munyi opposed the attempt by Barasa to have the application certified as urgent. Kamula argued that the reasons Barasa had provided had no merit.

“The application has been filed late and its main purpose is just to stop the hearing of the suit which has been slated for today. It should be rejected because it has been filed in bad faith,” said Kamula. The judge upheld the argument by the DPP and the AG and gave allowed the suit to continue without Barasa being a party to it.

Nearly a half of the witnesses the prosecution lined up in the two Kenyan cases have withdrawn from the ICC trials.