William Ruto drops Kioko Kilukumi as his defence lawyer at ICC

By Felix Olick

Deputy President William Ruto appears to have formally dropped Kenyan lawyer Kioko Kilukumi as one of his defence lawyers at the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The name of the Kenyan attorney who was at one time nominated as the Director of Public Prosecution by President Mwai Kibaki is missing from the latest documents filed in court.

This now means that the defence of the two Kenyan leaders including President Uhuru Kenyatta has no Kenyan lawyer.

On Tuesday, Kilukumi could neither confirm nor deny if he was no longer part of Ruto’s defence.

 “You will get to know that in due course,” he told the Standard on phone when contacted for a comment.

President Uhuru and his deputy Ruto face trial at the ICC for allegedly orchestrating the bloodshed that brought Kenya to its knees following the disputed result of the 2007 presidential election.

 A third defendant, journalist Joshua Arap Sang, is similarly charged with responsibility for the violence which left 1,100 Kenyans dead and around 650,000 displaced from their homes.