Ruto, Sang's ICC Case Pushed to May 28

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has postponed trial case for William Ruto and Joshua Sang to May 28. Ruto is Uhuru Kenyatta’s presidential running mate in the Jubilee coalition and together with Mr. Kenyatta were expected to appear before the court next month to begin challenging cases related to violence which rocked the country five years ago.

More than 1,200 people died during the violence and over 600,000 people displaced.

The latest news from ICC is positive to Ruto and Kenyatta looking towards forming the next government should the hotly contested election whose results are expected anytime fail to come out with an outright winner in the first round.

As at 6.33 pm Kenyan time, Uhuru’s Jubilee Coalition had garnered 5,159,344 votes ahead of his closest rival Raila Odinga of CORD coalition whose vote count stood at 4,516,660 same time. If the two fails to garner 50 per cent plus one of the votes cast, they would be headed for a run-off to determine winner on April 4.

ICC on Thursday also postponed Uhuru Kenyatta and Francis Muthaura –the former head of civil service permanent secretary’s-case to July 9, three months below the initial date.

Judges Kuniko Ozaki, Christine Van den Wyngaert and Chile Eboe-Osuju set the new provisional date for Kenyatta and Muthaura on grounds that issues raised by the defense teams in the application seeking to refer their matter back to the Pre-Trial Chamber, must be resolved before the trial proceeds.

The judges pointed out that these issues may not be resolved before April 11, the date that was initially set for the opening of the trial.

“Without prejudice to the Chamber’s determination of the issues raised by the defence applications and related fillings, and in order to ensure sufficient time for their resolution, the Chamber provisionally sets the new date for the commencement of trial as 9 July 2013,” Justice Ozaki stated.

The trial chamber also took into consideration Kenyatta and former Head of public service Francis Muthaura’s argument that they would not have adequate time to prepare for their defence if the hearing kicks off in April.

The defence teams had argued that this is because the prosecution disclosed its evidence to them late and they needed enough time to prepare.

Muthaura wants the issue on whether the case against him should proceed to trial when the only prosecution witness who alleged at the pre-trial stage that there was a core planning meeting, had been dropped, referred back to the court presided by Lady Justice Ekaterina Trendafilova.
- Daily Nation