KENYA: ICC drops charges against president elect Uhuru Kenyatta's co-accused

Record ID: 362551

  • Title: KENYA: ICC drops charges against president elect Uhuru Kenyatta's co-accused
  • Date: 13th March 2013
  • Summary: ELDORET, KENYA (FILE-2008)4:3(REUTERS) VARIOUS OF BURNT BICYCLES OUTSIDE A CHURCH VARIOUS OF PEOPLE STANDING OUTSIDE THE BURNT CHURCH
  • Embargoed: 28th March 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Crime,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA2K4S0DFBJ2XHAEZDEHU4VWL5F
  • Story Text: The former head of Kenya's civil service said on Wednesday (March 13) that he had been deeply hurt by charges of crimes against humanity dropped this week by a war crimes court and urged fairness in other cases, including against the country's president-elect.
    The International Criminal Court's prosecutor said on Monday she lacked enough evidence to prove the charges against Muthaura. Fatou Bensouda's comments have raised questions over the strength of her case against Muthaura's co-accused, President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta.
    Muthaura expressed his disbelief at the case saying he has lived his life obeying the law and felt as a target by the ICC.
    "I never thought I would be target of ICC or any court because I have always lived my life under the law. Never did I think that false allegations uttered against me would be accepted as truth by ICC," said Kenya's former civil service boss and ICC suspect Francis Muthaura.
    Kenyatta was on Saturday declared winner of the March 4 presidential election. With Kenyatta, 51, in the top job, Kenya would become the second African state after Sudan to have a sitting president indicted by the ICC, although his main rival, Prime Minister Raila Odinga, is planning a legal challenge.
    ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she was forced to drop charges against Muthaura after a key witness recanted their testimony. Since the prosecution of Muthaura and Kenyatta were linked and based on a lot of the same evidence, the decision may impact the case against the Kenya's president-in-waiting.
    "Whilst on Monday, the new prosecutor of ICC withdrew all charges against me, I am relieved more than I can say. However, I am not celebrating. The ICC case broke my heart. Not only because I, Francis Muthaura was charged, but much more so because I have seen justice abused and manhandled by those whose primary duty it was to respect and safeguard it at all costs," Muthaura added.
    Considered one of Kibaki's most loyal and influential advisors, he was cabinet secretary and head of the civil service when Kibaki's disputed re-election to a second term in office in late 2007 lead to weeks of tribal killings.
    Muthaura and Kenyatta were accused of masterminding reprisal attacks against loyalists of Odinga who went on the rampage after Odinga lost out to Kibaki in the 2007 ballot.
    Muthaura's lead counsel, Karim Khan said the prosecution's case against Muthaura, which was largely built up under the court's former chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, had depended on a single witness who lied.
    "Two and a half years since the last prosecutor, Louis Moreno Ocampo, just before Christmas, publicly announced to the Kenyan people and the world that they were seeking summonses against Ambassador Francis Muthaura, after thousands of hours of investigations and millions of dollars spent on investigating this case, we have reached a point where the prosecutor has accepted that the case had to be withdrawn, that there was no, in her words, "reasonable prospect of conviction," said Muthaura's lawyer Queens Council Karim Khan.
    While calling for the proceedings against Muthaura to be halted, Bensouda said potential witnesses had been killed and accused the Nairobi government of reneging on commitments to help the tribunal carry out its investigation.
    Odinga's party plans to file his petition at the Supreme Court challenging Kenyatta's election by next Monday.
    The election commission agreed on Wednesday to provide all the documents Odinga's CORD coalition is seeking to argue its case the electoral process was flawed.
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