Deputy President William Ruto holding hands in prayer with wife Rachel,
daughter among MPs and senators outside ICC shortly before beginning of
October 7, 2013 proceedings.
The second witness in the case facing Mr William Ruto at The
Hague on Monday portrayed the Deputy President as a key figure in ODM
who used coded language against some communities in the Rift Valley
during the 2007 election campaigns.
Testifying in an
open session but with his face blurred and voice distorted on the video
monitors, Witness 326 said Mr Ruto used coded and degrading language. At
a rally in Kitale after the burial of an ODM supporter, the witness
said, Mr Ruto talked of what the party would offer once it ascended to
power, especially for the people of Rift Valley.
“It is
time the hyenas would give back the land so that landless people can
own land,” he reported Mr Ruto as saying at the rally.
When
pressed by the presiding judge Chile Eboe-Osuji to clarify if Mr Ruto
indeed used the exact term “hyenas” the witness responded in the
affirmative, explaining that the crowd understood the term to mean
“those who have grabbed lands.”
Mr Ruto’s utterances,
the witness said, were well-received by the crowd at the Kitale rally,
which he claimed to have been attended by more than a million people.
The
Kitale rally, he said was widely covered by the media, including Kass
FM where the second accused, Mr Joshua arap Sang, at the time worked.
Also covered by the media was the final rally that ODM held at Uhuru
Park, Nairobi.
However the witness said he was not a
keen listener of the Kass FM since he does not understand the Kalenjin
language, nor was he familiar with any of the station’s programmes.
The
witness also reconstructed the formation of the Orange Democratic
Movement as the vehicle to spearhead the ‘No’ campaign during the 2005
referendum, its transformation into a political party and Mr Ruto’s role
in the party’s 2007 election campaigns.
He said Mr
Ruto was a member of the highest organ in the party, the Pentagon,
alongside Mr Raila Odinga, Mr Musalia Mudavadi, Mr Najib Balala, Mrs
Charity Ngilu and Mr Joseph Nyagah.
Mr Ruto was
directly in charge of the movement’s campaigns in the Rift Valley and
was charged with spreading its message of equal distribution of
resources, particularly land, the witness said.
Prosecutor:
Following the nomination of Raila Odinga as the presidential candidate,
what strategy did the ODM adopt as their election strategy?
Witness:
ODM had a strategy of reaching the people on the ground, first of all
through the delegates on the ground, secondly, ODM party structures and
ODM elected civic and parliamentary candidates and also through the
media, campaign materials such as billboards and flyers.
Prosecutor:
You just mentioned Pentagon members and the regions they represented.
Would it be fair to say that these Pentagon members were assigned
provinces to drum up electoral votes.
Witness: That is true.
Prosecutor: Who was charged with delivering Rift Valley, if I may use that term?
Witness:
Rift Valley, mostly it was left to the Pentagon member, Mr Ruto. The
chairman of ODM was also coming from Rift Valley and they could reach
the people of Rift Valley.
Judge: I may then ask you, were the other campaign means, the billboards, the media employed in Rift Valley?
Witness: Yes.
Prosecutor: What is the ethnic make-up of the Rift Valley?
Witness: The majority are the Kalenjin, but it also has other communities like the Kisii, the Luo, Kikuyus and Luhyas.
Prosecutor: Can you estimate the actual percentages of the communities, if you cannot, do not say it.
Witness: No.
Prosecutor: Do you know which were the pressing campaign issues?
Witness:
The ODM manifesto was advocating equal distribution of resources
including land, equal distribution of opportunities and governance
positions.
Prosecutor: Was this strategy meant for the whole country or Rift Valley alone?
Witness: It was not for Rift Valley alone.
According
to him, Mr Ruto was one of the key leaders of the ‘No’ team that
successfully campaigned against the proposed Constitution during the
2005 referendum.
“By 2005, ODM was not in place as a party but there was an Orange movement,” the witness told the court.
He
listed the key leaders of the movement as Mr Ruto, Mr Odinga, Mr
Mudavadi, Prof Anyang’ Nyong’o, Mr Musyoka, Mr Balala and Mrs Janet
Ong’era among others.
“There were quite a number of MPs in the movement. After the referendum, majority of people liked the movement,” he said.
The
witness recalled how lawyer Mugambi Imanyara, “after picking the
concept” went behind the ‘No’ leaders to register the ODM as a party
after the referendum.
The witness said although Mr Ruto
still remained in Kanu, he associated more with the Orange leaders from
the referendum onwards and decamped to ODM in mid-2007.
As a member of ODM, the witness said, Mr Ruto was key to its campaigns and was even a member of the Pentagon.
“The leaders were representing provinces because ODM had promised devolved government and devolved resources,” he said.
The
witness said Mr Nyagah represented Upper Eastern, Mrs Ngilu was for the
rest of the Eastern province, Mr Balala was ODM’s pointman in Coast,
while Mr Ruto and Mr Odinga represented Rift Valley and Nyanza
respectively.
The prosecution continues with the
examination-in-chief of the witness today before the defence
cross-examines him. At the end of the cross-examination, the prosecution
will have another chance of re-examining the witness.
