William Ruto’s Third Name on Google is “Mr. Corruption”: He is Unfit for Public Office!
William Ruto is corrupt and cannot hold Office if a responsible government was in power.
It is not surprising that Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto’s third name on Google is “Corruption”. He has a stinking trail of corruption scandals dating from the 1990s, when he joined active politics. This article cites entries in the Kenya National Assembly Official Record (Hansard) for Parliamentary Debates and other sources to inform this claim, and to question his integrity as a State Executive.
Hansard 13 May, 1999: While debating on the need for reducing the number of Ministries and Assistant Ministers, former Budalangi MP Raphael Wanjala said: “In fact the number of Assistant Ministers was increased on tribal basis. Some of the newly appointed Assistant Ministers are already involved in financial scandals to the tune of Kshs350 million. For example, hon. William Ruto, who is among the Assistant Ministers who were appointed recently, has been mentioned in a scandal of Kshs350 million.”
Hansard 08 December, 1999: The then Public Investments Committee (PIC) Chairman Mwangi Githiomo mentioned William Ruto as part of a group of people who were illegally allocated Government land from the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) at Kitale Top Station. Ruto was allocated land on Partial Development Plan (PDP) No. KTL 109446. PIC recommended that since no title deeds had been issued, the Commissioner of Lands should “cancel the allocations and transfer the land back to KARI.”
BBC News 14 April, 2004: “William Ruto, a close ally of former President Daniel Moi, was charged with fraudulently obtaining $3.5 million. He was charged along with a former senior civil servant, over the sale of land to the Kenya Pipeline Company. Mr Ruto and former Land Commissioner Sammy Mwaita denied the charges and were released on bail of $64,000 each. The BBC’s Muchiri Kioi in Nairobi says the alleged fraud occurred during a sale of 70 acres of forest land on behalf of the then ruling Kenya African National Union (Kanu) to the state-owned company.”
Daily Nation Newspaper 06 February, 2009: “In early 2009 after parliamentary debate on a maize scandal, William Ruto was accused of illegally selling maize by Ikolomani MP Bonny Khalwale (Public Accounts Committee chairman). All the documents bearing the National Cereals and Produce Board seal that linked Mr Ruto to the illegal sale of maize were accepted by Parliament’s deputy speaker.”
The United Kingdom Parliament Lords Hansard Home Page (05 March, 2009: Column 873): “More recently, during the food crisis, the Agriculture Minister and Kalenjin leader, William Ruto, was suspected of allocating tenders for famine relief to his cronies. Whatever the truth of those accusations, they do not give the Kenyan people confidence in their leadership any more than us. The media are vocal and there have been repeated calls from MPs for Ministers such as Ruto and Kimunya to resign—calls that we might not have seen two years ago. Yet they know that nothing will happen fast: the idea that you help your own people is firmly rooted in African traditions even if Europeans have forgotten it.”
William Ruto, the lord of impunity
Excerpts from a statement published on News24Kenya (14 May, 2015) by the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) as a response to Ruto’s attempts to blame former Prime Minister Raila Odinga for his own corruption allegations indicate: “The DP said he has no apology to make over the scam at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret where he is accused of hijacking the procurement process and inflating the bill before trying to divert the funds to set up a personal institution. We are not surprised. Ruto has no apologies on very many issues. He has no apology to make on having been involved in:
1. Grabbing land of an elderly neighbor who was also an IDP, Mr Adrian Muteshi’s land in Eldoret. High court ruled on this matter where Ruto was found guilty.
2. Ruto’s name featured in the grabbing of Langata Primary School playground and the adjacent plot belonging to the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) where Weston Hotel stands. He had no apologies. Ruto had no apology to make over the tear gassing of school children.
4. Ruto’s was accused of grabbing the Kenya Pipeline land in Nairobi.
5. Ruto’s name featured in the grabbing of Prisons land in upper Hill area.
6. He featured in the grabbing of Processional Way in Nairobi. In all these, he has had no apologies to make.
The story of Kenya Pipeline land, like that of Adrian Muteshi’s, is particularly painful. It is a touching story of heartlessness. Mr Linus Cheruiyot, then the MD, who was forced to sign away the land, had to run away to the US where he lives on the edge today despite his sound education. He could not countenance the idea of going to jail over land that he was forced to sign away.”
Corruption pays
Apart from Adrian Muteshi’s case when Ruto was ordered by a court to pay him Kshs5 million to compensate for loss of income while he occupied his land, Ruto has always walked scot-free from the documented corruption scandals. In August 2015, the Jubilee-dominated Parliament dismissed a report by CORD-led Ababu Namwamba Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) which found that in 2013: “Mr Ruto travelled to Congo Brazzaville, Ghana, Nigeria and Gabon between May 16 and 19. The House team established that Sh18.9 million was spent on the trip, but was unable to establish the origin of invoices that showed the Office of the Deputy President paid Sh100 million.”
On 15 May, 2015 the Nation newspaper ran an article titled: “How brokers and MPs conspire to rip off Kenyans” which mentioned that: “In (Kenya) Parliament, business is tied with politics; it is always about making deals. As a result, oversight bodies are compromised from the word go”, according to lawyer Bobby Mkangi. No action can be taken against the likes of William Ruto because of: “Political partisanship, bribery and unethical practice at the hands of oversight MPs, sloppiness and tardiness in the operations of oversight committees, non-implementation of PIC/PAC recommendations, inability of MPs to interrogate and analyse money matters, and frustration at the hands of the Executive. MPs have grabbed every available chance to shield themselves and their corrupt allies from scrutiny, sought bribes, and whitewashed State sleaze.”
Jared Odero
Kenya Stockholm Blog 
William Ruto’s Ethnic Cleansing Controversy
William Ruto was the treasurer of Youth for KANU, an organization seen as responsible for the ethnic violence in Rift Valley during the 1992 and 1997 elections.
A leaked, and most likely forged, Orange Democratic Movement strategy paper for 2007 elections names William Ruto as responsible for leading a campaign for exclusion of the Kikuyus, Akambas and Indians from certain areas. The strategy paper also contains plans for use of ethnic cleansing as a last resort.
William Ruto has been accused of fueling the violence following the Kenyan 2007 elections with hate speech. Other sources accuse William Ruto of actually leading and financing the genocidal actions in Rift Valley during the 2007 election crisis.
This is not the first time William Ruto has been accused of promoting ethnic violence. In April 2007, on the floor of the Kenya Parliament, John Serut, the then Assistant Minister for Planning and National Development and Member of Parliament for Mount Elgon constituency, accused Ruto (together with Members of Parliament, Musa Sirma , Jebii Kilimo, Charles Keter and Franklin Bett) of financing the activities of Fredrick Chesebe Kapondi, that resulted in the killings and displacement of hundreds of people in the Mt Elgon district of Western Kenya. He also accused Ruto of inciting people in Mt Elgon district to kill one another. William Ruto and the other members of Parliament denied this.
Local opposition leaders have been accused of inciting the violence that led to burning of 30 women and children in a church near Eldoret after 2007 elections.
It has been alleged by some sources that William Ruto used the Karamajong Guerrilla Fighters to commit ethnic cleansing in the Rift Valley.
DP Ruto’s scandal of former DG Chris Kuto on KCAA board
C Published: Monday, May 11, 2015
Suspended Transport Cabinet Secretary Eng Michael Kamau when he launched KCAA headquarters construction
Deputy President Mr William Ruto truly is a man under siege. Exit the Eldoret Referral Hospital Sh28 billion alleged scam and enter a man from Mogotio called Mr. Chris Kuto who was recently part of the 302 parastatals pool appointees.
Mr Kuto is a former and long-serving Director General of the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA). During his tenure, a lot of corruption and land-grabbing occurred especially on land belonging to the airports and the KCAA itself.
He is back at the helm and strangely so as a board member of KCAA. In the new capacity, Mr. Kuto is a policy-maker and part of the apex team to right the Authority’s past wrongs. Really?
The matter Mr. Chris Kuto’s appointment to KCAA Board raises serious issues of conflict of interest as follows:
First, Mr. Kuto is a former DG, KCAA. It is well known within the aviation industry in Kenya that KCAA lost their land to land grabbers during Mr. Kuto’s tenure .
An example, according to our sources who have requested not to be named, is the land where Nairobi’s Lang’ata Road based Weston Hotel now sits. This hotel has in the past been associated with DP Mr Ruto who through a Mr Osero denied owning it.
If questions must be asked: Will Mr Kuto dispute that the said parcel of land did not originally belong to KCAA?
As the Director General of the Authority at that time, what did Mr. Kuto do to protect KCAA land? Was Mr. Kuto part of the land-grabbers? Is that why he remains remains mum on KCAA land saga?
It is, therefore, shocking and unacceptable that before the land issue is resolved, Mr. Kuto has already found his way through the back-door as KCAA Board member.
In recommending his appointment, what was his brief? To protect the status quo? Who makes such appointments without properly checking on some important facts regarding appointees?
Incidentally, the appointment of Mr Kuto came when self-declared billionaire one Jacob Juma of Cortec Mining Ltd had already filed a suit in the High Court regarding the matter of KCAA land.
Second, in 2003 an aircraft belonging to African Commuter Services crashed in Busia area thereby resulting in the death of Labour Minister the NARC government and injuring many prominent personalities including Ms Martha Karua and Lady Justice Martha Koome.
The ill-fated Gulfstream plane was heading to Nairobi after a visit by various prominent personalities to former Vice President Mr Moody Awori’s Busia home.
As a result of that accident, KCAA through Mr. Kuto, cancelled the operating license of African Commuter Services. The Muthoga Commission blamed the tragic accident on human error poor condition of the Busia airstrip.
Later on, the Airline (African Commuter Services) took KCAA to court for loss of business due to what it thought was unprocedural cancellation of their license.
The Court agreed with African Commuter Services and awarded them Sh1 billion against KCAA for loss of business. This was because KCAA, under Mr. Kuto, did not contest the matter in Court or had put in a very weak defence.
The most shocking issue is that Mr. Kuto upon leaving KCAA allegedly became the “Chairman of the same airline, African Commuter Services”.
This was the very airline that took KCAA to court under Mr. Kuto’s watch. The liability to KCAA arising from the court ruling now stands at Sh1.2 billion.
KCAA is yet to pay because they have appealed against the award to Court of Appeal.
How then can Mr. Kuto be appointed to the Board of KCAA when he is alleged to be the Chairman of an airline which is demanding Sh1.2 billion from KCAA?
This is a clear example of conflicts of interest. A reknown blogger already accused Mr Kuto of illegally transferring the KCAA land to Weston Hotel.
Third, to a lesser extent Mr. Kuto having served in KCAA as Director General should not have returned to the same Authority as a Board member because during his tenure he made what our sources indicate as “many enemies within and outside the Authority”.
As a result, employees he left in KCAA may have adverse feeling against him.
Cofek appeals to President Uhuru Kenyatta to order the Acting Cabinet Secretary for Transport and Infrastructure Mr James Macharia to immediately revoke Mr Chris Kuto’s appointment to the board of KCAA.
Our attempts to reach Mr James Macharia, acting CS for Transport and Infrastructure and KCAA Chairman Mr Samuel Poghisio were unsuccessful. Mr Macharia was said to be in a meeting while Mr Poghisio did not pick his call.
http://www.cofek.co.ke/index.php/news-and-media/1155-ruto-s-scandal-of-former-kcaa-dg-kuto-on-kcaa-board?showall=1&limitstart=
Thursday, April 2, 2015
MP wants DP Ruto investigated over bribery claims in Waiguru impeachment
By CAROLINE WAFULA
Deputy President William Ruto should be investigated over allegations of bribery that saw a motion to impeach Devolution cabinet secretary Anne Waiguru abort last year, Nyando MP Fred Outa said on Thursday.
The allegations are contained in the status report of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) which is the basis of ongoing investigations into alleged corruption.
According to the report, the Chief of staff in the office of the Deputy President Marianne Keittany diverted Sh100 million from the Legislative and Inter-Governmental Relations Office and used it to mobilise MPs in the campaigns to impeach the Devolution and Planning Cabinet Secretary in July last year.
Mr Outa said the report, however, only names Ms Keittany as culpable and leaves out the Deputy President under whose office the offence occurred.
“If people are stepping aside because of corruption, we cannot spare the Deputy President, he is a leader and he too should step aside in the spirit of collective responsibility because his office is implicated, there should be no sacred cows,” the MP said.
ON THE SPOT
Ms Keittany who has already stepped aside to allow investigations, is also on the spot for allegedly diverting Sh200 million to fund a campaign against one of President Kenyatta’s most trusted Cabinet Secretaries.
Mr Outa, a Cord MP, argued that since the motion aborted, it means the office of Deputy President succeeded in its mobilisation strategy hence possible bribery of MPs during the time should be investigated.
“There is a blanket condemnation of all members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Agriculture Committee in this report yet no mention of all MPs with regard to the allegations that Sh100 million was used to mobilise them during the Waiguru motion,” he said.
“Truly the motion was defeated and this means all the MPs were compromised, which then means that the entire Parliament should also step aside so that the truth is known,” he argued.
The impeachment motion against Ms Waiguru was filed by Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi who developed cold feet and went missing at the last minute when the motion came up for debate on the floor of the National Assembly.
GROSS MISCONDUCT
He wanted Parliament to force President Uhuru Kenyatta to dismiss the CS in line with Article 152 (6) of the Constitution, over alleged gross misconduct and gross violation of the Constitution.
Mr Linturi, a Jubilee MP, had managed to collect over100 signatures from MPs in support of the motion, surpassing the 88 constitutional threshold required to impeach a CS. He had accused the CS of allegedly misusing her office and violating the law by abusing, intimidating and threatening public servants under her docket.
The motion was, however, lost after the MP failed to show up on the day when it was due for debate.
On Monday, former Prime Minister and Cord leader Raila Odinga poked holes in the EACC report said one of the country’s highest office holder’s had been left out.
Mr Odinga said the President had deliberately left out sacred cows in the presidency,’ further questioning why the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IIEC) officials were left out for instance.
“There can’t be corruption of this magnitude without the highest priest of the country knowing. Everyone knows the high priest and he is not in the list of shame,” he said at the Eka hotel along Mombasa road after arrival from a foreign trip.
Mr Outa also said that the Devolution Cabinet Secretary should as well be investigated over the same.
http://www.nation.co.ke/news/politics/MP-wants-Ruto-to-step-aside/-/1064/2674240/-/wqh6ggz/-/index.html
Is William Ruto A Dead Man Walking?
by kenyanentrepreneur on January 8, 2008
I was watching this guy William Ruto throughout the campaign and thinking that there was something very eery about him. There he was talking about change and human rights as if nobody in the country knew what his background was. So, who is William Ruto? Let’s see:
Before 1992, Ruto used to idle around the Hilton Hotel, jobless. The Youth for Kanu ‘92 gave him a lifeline. With Cyrus Jirongo, they devoured on millions of stolen money to campaign for Kanu. And when he got a chance to join the government, Ruto went on a looting spree, almost bankrupting the Kenya Pipeline. This is the man Raila had designated to be Kenya’s Prime Minister!
Now, this man is being singled out as one of the masterminds behind the violence in the rift valley. A pattern seems to be emerging here. I now believe that the same people who planned the land clashes in 1992 and 1997 are the same one’s who planned the violence last week. In 1992 and 1997, Moi and Biwott were in power and these people were able to get away with it. However, times have changed and this is why I think there has to be retaliation. They got away with it twice (in ’92 & ’97) and it emboldened them; and if you let them get away with it again, they will repeat this same pattern of violence in 2012. At this point, I really believe that Kibaki has a moral obligation, {especially to those 50 women and children who were burnt alive in that church} to go after and eliminate, the funders and organizers of this ethnic cleansing campaign.
So, as I was writing this post, I thought about the Israeli model of vengance. The Israeli’s have a special assasination unit called the “Kidon”. The Kidons are made up of men from Israel’s armed forces, whose job is to find and eliminate anyone who plans or funds activities that kill Jews. If you watched the movie Munich, which was based on a true story of how Israeli avenged the deaths of 18 olympic athletes who were killed at the 1972 olympics in Germany, you’d know that the people who carried out those reprisals came from a specialized Kidon unit.
If you’ve read books on the Israeli Mossad (& I think I’ve pretty much read all of them), you’d know that they just don’t put together a Kidon unit in a willy nilly fashion. They begin by selecting the best recruits from their armed services and they put them through a battery of physical and mental tests (IQ tests, psychological tests, physical fitness tests, etc, etc) – because of the sensitive and high stakes nature of these operations, they want to make sure that the people recruited into these units will:
1) Have a very high level of success in carrying out their mission {and}
2) Will not get caught ; or even if there is suspicion, nothing will be traced back to them.
Once the Israeli government identifies a group of Arabs that they want eliminated, they activate a Kidon Unit and send them to work. Now, some may argue that the violence in Israel is still going on, but without those Kidons, it would have been much, much, worse. The real purpose of the Kidons is to avoid engaging in mass killings of innocent civilians and to let future perpetrators know that if they continue to fund these activities, they will pay a price with their lives.
Kibaki needs to create a Kidon unit that will identify and eliminate the perpetrators and funders of this continued violence in the rift valley. He cannot let them get away with this because they will do it again (they’ve done it 3 times already). However, if the raid on the Standard was any indication of how the CID operates, they’ll need to do a lot more training.
In closing, I will say this: William Ruto is a very cocky man. He corruptly obtained wealth and power at quite a young age, he was protected by Moi for many years and he still thinks he’s untouchable. I’d be a very worried man if I were him right now.
Winning the War on Corruption in Kenya Made Easy
By: Mr. Lyria Martin
[ Posted On: 2015-08-10 ]
Even as Kenyans debate merits of the recent Auditor general’s report on the financial statements for the year 2013/14, they should be cognizant of the existence of a plethora of players with differing motives for engaging in the fight against bribery and embezzlement of public resources. While some of the players focus their effort in frustrating the administration of justice, other players are forced to engage in corruption by circumstances imposed on them by the state. Greater success could be achieved by focusing scarce national resources in implementing policies and programs which enable this last group of players to practice what they preach. This requires an appreciation for the view that corruption is merely a symptom of other disorders which would have to be eliminated from society if the war is to be won.
With no evidence of institutionalized corruption having been part of any Kenyan tribal culture, the case may be that the new way of life introduced to Kenya by colonialism delivered the plague which manifests itself as corruption. Money and jobs were used as a means of buying loyalty to an oppressive regime. But even long after those oppressive regimes were gone, the plague didn’t go away. As the traditional social structures were eroded by the modernity of capitalism, their role was taken over by the government which employed many civil servants. As to be expected, loyalty and responsibility to the worker’s families takes precedence over loyalty and responsibility to their government. So, as the public wages become less competitive, corruption increased proportionally. How well is a police constable in Kenya expected to support an average family of four with a monthly net income of one hundred and seventy sterling pounds? A basket of food is the same price in Kenya as in the United Kingdom where the average annual salary of a police officer is eight times higher. The sooner those leading the war on graft realize that everyone in this connected, globalized world has the same dreams and aspirations, the better the results of the fight against dishonesty and fraud will be.
There are two forms of viruses that cause corruption: one of them is greed, the other being unmet obligations to family. Pouring more money in combating corruption using the same old tactics is less effective than when the resources are directed into containing the root causes of corruption. As Kenyans welcome the promised assistance from the United States of America towards the fight against corruption, there is a dire need for change of strategy so as to create a sustainable solution and avoid a repeat of past failures. Even without external assistance, Kenya can still do more by employing greater creativity in making greed very unattractive. For instance, as the National Youth Service (NYS) is expanded across the country, it can be used for construction of standardized detention facilities / jail houses which provide ample space and decency to inmates and suspects of various crimes. With basic amenities such as a bed and bathroom facilities for each resident being provided, there would be reduced desire to bribe law enforcement or judicial officers to avoid spending time in any of Kenya’s current detention facilities which are devoid of human decency.
The miserable salaries paid to junior and middle level public officers in Kenya means that they are unable to meet most of the basic needs of their families, to whom they owe their number one allegiance. As a result, some of them, in collaboration with greedy senior public officers, engage in theft of public resources to meet their needs. But until Kenya’s economy has grown bigger and faster, it is illogical to expect the salaries of civil servants to be anywhere close to those paid in the United Kingdom whose GDP per capita is thirty-two times higher than Kenya’s. The government can however opt to have a smaller public service which is better paid and motivated while contracting other services to the private sector for greater efficiency in service delivery. They can use the services of NYS to provide affordable, decent housing for public officers (including police officers) across the country. Kenyans can vote to introduce mandatory two year internship through the NYS for young Kenyans wishing to join the civil service to bridge the financing of better remuneration of public officers. They can resolve to provide free secondary and tertiary education for the immediate dependents of our civil servants to compensate for their low incomes. Without employing creative means of enabling the officers to meet their duties to families and friends, it would be naive to expect them not to try illegal means of meeting those needs. The state would again waste valuable, scarce resources investigating cases of alleged corruption only to suspend those implicated and then have them troop be back in public offices shortly afterwards.
Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard
WILLIAM S.K. RUTO & ANOTHER VS ATTORNEY GENERAL – CRIMINAL CASE 973/2004 & 1606/2004
CHIEF MAGISTRATE’S COURT – KIBERA
CHIEF MAGISTRATE GILBERT MUTEMBEI
Section of Ngong Forest
Background
Public records, news reports by the Daily nation, East African Standard, and the Star, all provide a lot of insight into this criminal fraud case involving William Ruto et al., regarding over thirty pieces of plots of land within the gazetted Ngong Forest.
The background to this case is directly traced to 1995, when an ambitious 28 year old William Ruto, would easily walk into State House, leaving later with allocation letters to several prime plots of land worth multiple millions of shillings. This was the payback season for William Ruto’s colourful stint as executive officer of YK92 during former President Moi’s 1992 re-election campaign.
The youthful and eloquent mobilizer was now being elevated up Moi’s political and patronage ladder. He had already been appointed into the board of Kenya Times Media Trust (KTMT) as a Director. Ruto was precisely grooming himself into a parliamentary candidate for the Eldoret North seat in 1997, promising to co-mobilize youthful Nandi support for Moi’s last re-election campaign.
But there was one problem. Ruto needed a lot of cash to challenge Moi’s own wealthy Tugen cousin, the late Reuben Chesire for the seat. It is probably the mad rush by Ruto to quickly mobilize campaign capital between 1995 and 1997 that likely got him in this current criminal conundrum. The swift appetite to convert public land into quick cash, more than a decade ago, is what is haunting Ruto today.
Land laundering companies
The almost universal (but not sophisticated) method of hiding land transactions from public eye is to have initial land allocations made to companies, rather than individuals directly using their names. Ruto did the same thing. Many of these companies would appear to have been purposefully formed with the intention to later defraud firms and unsuspecting buyers through fictitious sale transfers.
Ruto registered land allocated to him under many company names. A public search at the Registrar’s office would later reveal that some of these companies listed Ruto himself as director, while others had proxies listed on his behalf – family (like Hellen Samoei) or close aides and friends like Silas Simatwo or Paul Chirchir.
Some of Ruto’s land deal companies include; Somog Ltd, Oseng properties, Rose Star Properties, Celtic Multisystems Ltd, Orterter Properties, Berke Commercial Agencies, Matiny Ltd, among others.
Preparing for the general elections between 1995 and 1997, William Ruto secured a lot of land allocation letters (some under the company names listed above), quickly paid rates and fees then registered the land.
Ruto would then use two methods to mobilize liquidity (a) using these plots as collateral to get loans from either government owned banks or political allied banks – many which later collapsed (b) coercing government parastatals (state corporations) to ‘buy’ these plots at exorbitant prices.
According to the Star newspaper, one of Ruto’s jointly owned companies, Rosestar Properties, became one of Trust Bank’s largest debtors when it collapsed. Trust Bank, owned by Ajay Shah and other politically connected allies of the Moi era, collapsed in 1998 with close to Ksh12 billion belonging to ordinary depositors. Ruto got another Ksh 50 million loan from City Bank using yet another allotted land plot as collateral. Ruto had relative success in securing loans ranging from modest amounts to huge multi-million shilling credits.
High value prime plots allotted to Ruto dot the entire country, ranging from Nairobi (Ngong Forest, Upper Hill, Jogoo Road…), Eldoret, Mau forest, Uasin Gishu, Coast province and others. Ruto has until very recently tried to sell back to government, for Ksh 1.2 billion shillings, one of these plots, LR No 209/13332, covering 0.871ha in Nairobi’s Community area at Upper Hill.
Through this latter method is how the Ngong Forest land case came in. An increasingly confident and aggressive Ruto found, as his campaigns approached, a sitting cash cow in the parastatal Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC).
Ruto sought to predate KPC’s finance kitty by dumping to them his forestland plots registered under veiled company names such as Berke, Somog, and Celtic Multisystems, while other friends of his including Silas Mwaita and Joshua Kulei joined in the feast with their own companies like Priority Ltd and Sovereign Group.
It is good to note that records of some of the companies that benefited from the Ngong Forest land transactions have since inexplicably disappeared from the Office of the Registrar of Companies.
Read more: http://jukwaa.proboards.com/thread/4939?page=2#ixzz3jjeOHYXp
William Ruto as the youthful Director of Kenya Times Media Trust (KTMT)
To crown rewards for co-managing the YK92 campaigns for former President Moi’s 1992 re-election, William Ruto had been appointed Director of KTMT, a job he took up with reckless zeal and enthusiasm. Ruto saw KTMT as nothing more than a cash cow for personal milking.
Under KTMT, alongside other YK 92 operatives like current Naivasha MP, John Muthotho, several assets held by KTMT on behalf of then ruling party KANU, disappeared. William Ruto saw KTMT as an opportunity vehicle for taking out loans never to be repaid. He quickly enriched himself through this route.
While Ruto was still a Director at Kenya Times Media Trust (KTMT), he audaciously deposited the Title Deed of KICC – a national Treasure – as collateral for a Kshs 400 million loan, taken from Trans National Bank. This loan money went directly into the pockets of William Ruto and his allies. As with the rest of the loans taken by Ruto and other patronage benefactors of the Moi era, they were never meant to be paid back.
Based on the defaulted Kshs 400 million KTMT loan (in Ruto’s pocket), Trans National Bank, armed with the collateral – Title Deed for KICC – initiated plans to sell KICC. Knowing very well this would have attracted humongous public outrage, Ruto quickly sought to replace the KICC Title Deed, with other Title Deeds of value close to Kshs 400 million, which he was quickly going to ‘manufacture’.
Requesting president Moi for land allotment letters
While other requests for plots were more general, there was one particular plea by William Ruto to the President that was more urgent. To sort out the KICC Title Deed conundrum, Ruto had to seek urgent land allotment letters to start processing replacement Title Deeds. It had to be land of high value, located in a prime area, most likely within Nairobi.
Hiving off part of Ngong Forest right next to Karen, registering the land, and preparing Title Deeds for the plots, had to be done immediately. This is how William Ruto urgently approached then president Moi, and then Environment and Natural Resources Minister and Mosop MP, John Sambu, in 1995 with requests for these specific plot allocations (at the edge of Karen) knowing in advance this was still gazetted forest land (Ngong Forest Reserve).
In other words, Ruto was consciously obtaining these plots by FALSE PRETENCE. A gleaming Ruto’s adrenaline must have been pumping as he thought about the extra prospect of having even more of the Ngong Forest land remaining for other uses – such as selling to Kenya Pipeline Company later. The youthful exuberance and arrogance from then 29 year old Ruto was becoming problematic, as it is today revealed 16 years later.
Privately registering forest (public) land
With callous impunity prevalent in the Moi era, a total of 33 plots, some going to Ruto’s newly formed companies, were hived off the GAZETTED Ngong Forest. Ruto did not seem bothered by the illegality of being allocating gazetted forest land which had not been excised. His single focus was to prepare dud Titles of Forest Land to be used to sort out the lingering Trans National Bank – KICC question.
In retrospect, it seems there may have been a casual assumption from the benefactors that gazettement would be effected later. It was never done. The only subsequent effort made in an attempt to cover up their tracks was to alter the Forest boundaries through a Legal Notice No. 79 of June, 18th, 1996, through the then Minister for Environment and Natural Resources, John Sambu .
Boundary Plan No. 175/364 at the Survey of Kenya showed that the Notice excluded 82 hectares from the Forest. However, the 28 days Notice requirement was not published before the Legal Notice thereby making the Legal Notice No. 79 void. This botched cover-up attempt can therefore not stand any worthy legal test in a court of law. It neither amounted to legal excision nor degazettment of the forest.
Armed with the allotment letters for plots in Ngong Forest , William Ruto proceeded to the then Lands Department, paid statutory premiums and rates, got clearance certificates (for respective plots under different companies), had stamp duty assessed, and with just modest delay, eventually got ‘Title Deeds’ on these plots of gazetted forest land.
It is instructive to note that since the time of allocations, William Ruto had been patiently banking that his allies, Sammy Mwaita (now MP Baringo Central and Ruto’s co-accused), and land-cartel lord Wilson Gachanja, were to respectively hold forte as Commissioner(s) of Lands.
Ruto’s bet (which actually materialized) was that the Commissioner of Lands would later willfully ABUSE OFFICE, ignoring the fact that these plots were still part of gazetted forest land, and brazenly cook up functional ‘Title Deeds’ for commercial use.
The patronage networks of the Moi era infiltrated not just the office of the Commissioner of Lands, but also other departmental offices including that of the Chief Lands Registrar, Director of Survey, Chief Valuer, and many others. This is how Title Deeds were able to be issued to Ruto et al., on Forest land not yet excised.
The Commissioner of Lands, Sammy Mwaita himself was also a beneficiary of the same plots in question. Any Magistrate or Judge should have no problem appreciating the corrupt nature of these offices and how easy they could produce questionable Title deeds.
Partially clearing with Trans National Bank
Court proceedings now reveal that a number of Title Deeds (from the Ngong Forest land) were deposited at Trans National Bank to replace the single title deed for KICC earlier deposited by Kenya Times Media Trust. The bank later sold these plots to recover part of its money, making Ksh206.3 million from the sale.
It is not clear whether the balance was written off as a loss or negotiated for resettlement terms. This is how Ruto stopped the impending sale of KICC by Trans National Bank, and freeing its Title Deed.
Predating a coerced buyer (Kenya Pipeline Company)
Notwithstanding the lingering gazettment question, William Ruto was daringly still planning to fraudulently sell some of the irregularly acquired forest plots to another unsuspecting third party for hefty sums. Thanks again to Moi era patronage, Ruto had another thing working for him in this conspiracy.
He was banking on a ready buyer for his plots, in the parastatal Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC), steered through then KPC Managing Director, Linus Cheruiyot, and KPC Company Secretary, Mary Kiptui. The deal only needed to rope in KPC Finance Manager, Hellen Njue, who had absolutely no powers to object to these transactions.
Let it not be lost to anyone that KPC, a government parastatal, could have received government land FOR FREE if it really needed any. It could have requested land for public use (laying pipes or building reserve tanks) without problem, but here was Ruto coercing KPC to ‘buy’ land from him – plots that were still gazetted forestland, which Ruto just pretended to obtain from government.
Another minor conflict-of-interest detail – one of Ruto’s plot beneficiary-companies at Ngong Forest, Somog Ltd, also had Mr Linus Cheruiyot (KPC MD) as one of its Directors. Thus the KPC MD was steering his employer KPC to buy land from a company he co-owned with Ruto (Somog).
The illegal payments (fraud)
With the then MD, Company Secretary, and Finance Manager all roped in the transaction, bolstered by a board filled by Moi era cronies, it is not difficult to see why KPC at that time was never enthusiastic about conducting any serious due diligence on these plots they were purportedly buying. After all, the KPC MD was a co-owner in some of the plots.
What quickly transpired was a string of memos attached to vouchers originating from the then Company secretary Mary Kiptui, sent to the then Finance Manager Hellen Njue, with approval from then MD Linus Cheruiyot.
As in most shady deals, even the internal company regulations regarding the payments were flouted. Not all signatories for verification and certification had signed the vouchers to warrant these payments. The then KPC internal auditor was sealed out from the deal completely. Even the manner the payments was done was illegal.
In a short time, KPC had paid out Kshs 272,273,100.00 to the land companies owned by William Ruto, Joshua Kulei, Sammy Mwaita and their allies, through a couple of law firms; Nyaudi, Tuiyot, Ruth Karanja and Kajwang & Kajwang Advocates.
Ruto alone is accused of fraudulently accepting from the KPC Finance Manager (through the law firms via his companies) at least Ksh96 million in three separate payments). Mr Kulei on the other hand is accused of stealing Ksh58.7 million from KPC. Kulei has basically acknowledged receipt of the cash and offered to pay back KPC in an out of court settlement worked through the Attorney General’s office.
Keep in mind that in such transactions, the sale agreement should always be part of the documentation accompanying the payment voucher at KPC. I think that KPC finance officers and the prosecution should easily tell who signed the sale agreement for each respective plot deal. In a real court, not a Kangaroo circus, the law firms can be compelled (through subpoenas) to disclose (under court terms) where the funds from KPC went.
Cash trail
For the record, Ruto says he was a mere actor, not benefactor, in these fraudulent transactions. But detangling this simple maze exposes Ruto as a direct benefactor. Having benefited from a Kshs 400 million loan taken from Trans National Bank through Kenya Times Media Trust, and dumping illegal Titles to the land market is outright fraud.
The money trail can be looked and both backwards and forwards, in which cases Ruto benefited both upfront (from Trans National Bank), and down the line (from KPC). In this case, the cash trail starts at Trans National Bank, where Kshs 400 million was doled out for Ruto’s use. The rest of the transactions involving obtaining money by falsely pretending to be selling land to KPC, yielded another whooping Kshs 96 million, passed through law firms, into accounts held by companies directly registered under Ruto’s names or allies (Berke Commercial Agencies, Celtic Multisystems and Somog Limited). This is incorrigible theft from both the public and private entities.
William Ruto himself has previously testified to a parliamentary committee, and KACC, that Berke Commercial Agencies Ltd was his firm, besides being listed as one of its Directors. Records from the Registrar of Companies shows that Somog Limited, has listed as shareholders/Directors – ruto’s aide, Justus Kiptanui Koskei, Ruto’s next of kin, Hellen Samoei, and Ruto’s other firm, Africa Merchant Assurance Company Ltd (AMARCO) whose Directors are: Hon. William Ruto, close aide Mr. Silas Simatwo, other allies, Mr. Francis Kipruto Tuiyott, Mrs. Amina Omari, and former KPC Managing Director, Mr. Linus Cheruiyot).
The other beneficiary from Kenya Pipeline funds (via the Ngong land transactions) is Celtic Multisystems Ltd – where Ruto’s close aide Silas Simatwo represents his interest. In total, about half a billion shillings came in William Ruto’s direction starting from the Trans national bank loan to the KPC heist.
KPC fights back
Upon the exit of Mr Cheruiyot as KPC Managing Director and an end to a long code of silence, KPC sought to transfer and consolidate the plots they had purportedly purchased in Ngong Forest. KPC appointed a surveyor M/ s Geometer Surveyors Ltd. who established that the land had not been degazetted in the first place.
Due to ‘circumstances surrounding the ownership’, in 2003/2004 financial year, KPC declared the entire sum paid for the plot purchases, Kshs. 291 million, as a contingent loss, but vowed to legally claim it back.
KPC first instituted a criminal suit against the former Commissioner of Lands in the Ministry of Lands and settlement, Sammy Mwaita, for abuse of office contrary to section 101(2) of the Penal Code (Cap 63) Laws of Kenya. Mwaita is charged with abuse of office for purpose of gain, specifically because he arbitrarily consented to the transfer of gazetted land to KPC, an act which was prejudicial to KPC.
KPC also filed a criminal case against Hon. William Ruto, Joshua Kulei, and four companies; Berke Commercial Agencies, Priority Limited, Celtic Multisystems and Somog Limited. On top of that, the company (KPC) finally commenced proceeding for recovery of the money through a separate civil suit at Milimani Court.
Ruto and Mwaita dig in politically
Pointedly, Mwaita and Ruto, past beneficiaries of political patronage (including legal protection), calculated that the best avenue to secure protection from prosecution would be through political patronage. To buy time while working the politics, Ruto and allies first petitioned the Attorney General in a time-dragging constitutional suit alleging violation of their fundamental rights.
Both Ruto and Mwaita had to meanwhile win parliamentary seats in 2007, and Ruto had to stake claim for a high national position in government. This way, the sanitization process would be guaranteed. The ODM MoU had planned for Ruto to be appointed Prime Minister under an ODM government led by Raila Odinga. Ruto’s rush to jump to the top was principally motivated by the need for protection from prosecution. It was never to be, despite Ruto’s massive efforts, before and after elections, to realize his dreamt ascendancy into the Premiership.
Part of those ‘massive’ efforts may have landed Ruto in more trouble with even more powerful justice systems. It was therefore not unexpected that after the NARA power-sharing deal, through which Ruto ended up as Agriculture Minister, one of his earliest undertakings was to approach the then Justice and Constitutional Minister, Martha Karua, for a political horse-trading deal, where his KPC fraud case would be ‘Killed off’ in exchange for political favours.
Karua not only rejected the overtures, but publicly revealed the embarrassing details of Ruto’s impunity-loaded attempt to subvert justice. Ruto’s solid determination to secure political protection over this case had to involve going directly to the PNU leadership, through his newfound ally Uhuru Kenyatta.
That Ruto has made several trips to State House, and even dragged the president to a rally in Eldoret a few weeks ago, is not in doubt. Ruto has publicly requested that this Ngong Forest case be quickly ‘decided’ by the Judiciary, essentially meaning, disposed off.
Chief Magistrate Gilbert Mutembei has actually promised to wind up the ongoing case in exactly fourteen days. Anyone not sensing a predetermined case of Ruto’s sanitization, where he would be found not-guilty could be missing something big here.
What Martha Karua couldn’t offer to Ruto is hereby being handed right before our eyes by Kibaki and his new unilaterally appointed Judiciary.
Ruto’s lawyer Kilukumi
Following the KKK rally at 64 Stadium Eldoret, and shortly after Kibaki’s unilateral nominations to the Judiciary, the trajectory of this case against Ruto and others, completely changed.
Principal State Counsel Vincent Wohoro, currently prosecuting the case against Ruto, Mwaita and Kulei, must have been baffled and worried upon learning that he will shortly be expected to report to his opposite in this case, standing for defense, lawyer Kioko Kilukumi, as his new boss – the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The soon-to-be boss Kilukumi quickly withdrew from the case to make his approval and confirmation (under acrimonious conditions) a bit easier. It is quite easy to predict that in Chief Magistrate Gilbert Mutembei’s court, the prosecution has already been dealt the final blow, by appointing Ruto’s defense lawyer as its new boss.
The boss-in-waiting (Kilukumi) is watching this case of HIS from the sidelines – where a timid (failing) prosecution is now expected to ensue. That is how might be sanitized and freed from this legal burden that threatens to end the Eldoret North MP’s political career, given terms of the new constitution.
Some interesting case details
In view of the above developments, the case details may be of little consequence or significance. Prosecution has tabled a lot of evidence and presented testimonies which may not matter anymore, thanks to political and executive intervention into this matter.
It has been revealed:
(a) THAT THERE WAS NO DEGAZETTMENT OF FOREST LAND
The law is clear that for forest land to be available for lease, conveyance or public use, it must first be degazetted.
(i) The Chief Conservator of Forests, Gideon Gathaara, has testified that the Legal Notice No. 79 of 1997, allegedly removing 82 hectares of land in Ngong forest, was based on a non-existent boundary plan. He stated that as of June 10th, 2003, the land in question had not been degazetted and was still under management of Forest Department.
(ii) Benson Kakucha Mbwagwa – Director of Physical Planning stated that to prepare development plans, a request has to be received from Commissioner of Lands in writing, attaching a notice of degazettment of the forest, which was not done in this case precisely because no degazettment had been done, hence no degazettment notice.
(iii) Peter Kamwara – Head of Survey & Mapping (Forest Dept), stated not only the fact that there had been no degazettment, but also that there was no formal subdivision of the said land into private plots – yet companies were producing Titles registered as private land.
(iv) David Mbubua – Chief Conservator Karura Forest stated that the Titles issued to Ruto et al., were “unknown to government” and that the Ngong Forest Reserve was still gazetted.
(b) A TITLE DEED IS RENDERED INVALID IF IT IS HELD IN FOREST LAND
Even before this case reached Chief Magistrate Mutembei’s court, a constitutional bench sitting at the High Court opined that – In James Joram Nyaga V The Hon. The AG and another 1732/09, “the court upheld the doctrine of public trust, that any land alienation made contrary to the provisions of the constitution was unconstitutional. That the constitution is the supreme law of the land and the Commissioner of Lands cannot purport to pass any Title to Land under the Government Lands Act.”
Following the prosecution witness testimony, unless sitting in a Kangaroo court, Chief Magistrate Mutembei should find that – Titles were issued without due process being followed, through commission of crimes, such as abuse of office.
(c) THAT PRESIDENTIAL DISCREETION IN LAND ALLOCATION CAN BE QUESTIONED
Ruto’s defense argument that Presidential discretion in land allocation cannot be questioned, was thrown out by the constitutional court, which clearly affirmed that Presidential discretion cannot be invoked to aid criminal acts or break the constitution.
The constitutional court opined that – if the allocating authority allocated forest land without following laid down laws (including degazettment), then the whole process is flawed nullity ab inito and an illegality. No rights can accrue from an illegal process.
(d) RUTO’s DEFENSE IS ARGUING THAT CHARGES ON HIM ARE DEFECTIVE
Clasping on minor technicalities, Ruto’s defense argued (during the constitutional hearing) that charges against him are defective because the person named as complainant, Hellen Njue (former KPC Finance Manager), never recorded a statement with the police.
What motivation does Hellen Njue have to cooperate with either investigation or prosecution when:
GAZETTE NOTICE NO. 5262
THE COFFEE ACT (No. 9 of 2001)
THE COFFEE DEVELOPMENT FUND
APPOINTMENT
IN EXERCISE of the powers conferred by section 34 of the Coffee Act, 2001, the Minister for Agriculture appoints-
Zablon N’thamburi (Prof.),
Hellen Njue (Ms.),
Christopher Ombachi Gekara,
Alice Njoki Kamau,
Joseph Kipchumba Lagat,
To be members of the Board of Trustees for the Coffee Development fund, for a period of three (3) years, with effect from 29th April, 2009.
Dated the 21st May 2009.
WILLIAM ARAP RUTO,
Minister for Agriculture.
(e) RUTO WANTS THE GOVERNMENT TO BE THE ONE TO PAY KPC
Ruto’s defense argues that it is the government that made “errors” on land registration, therefore should be the one to “take responsibility” and pay KPC any losses. Even the constitutional bench found this argument laughable.
They opined that “if the allocating authority indeed gave out land without following the process laid out in the Forests Act, then the whole process is flawed nullity ab initio and an illegality”.
Therefore no rights or benefits or compensation can be accrued from an illegal process.
(f) JOSHUA KULEI’s PULLOUT
Joshua Kulei and his Sovereign Group of Companies, having benefitted from Kshs 58.7 million through the fraudulent sale to KPC, opted to voluntarily settle the matter outside court, in a plea bargain to be mediated by the Attorney General Amos Wako.
Kulei was to pay KPC back and participate in the trial of Ruto and others, as a prosecution witnesses, thereby confessing and giving evidence against his former co-conspirators William Ruto, Sammy Mwaita and others.
(g) RED FLAGS
Chief Magistrate Gilbert Mutembei declined the AG’s request FOR Joshua Kulei’s plea bargain above, basically saying the court will not be slowed down in its speedy zeal to dispose this case quickly, as was publicly requested by Ruto.
Chief Justice Mutembei essentially denied Kulei’s confessions and insider-testimony against Ruto.
(h) QUESTIONABLE WITNESSES
It is quite a comedy watching questionable witnesses retract their own statements, others blatantly pretending not to remember what transpired a few years back while they were in office. One witness made a dramatic U-turn on the question whether the land in question was part of the forest or not.
Another one, a valuer and obviously a very critical conspirator in the deal, was found to have updated his valuation report, seven months later, increasing the number of plots from 28 to 32. Impunity was very much present in court with the said witness, testifying about how valid this process was.
WHAT IS YOUR VERDICT?
Be the Judge in this Kangaroo Court, formed to sanitize and rebrand William Ruto, in readiness for the next political hatchet job on behalf of PNU and the lords of impunity
Read more: http://jukwaa.proboards.com/thread/4939?page=2#ixzz3jjg423dJ
I was born in 1999 and will be eligible to vote in 2017. What beats me is how much corruption baggage William Ruto carries yet I have always believed in him as a leader who gives hope. Now I am questioning this because looking ahead, how will he lead Kenya as president in 2022 with such a rotten background? These allegations date way back before I was born and we are now stuck with him: a man without integrity or morals.
God help Kenya!
William Ruto the most corrupt in kenya.
Mystery of Ruto’s wealth : How Ruto joined the millionaire’s club
Posted on 22 April, 2007
He was a struggling 30 year old. Then somebody took him to State House one afternoon in 1997. When he went home in the evening, he had eight prime plots worth over Shs 50 million. He has never looked back and is today worth hundreds of millions.
For presidential candidate William Samoei Ruto, the big break in the world of big money and mega deals must have come on Wednesday, December 3, 1997.
This particular Wednesday must hold special significance to Ruto for it is the day he accomplished the hitherto impossible feat of getting himself allocated close to a dozen prime plots in Nairobi; all part of a single day’s work.
These plots were to become the financial launching pad for the ambitious but humbly-bred young man from Eldoret. Today, Ruto’s is a classic story of rags to riches. He may not be wealthy in the leagues of competitors such as Raila Odinga, Mwai Kibaki or Musalia Mudavadi but he is certainly not a poor man even when compared with the other lot of presidential candidates such as Kalonzo Musyoka, Najib Balala and Dr. Julia Ojiambo.
Ruto is a man whose wealth could be in the region of a hundred million plus, quite a Herculean feat for someone who started life with nothing but a burning ambition to succeed ‘no matter what at whatever the cost’.
There are two particular people who played the crucial determining role in showing the then inexperienced Ruto which side was up and which was down in the world of mega-deals – former President Daniel arap Moi and former cabinet minister Cyrus Jirongo. He has never looked back.
Jirongo’s role in the education of Ruto started when the two teamed up in 1992 to create the infamous Kanu youth lobby group YK ’92. Jirongo, as chairman of the then high-powered and on one of the few outfits that were willing to publicly stick their necks out for Moi’s re-election, had unlimited access to President Moi and enjoyed a place of honour at the high table.
Ruto, on the other hand, was a junior official in the outfit with little money and no high-level contacts of the kind Jirongo could marshal with a few phone calls.
But Ruto had something that Jirongo did not have. He had the patience, stealth, surreptitiousness and tenacity of a stalking leopard. Using Jirongo’s good rapport with President Moi, Ruto was bale to use the lobby group’s meetings with the president to worm his way to the head of state and to key state house operatives of the time, such as former presidential aide Joshua Kulei.
While Jirongo was fast, abrasive, impatient and raring to go, behind Ruto’s deceptively innocent looking exterior was a sly and shrewd operator whose calculating ways expressed itself in his curious, one could even say devious, sense of humour.
Ruto, for instance, chose rather interesting names for the companies he used to facilitate various land deals. Ruto’s main vehicle for land deals was Oseng Properties Limited. The name Oseng or osengeng is the Kalenjin for ‘these fools’. He had another firm that went by the name Orterter Enterprises Limited. Translated, orterter means ‘we must win’. Another of his operational firms went by the name Matiny Limited. In Kalenjin Matiny stands for ‘whatever the cost’.
These were some of the more creatively named companies that Ruto used to effectively climb the financial ladder.
Soon after the 1992 general elections, the fast paced Jirongo had, who like the fabled Daedalus and Icarus of Greek mythology had flown too close to the sun, had his wings melting. Ruto, together with a few other more calculating members of YK ’92, quickly distanced themselves from the falling Jirongo and besides helping twist the political knife stuck in Jirongo’s backside; Ruto and co. swiftly used the Jirongo crisis in Kanu to get even closer to the powers that be. By so doing they inched as near to the ultimate dispenser of public goodies – President Moi – as they could.
Significantly, today, Ruto hardly sees eye to eye with either of his mentors, Moi and Jirongo. In his determination to achieve an individual political identity and autonomy he has slowly sought new friends and considers politicians like the ODM supreme Raila Odinga, as more important to his political evolution.
Record plot allocations
It all started with the formation of a company that went by the name Oseng properties Limited early in 1997 where Ruto was listed as director and chairman of the company, with his business right hand man Paul K Chirchir acting as the company secretary.
Hardly had the registrar’s ink died on the company’s registration certificate than Oseng Properties Limited was in real business. The most active day for Oseng Properties was December 3rd 1997.
The day started with an application to president Moi by Oseng Properties fro allocation of a dozen or so prime commercial properties in the city’s plush suburbs and Ruto’s company’s given registration documents bearing the legend:
“Know all men by these presents that in consideration of the sum of shillings (relevant amount indicate) by way of stamp premium paid on or before the execution thereof, The president of the Republic of Kenya hereby grants unto Oseng Properties Limited all that piece of land situate in the City of Nairobi…..”
On that December day, Oseng Properties Limited and Orterter Enterprises were allocated at least eight plots whose total value was estimated to be in excess of Shs 50 million. Early the year that followed the companies were back in business. Two more plots were allocated on February 16 and another on two days later. On average Ruto’s companies paid the government between Shs 50,000 and Sh 280,000 for the plots as statutory dues.
The cash cow
It was these plots that he used a few days later to get millions of shillings from City Finance Bank Company and Ajay Shah’s collapsed trust Bank. Using some of these plots a s collateral, Ruto got some Kshs 50 million from City Finance bank on July 2nd 1998.
Then on November 24th 1998, he had another plot charged to the same fiannce company for Shs 7.5 million. The same property was later discharged and subsequently charged to Kenya Commercial bank for a loan of Shs 9.75 million.
It is certainly with the monies he got from these land dealings that Ruto was able to set himself in the world of business, and hence the world of the privileged.
Among his first business project was in the real estate initially with his erstwhile friend Cyrus Jirongo. Together they constructed a block of apartments in Ngong area sometimes in 1993 although Jirongo was the main financier for the project.
The value of the apartments, estimated to be worth at least Shs 50 million at the time, should have appreciated substantially by now and must be worth hundreds of millions. However, these apartments were later to lead to a bitter row between Ruto and Jirongo. It is not clear how the matter was ultimately settled but each party had accused the other of behaving dishonestly in the deal.
Years later Ruto would construct his own block of rental apartments along Jogoo road. The Jogoo Road apartments were estimated to be worth around Shs 50 million.
He was to diversify his line of business later and teaming up with some friends to set up an insurance company –AMACO- which did lucrative business during the last days of the Moi government. At the time Ruto had joined Moi’s inner core and had been elevated to a cabinet minister as he assisted Moi to promote project Uhuru where the former unsuccessfully tried t have Uhuru Kenyatta succeed him.
Not many others of Ruto’s businesses are in the public domain, but the aspiring ODM presidential candidate has obviously den well for himself. He has moved from a relatively poor man ten years ago to the multi-millionaire he is today with a palatial home in Karen, another equally opulent home in his rural Eldoret suburbs plus rent apartments, farms and other asserts.
Reporters, witnesses silenced ‘one by one’ with ICC link deadly in Kenya
People connected to the international court proceedings against Kenyan leaders are turning up dead
August 24, 2015 5:00AM ET
by Jonathan W. Rosen - @jw_rosen
ELDORET, Kenya — On the evening of April 30, John Kituyi, a veteran journalist and father of seven, stepped out of a bar at the edge of this dusty, high-altitude town and began walking down the dirt road toward his home.
As he did on many evenings, he stopped by the Eldoret Country Lodge to chat with friends over a bottle or two of Guinness. The visits were a regular antidote to his days spent editing The Mirror Weekly, an independent publication known for its investigative reporting into the politics of Kenya’s Rift Valley region.
Yet on this night, his friends and family say, Kituyi, 63, was uncharacteristically restless. In recent weeks he and other Eldoret-based journalists received a barrage of threats related to their coverage of the International Criminal Court’s case against the country’s deputy president, William Ruto. Four years earlier, Ruto, who is the Rift Valley’s most powerful politician, was one of six high-profile Kenyans summoned by the ICC. The six were asked to account for their alleged role in inciting the ethnic violence that followed Kenya’s disputed December 2007 election, which left up to 1,200 dead and 600,000 displaced. Since then, the court failed to confirm charges against two of the suspects and dropped the charges against two others, including President Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Kenya’s first postindependence leader and member of the historically dominant Kikuyu ethnic group. This left only Ruto and radio personality Joshua Sang, both ethnic Kalenjin, in the dock.
But as in the other cases, the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, struggled to compile evidence against Ruto and Sang. A critical mass of witnesses withdrew cooperation and recanted earlier testimonies due to what prosecutors and human rights groups alleged were threats, intimidation and acts of bribery. Although Kituyi and his small team of journalists were long on top of the story, by December 2014 the atmosphere in Eldoret, a Kalenjin-majority town of roughly 250,000, turned ominous. That month, a man named Meshack Yebei, allegedly a central figure in a plot by individuals close to Ruto to buy off prosecution witnesses, disappeared from his home in the nearby town of Turbo. Immediately, reporters in pursuit of the story began receiving warnings to back off. The threats resumed two months later after Yebei’s mutilated body was discovered more than 400 miles away in Kenya’s Tsavo National Park. Nonetheless, the journalists persisted. According to one former Mirror reporter, the paper was working on an in-depth exposé that probed the “faces behind witness interference,” including new details on the Yebei case.
The story, however, would never be published. Around 7:30 p.m., after watching the evening news, Kituyi stepped outside of the Country Lodge front gate, pursued — unbeknown to him — by two fellow patrons. Moments later, he lay bleeding on the side of the road, beaten by assailants who took his mobile phone and office keys but left behind his cash and watch.
Later that evening, Kituyi died at a local hospital. Former colleagues and the Committee to Protect Journalists, an international watchdog organization, say his murder was directly linked to his ICC reporting.
Nearly four months later, as investigations into his death continue, reporters and human rights activists say that other members of the press, as well as past and current witnesses, are in danger due to their connection to the court.
“Anyone who is perceived to be pro-ICC is seen as an enemy by the incumbent leadership,” said a journalist who has covered the cases and requested anonymity due to ongoing threats. “The ICC has become a silent killer.”
“After Kenya’s government failed to thwart the ICC proceedings by attempting to convince the court that justice could still be meted out in Kenya, the accused began to turn to politics.”
Back in November 2009, when then-ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo filed a request to initiate an investigation into Kenya’s postelection violence, few in the country could have imagined that the court proceedings would become such dangerous business.
That February, Kenya’s parliament rejected a bill that would have created a special tribunal to prosecute those bearing greatest responsibility for the 2007 violence. Instead, many MPs, including Kenyatta and Ruto, favored turning over to the ICC evidence that was produced by a national commission of inquiry. They believed the ICC process would stall for many years. In the halls of parliament, lawmakers adopted the phrase “Don’t be vague, go to The Hague” to show their preference for the international course of justice.
By January 2012, however, when the court issued charges against Ruto, Sang, Kenyatta and former head of civil service Francis Muthaura, the national rhetoric had shifted. The accusations, presented in two separate cases, were serious. In the first, prosecutors alleged that Ruto and Sang, both supporters in 2007 of presidential challenger Raila Odinga, mobilized Kalenjin youths in the vicinity of Eldoret to attack ethnic Kikuyu and others who voted for the eventual winner, Mwai Kibaki. In the second case, Kenyatta and Muthaura were accused of orchestrating retaliatory attacks against supporters of Odinga, spearheaded by members of a notorious Kikuyu gang known as the Mungiki. Underlying all of this, the ICC acknowledged, were deep-rooted tensions over land between the Kalenjin and Kikuyu communities.
After Kenya’s government failed to thwart the ICC proceedings by attempting to convince the court that justice could still be meted out in Kenya, the accused began to turn to politics. Despite being implicated on opposite sides of the 2007-2008 violence, Kenyatta and Ruto ran on a joint ticket in Kenya’s 2013 general election, campaigning on a platform that depicted the ICC as a tool of Western neocolonialism and their main opponent, Odinga, as a stooge of the court and foreign powers. To the alarm
of many of the country’s Western allies, the two emerged victorious. Unlike in 2007, the 2013 poll was largely peaceful — in part, analysts say, because joint opposition to the ICC drew most Kalenjin and Kikuyu voters together.
“This was a marriage of convenience, not conviction,” said John Seii, a former chairman of the Kalenjin Council of Elders, which represents the country’s roughly 5 million Kalenjin. “Kenyatta and Ruto said, ‘In order to demonstrate to the rest of the world that we have forgiven each other, why don’t we use this political platform?’ They did it, and they did it successfully.”
“Today, as the ICC trial of Ruto and Sang continues, Wafula said he believes those witnesses who recanted their testimony are being targeted for ‘elimination.’”
Although the new Kenyan government would pursue various diplomatic channels in an effort to have the cases halted, evidence suggests that Kenyatta and Ruto already employed more sinister means to thwart justice. In a pretrial brief made public this January in the withdrawn case against Kenyatta, ICC prosecutors list the names of eight Mungiki gang members who allegedly collaborated with Kenyatta and his allies to coordinate postelection attacks. According to prosecutors, they were then “systematically eliminated” through killings or forced disappearances before the start of the ICC process. The brief states that these tactics, along with the bribery of multiple ICC witnesses, were part of a “clean up campaign” to conceal Kenyatta’s involvement in the violence. In a statement released upon withdrawing the charges against Kenyatta, Bensouda, the chief prosecutor, noted that these efforts to “obstruct the path of justice” made it impossible to prove beyond a doubt Kenyatta’s alleged criminal responsibility.
The case against Ruto, who rose from a humble Rift Valley upbringing to become the country’s pre-eminent Kalenjin politician, has been marred by similar allegations. According to an ICC report this May, 16 of the original 42 prosecution witnesses in his case have withdrawn cooperation with the court, citing “threats, intimidation and/or fear of reprisals.” Several, in fact, have recanted statements they made to the prosecution. (Last week, in a blow to the Ruto defense, trial judges ruled that recanted statements from five witnesses will be allowed in court.) In August 2013, the court also issued an arrest warrant for a Kenyan journalist named Walter Barasa, alleging that he aimed to “corruptly influence” several prosecution witnesses to withdraw or recant incriminating testimony. According to the warrant, Barasa was part of an “identified network of individuals who have been working together to sabotage the Prosecution’s case against Messrs. Ruto and Sang.”
Although attorneys for Ruto and Sang have vehemently denied allegations of witness interference, Ken Wafula, the director of the Eldoret-based Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, who has worked closely with several witnesses in the case, paints a similarly damning picture. In an interview in his fourth floor office, overlooking market stalls and a stage jammed with idling matatu minibuses, Wafula described efforts by a core group of Ruto loyalists, including members of Kenya’s National Intelligence Service, to bribe and threaten key witnesses. Many, he said, remain in danger.
As Wafula said, the saga of Yebei, whose killing was being investigated by The Mirror Weekly, is particularly illustrative: Initially approached by the court as a potential witness, Yebei, the owner of a local computer college, told Wafula that he was recruited by Ruto’s network to coordinate the bribery of others set to testify, a role that’s been corroborated by the ICC. He was supposed to be paid $50,000 for his services. Despite carrying out the task, Yebei never received the bulk of the money and eventually approached Wafula in a quandary. Aware that he was under investigation by the ICC for his role in the scheme and feeling betrayed by those who failed to pay up, he began openly threatening to go to the court and expose the ringleaders behind the witness tampering. Instead, he wound up dead, with an eye gouged out and bullet wound to the neck. Another former witness in the case, Jonah Bureti, also disappeared in 2014 and has not been heard from since.
Today, as the ICC trial of Ruto and Sang continues, Wafula said he believes those witnesses who recanted their testimony are being targeted for “elimination.” This is due in part to fears that they could be forced to testify about witness tampering. In addition, the rights activist said, those responsible for stealing payments intended for Yebei and others may now wish to cover up their actions.
“When this money gets out of the deputy president, it’s shared between so many brokers,” Wafula said. “The people killing these witnesses might not necessarily be William Ruto himself.”
“Should the case, which will likely conclude sometime next year, fail to result in a conviction, many believe Kenya’s elites will take it as a sign that the country’s long-standing culture of impunity remains intact. ”
If there’s an irony in Wafula’s claims that the witnesses who have helped undermine the case against Ruto are now in the greatest danger, there is a paradox that has some Kenyans worried as the court moves slowly toward a verdict.
On the one hand, many in the country believe the ICC process played an important role in preventing violence during the 2013 election. That’s not only because opposition to the international body unified Kalenjin and Kikuyu, but also because Kenyatta and Ruto’s appearance before the court served as a deterrent. Should the case, which will likely conclude sometime next year, fail to result in a conviction, many believe Kenya’s elites will take it as a sign that the country’s long-standing culture of impunity remains intact. That mindset could raise the prospect of future political violence.
At the same time, however, others worry that a conviction of Ruto — and to a certain extent Sang — could prompt Kalenjin elites to withdraw support from the current government and lead to a resurgence of ethnic tensions in the Rift Valley. In this scenario, analysts fear, many Kalenjin would resent that only their leader was found guilty and even blame Kenyatta for failing to push harder for Ruto’s acquittal. That could lead some to scapegoat the local Kikuyu minority. Compounding this is the failure to address local disputes over land, which were a critical factor in the 2007 violence. That is a sticking point for many Kalenjin who resent Kikuyu encroachment into parts of the Rift Valley that they insist belonged to their community before the colonial period, when large tracts were inhabited by white settlers.
Seii, the Kalenjin elder, argued that unrest in the region is likely to fester until amends are made for past land displacements. Should there be a Ruto-Kenyatta “political divorce,” he said, the Rift Valley could “go back to square one.”
“Before Kituyi’s death, said a journalist covering the ICC cases, an individual close to the deputy president warned him that there were plans to kill reporters ‘one by one.’”
Yet in interviews, Kikuyu in the area expressed varying opinions of the Hague proceedings. A few miles outside town, on a compound shaded by lemon and avocado trees, neighbors Elizabeth Njeri and Lucy Wanjiku described their experience after the 2007 election. Kalenjin mobs of youths trucked in from out of town burned their houses, they said. When they returned to their land after several months in a camp for internally displaced people, they each received a simple mud-walled house, built by a foreign nongovernmental organization, and 10,000 Kenyan shillings ($100) in reparations from the Kenyan government. This, they insisted, was not nearly enough to regain their former standard of living, and they demanded that the government do more to help. Both said they consider the ICC of little relevance to their situation.
“We don’t care what happens in The Hague,” said Njeri, 55, as rain pounded the iron-sheet roof of Wanjiku’s house, which sits adjacent to the charred shell of the far more durable home her late husband built before the violence. “It won’t change the fact that we’re still suffering.”
Others, however, have a different take. Maina Mwangi, a Kikuyu based in Eldoret, also lost his home in the violence and is following the ICC proceedings closely. He worries there could be unrest should Ruto be convicted and says he’ll leave town before the decision is reached. But he’s hoping for a guilty verdict, which he said would bring a sense of vindication. Despite the cloud of witness interference that hangs over the court proceedings, Mwangi insisted, it’s not too late for the ICC to deliver justice.
Journalists in Eldoret, meanwhile, have pressed on with their coverage of the case despite the risks. Although The Mirror Weekly’s offices have been shuttered, at least one former staffer has continued to investigate the story of Yebei’s disappearance and, on top of it, the killing of his editor. Many other former Mirror reporters, he said, including several who went on to write for Kenya’s biggest dailies, consider Kituyi a mentor and hold out hope that his killers will be brought to justice.
All of this, however, remains highly dangerous business. Another reporter covering the ICC cases, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he now lives in a state of fear and has already survived one attempted assassination. Before Kituyi’s death, he added, an individual close to the deputy president warned him that there were plans to kill reporters “one by one.”
After Kituyi’s murder, the individual called him back.
“Take care,” the voice on the line told him. “We are going to kill another one before December.”
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/8/24/kenyas-dark-path-to-justice.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/11832364/Palestinian-women-wrestle-Israeli-soldier-off-injured-small-boy.html
http://jukwaa.proboards.com/thread/9405/palestinian-women-rescue
http://presstv.com/Detail/2015/09/01/427188/ISIL-daesh-ISIS-video-burns-alive-Iraq
DR Congo’s Bosco Ntaganda pleads not guilty at ICC trial
Former Congolese rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda has pleaded not guilty to all charges at the start of his war crimes trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague.
The 18 charges include murder, rape and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Evidence has been gathered from more than 2,000 alleged victims, including former child soldiers.
Nicknamed “The Terminator”, Gen Ntaganda’s trial is the biggest and most complex case in the ICC’s history.
He fought for different rebel groups as well as the Democratic Republic of Congo’s army.
He made his not guilty plea in a barely audible voice, standing in the dock with his signature pencil moustache, reports the BBC’s Anna Holligan from court.
The start of the trial was a historic moment for international justice and for the Democratic Republic of Congo, our correspondent adds.
The 41-year-old is accused of killing at least 800 civilians during separate attacks on a number of villages between 2002 and 2003.
He is also accused of raping girl soldiers and keeping them as sex slaves.
“Humanity demands justice for these crimes,” ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told the court.
Anna Holligan, BBC News, The Hague
The prosecutor used her opening statement to describe the experience of one witness in chilling detail. It was the aftermath of an attack on a village in the Ituri region of eastern DR Congo.
Ms Bensouda said the witness searched though a pile of bodies, and found his wife, toddler son and daughter, whose head was punctured and her throat slit. Then, he discovered his remaining two children who had been killed in the same way. He gathered the bodies of his family and buried them in a field.
According to the prosecutor, the rape and sexual enslavement of girls was so prevalent in Gen Ntaganda’s Union of Congolese Patriots (UCP) rebel army, that girls were referred to as “a large communal cooking pot” – commanders, she alleged, could pass the girls around and use them for sex whenever they pleased.
Human rights groups here in The Hague have celebrated Gen Ntaganda’s appearance, saying it is proof that even the most powerful leaders may one day be brought to justice.
In 2013, he handed himself in at the US embassy in the Rwandan capital, Kigali.
He had evaded capture for seven years after the ICC first issued warrants for his arrest.
Bosco Ntaganda was part of the UCP rebel group, led by Thomas Lubanga, who in 2014 became the only person convicted by the ICC.
Gen Ntaganda was one of the leaders of the M23 rebel movement, which had fought government troops until signing a peace deal in 2013.
Eastern DR Congo has suffered two decades of violence linked to ethnic rivalries and competition for the control of the area’s rich mineral resources.
Who is Bosco Ntaganda?
◾Born in 1973 in Rwanda
◾Fled to DR Congo as a teenager after attacks on fellow ethnic Tutsis
◾At 17, he begins his fighting days – alternating between being a rebel and a soldier, in both Rwanda and DR Congo
◾In 2006, indicted by the ICC for allegedly recruiting child soldiers in Ituri
◾In 2009, he is integrated into the Congolese national army and made a general
◾In 2012, he defects from the army, sparking a new rebellion which forces 800,000 from their homes
◾In March 2013, hands himself in to US embassy in Kigali
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34122613
Ruto always defends corruption and never apologized even after grabbing Muteshi’s land and tear-gassing School Pupils.
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Bensouda links Ruto’s allies to Kiambaa church attack that left 35 dead
By WALTER MENYA
More by this Author
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has accused former Kanu power broker Mark Too of involvement in the Kiambaa church attack during the 2007/8 post-election violence.
Ms Bensouda, in a response to Deputy President William Ruto’s and Joshua Sang’s motion, alleges that Mr Too was a member of the network set up by Mr Ruto to commit the crimes.
Defence teams for Mr Ruto and Mr Sang’ have filed motions requesting the Trial Chamber to find that there is no case to answer and to dismiss the charges against both and acquit them of the crimes against humanity charges they are being tried for in The Hague.
According to the prosecutor, other network members were Jackson Kibor, Farouk Kibet (Mr Ruto’s long-time personal aide), Christopher Kitino Kisorio, John K. Tanui, Isaac Maiyo, another Isaac Maiyo who has since passed on, Samuel Ruto, Solomon Tirop, Lucas Sang’, former Mt Elgon MP Fred Kapondi, Stephen Chemalan and Mr Sang’. This group, according to Ms Bensouda, formed a second-tier of the ad hoc hierarchy and as such reported to Mr Ruto.
The network, she said, played different roles within the organisation “but all pursued one common plan — to expel Kikuyus and other PNU supporters from the Rift Valley by whatever means necessary. They ensured that the network had political leadership, a media platform, necessary financial and logistical resources, as well as adequately trained manpower.”
In submissions dated November 26, 2015 by Ms Bensouda opposing the no-case-to answer motions, the prosecution also gives the alleged roles of the other network members.
However, the public document that was published on November 27 is heavily redacted and the actual roles of some alleged network members are blacked out.
“Mark Too was a wealthy Kalenjin farmer, who owned farms, livestock and lorries. He had once been an MP. Evidence confirms that Mr Ruto and Too knew each other prior to the PEV, and that their relations were good in 2007,” Ms Bensouda says in her application opposing Mr Ruto’s and Mr Sang’s request for termination of the case at this stage.
PLANNING
“The evidence establishes that the network — through the direct involvement of Mr Ruto and Kibor — orchestrated and directed the attack on Kiambaa with the help of local network member Mark Too. Once again the organised pattern of the attack — including the significant number of armed Kalenjin youth involved — points to prior planning by the network,” the prosecutor states.
Mr Chemalan was a youth leader and ODM candidate in Kiambaa and according to Witness P-0536, he led approximately 3,000 armed Kalenjin youth who attacked the church on January 1, 2008.
Thirty-five people who had taken refuge in the church died.
“They (attackers) arrived from two directions, some with their faces disguised with clay, P-0536 saw Chemalan, Kimei Bor, Emmanuel Bor, and Brown among the attackers.”
According to the prosecutor, Mr Kibet, who remains a close associate of Mr Ruto, relayed instructions from the DP to the Kalenjin youth on the ground in Turbo while Solomon Tirop acted as youth leader in the attack on Turbo and relayed orders from Mr Ruto.
Samuel Ruto, who was then ODM’s councillor-elect for Kimumu ward and a political ally of the DP, was implicated in the attack on Kimumu and Mr Sang’ used his show Lene Emet “to diffuse anti-PNU/Kikuyu rhetoric in the form of derogatory language and hate speech; instructed the Kalenjin to go out and ‘demonstrate’ following the election results (and) coordinated the efforts on the ground through his reports on KASS FM.”
“The attack on Kimumu by the Kalenjin youth on December 31 was conducted in an organised and surgical manner – with the help of network members Jackson Kibor, Samuel Ruto and [REDACTED]. In line with the network’s common plan Kalenjin youth – many of which had been bussed into the area from Ziwa and other Kalenjin villages – attacked the Kikuyu and destroyed their property. The prosecution submits that the attack was the direct result of the general preparatory meetings and more specifically those held by network members in [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] in the days prior to the attack,” states Ms Bensouda.
LORRIES
The prosecution submits that Mr Kibor had been campaigning for Mr Ruto since 2002 and was regarded as one of Mr Ruto’s right hand men. His lorries were also allegedly used to transport attackers.
On the other hand, Mr Maiyo was the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) chairman for Eldoret North when Mr Ruto was the area MP. He was also the ODM coordinator for the 2007 elections.
“As such, he supervised the ODM nominations in the North Rift area,” states Ms Bensouda. It is alleged that cows that were stolen from the victims in Yamumbi were kept at Mr Maiyo’s home. He also hosted the attackers in his home as well as the lorries that were used to transport them.
“(Witness) P-0423 testified that Mr Maiyo had attended a secret, Nandi-only ‘large scale meeting’ for Mr Ruto in Kapsaret forest, during which it was stated that whether or not the ODM would win, the Kikuyu had to leave. This meeting was also attended by Kibor and Mr Ruto himself. Also, P-0423 testified that at the “time of the events that unfolded” he heard that Mr Ruto had sent policemen to protect Mr Maiyo’s residence and farm,” states Ms Bensouda.
Ms Bensouda submits that both defence motions fail to meet the applicable legal standard for a successful “no-case-to-answer” motion, as previously determined by the chamber and should be dismissed. In the filing, the prosecution submits that it has sufficient evidence to convict Mr Ruto and Mr Sang for crimes against humanity.
The submissions come at a time there is heightened talk of four more Kenyans having been served with sealed warrants of arrest by the Hague court for witness tampering.
The four, according to our sources, are a businessman with insurance interests, two close aides and a businessman who has vast interests in the fuel sector and who allegedly lured Meshack Yebei, who was expected to testify in the case against the DP, to his death in March.
ICC spokesman Fadi el Abdallah was non-committal about the additional arrest warrants.
“With relation to your first question, Maria (Kamara, ICC Outreach coordinator in Kenya and Uganda) and myself have access only to public documents and decisions, thus we cannot respond to answer about alleged sealed documents,” Mr Abdallah told the Sunday Nation in an interview.
WALTER BARASA
Information independently accessed by the Sunday Nation says that the four received their warrants of arrest more than a month ago.
ICC has already indicted former journalist Walter Osapiri Barasa, the chairman of the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPARB) Paul Gicheru and Philip Kipkoech Bett for offences against the administration of justice by corruptly influencing prosecution witnesses.
They have gone to court in Kenya to challenge the warrants against them and the cases are pending.
The defence teams for Mr Ruto and Mr Sang have asked the Trial Chamber to dismiss the charges against their clients and acquit them saying the evidence the prosecution witnesses adduced was largely hearsay.
In their no case to answer motions, they also argue that most of the witnesses were compromised by political and civil society actors in Kenya.
“… nothing in the Trial and/or R68 evidence considered above provides sufficient evidence of the existence of a highly organised, “coordinated” group “under single leadership” with “an established structure”, including “political, media, financial, tribal and military components” each of which “was entrusted with detailed tasks in planning, preparing, and implementing the common plan”, and with the “necessary means” to commit the crimes charged. This is what the OTP stated it would prove. It has failed,” Mr Ruto argued in his no case to answer motion of October 26.
In addition, the DP as well as Mr Sang said there was no organisational policy as alleged by the prosecution.
“Contrary to the OTP’s theory, the PEV was not committed pursuant to or in furtherance of an ‘organisational policy’. Instead, the evidence led at trial supports the conclusion that the PEV was a spontaneous, nationwide reaction to the perception that the elections were rigged, rather than being “attributable to one and the same group of Kalenjin perpetrators…following a unified, concerted and pre-determined strategy” at the charged locations in the Uasin Gishu and Nandi Districts.”
http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Bensouda-links-Ruto-allies-to-Kiambaa-church-attack-/-/1056/2994362/-/9ewfa2/-/index.html
One year after massacre, the dead lie unburied in village without roofs
Xan Rice in Kiambaa
Saturday 27 December 2008 00.01 GMT Last modified on Saturday 27 December 2008 02.09 GMT
In a village without roofs, the grass grows on bedroom floors. In the fields, there are weeds where maize used to grow. On a blackened wall, a message is written in charcoal: “One day, one time, all these will be a thing of the past.”
A yellow-billed kite soars high above the patch of ground where the Kenya Assemblies of God church stood. Small scraps of burnt clothing litter the earth – memories of the dead not yet buried.
Many of the living have moved far from the ghosts of Kiambaa. Hundreds more, including 40-year-old Grace Githuthwa, can be found crammed inside tiny white tents behind a police post that was built too late to matter.
Kenya’s worst ever ethnic violence was sparked by a presidential election held a year ago today. At least 1,300 people died and more than 300,000 fled their homes. Since then, an internationally brokered peace deal to end the strife has held, and the coalition government is intact. Tourists have returned to the game parks and beaches.
But for many victims, the struggle to rebuild lives has barely begun. About 80,000 people displaced last January have yet to be resettled, according to a recent report by the Kenya Human Rights Commission. One issue is money. The other reason, especially in Kiambaa, is fear. “How can we live here after what happened?” asked Githuthwa.
The fires began on New Year’s Eve. Githuthwa received a panicked call from her parents. Mobs of young Kalenjin men were burning houses of Kikuyu families, the ethnic group of President Mwai Kibaki, who had been declared the winner of the dubious poll. The attackers’ fury was only partly political: in the Rift Valley the Kikuyu had long been perceived as interlopers.
Githuthwa, a passion-fruit farmer, decided it was too dangerous to stay at home. With her husband, Simon, their two sons, two daughters and three-year-old niece, Miriam, visiting from Nairobi for Christmas, they spent the night outside the nearby Kenya Assemblies of God church. By mid-morning on New Year’s Day, when the smoke was rising from nearby homes and the war songs were getting louder, hundreds of Kikuyu had crammed into the church.
The attackers, their faces painted white, locked the church door. Paraffin-soaked mattresses were pushed against the windows. A match was struck.
Githuthwa’s children managed to force their way out through the window. She followed, with Miriam in her arms. A young Kalenjin man ripped Miriam away, and threw her back into the inferno. “Life is not forever,” he shouted at Githuthwa, beating her away.
As she fled she found Simon lying by the road. He was bleeding from his head. A good samaritan – a Kalenjin man – took Simon to hospital in his car.
The next morning, as Red Cross workers pulled tiny charred bodies from the embers, Githuthwa hoped that somehow Miriam had survived.
The local mortuary received 35 corpses. The bodies, many of them burned beyond recognition, remain today in nearby Eldoret. Most are still unidentified; DNA results have not yet been released.
In the two weeks after the attack, the Githuthwa family endured the cold nights outside the main Catholic church in Eldoret. Conditions were scarcely better after they were moved to makeshift tents in the town’s agricultural showground, along with 20,000 others.
Many other Kiambaan residents had left, going hundreds of miles away to relatives in Nairobi or Central province, the traditional Kikuyu heartland. But the families of Githuthwa and her husband had lived around Eldoret since independence; they had nowhere “safe” to go. In May they were shifted again. Under Operation Return Home, designed to empty the camps, they were promised about £85 to cover basic needs, and a further £210 for shelter.
But human rights organisations say that the payouts were poorly handled. Many victims – Githuthwa included – say they never received any money. Tens of thousands of people were merely shifted to smaller camps.
The 60 families dropped off in Kiambaa found it deserted except for a few Kalenjin families, a few Luhya, and David Gichie, the only Kikuyu. Together with his pregnant wife Noelina and their seven-year-old daughter, Mary-Rose, Gichie had been in western Kenya over the New Year period and only heard about the church attack on television.
He returned months later to find his house, like virtually all the others owned by Kikuyu, gutted by fire. He moved into a corner bedroom with smoke-stained walls. A sack covers the hole left by the missing window; an iron sheet is the makeshift ceiling.
The house is owned by his sister Jane, who taught at the local school for 18 years. She had written the messages on the living-room wall: “This house will one day be a symbol of forgiveness.”
But that day has not yet come. Jane now lives and works in Nakuru, 80 miles west, too traumatised to move back.
So is Stephen Mburu, 44, the church pastor, who was there when the fire began. He has set up a new congregation in Eldoret town, leaving the grass to grow thigh-high through the dirt floor of his house. Eight false teeth and two large scars on his head are a daily reminder of what happened. The more painful wounds are inside.
“What I saw there … the bodies … I can’t live in that environment.”
In June Githuthwa returned to the church with a man who had lost his wife to the fire. Among the dirt and ashes he located a strip of her dress. Githuthwa found a piece of Miriam’s blue jacket.
“My brother [Miriam’s father] came here and told me there was nothing more I could have done,” she said. Tears formed in her eyes. Members of the government talk of burying the victims’ remains on January 1, but few here are willing to believe them.
Neither Kibaki nor the opposition leader and prime minister, Raila Odinga, have visited the site. When a group of women representing more than 3,000 displaced people still living in tents recently travelled to Nairobi to protest at their treatment, police fired teargas at them. “The government of Moi [former president Daniel Arap Moi, a Kalenjin] was better,” said Githuthwa. “This one has forgotten about us.”
Reconciliation meetings between Kalenjin and Kikuyu are under way in parts of the Rift Valley. But James Kimisoi, programme coordinator in the Catholic diocese of Eldoret, which is leading the peace effort, said that the underlying issue of land ownership had not even begun to be discussed. Kiambaa remained “too volatile” for peace talks to begin, he said.
Part of the reason is the ongoing trial of four Kalenjin men accused of involvement in the church attack. Despite threats from local men, Githuthwa is one of the 56 witnesses to have testified.
One of those charged with murder is Julius Rono. “The Kikuyu have testified against my husband even though he was not involved,” said his wife Helen Rono. “I feel bitter; they get food from the Red Cross but who can provide for me?”
A short walk away, Githuthwa was looking at the ruins of her house. A pumpkin plant grew where the dining room used to be. She shook her head. “Sometimes it’s better to be killed than to be hurt,” she said.
7/3/2011
Ruto believed fire was ‘accidental’
Suspended Higher Education Minister William Ruto believed the fire that razed Kiambaa church in Eldoret, killing more than 35 people, was accidental, a cable released by whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks has revealed.
•Suspended minister told US officials the deaths of 35 people in church was not an attack
PATRICK MAYOYO
Suspended Higher Education Minister William Ruto believed the fire that razed Kiambaa church in Eldoret, killing more than 35 people, was accidental, a cable released by whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks has revealed.
An assessment by Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Johnnie Carson and National Security Council senior director for Africa Michelle Gavin, who held a meeting with Mr Ruto says he believed members of his Kalenjin community were unfairly blamed for the incident.
They said Mr Ruto blamed the media for reports linking members of his community to the attack on the church, which was full of people who had fled their homes as a result of post-election violence.
“Ruto expressed frustration with the media, which he felt blamed members of his Kalenjin group for locking and burning down a church full of asylum seekers in Eldoret during last year’s violence,” the cable quotes the two US officials saying.
They said according to Mr Ruto, the cause of the incident was an accidental kitchen fire.
“Gavin reminded Ruto that within the processes established by a tribunal, the truth about such events could come out and be clarified,” the cable adds.
The US officials said Mr Ruto was uncomfortable with the formation of either a local or international tribunal.
“What he (Ruto) did expose again was his extreme sensitivity to the establishment of any kind of tribunal and his willingness to protect his own community regardless of the cost to the country,” they observed.
They said Mr Ruto was unable to offer significant steps on reform that could be accomplished in the next three months and they did not expect him to serve as a positive agent of change in the coming months. Mr Ruto spoke to them in May 2008.
Mr Ruto told the two officials that although he voted in favour of the Special Tribunal for the sake of the country, he was not sure whether the International Criminal Court (ICC) or a local tribunal was the way to go.
The cable adds that both Mr Gavin and Mr Michael Ranneberger discouraged Kenya from going to the ICC, which would indicate that Kenya could not handle its own problems.
Mr Ruto also said that President Kibaki could not initiate far-reaching reforms as anticipated by the international community because he was beholden to some people he was to sack.
“Ruto predicted that the president would not take action against Ali (former Police Commissioner Major-General Hussein Ali) and retired Chief Justice Evan Gicheru, because they had helped him retain office last year,” the cable indicates.
Mr Ruto said if it were up to him, he would have fired Mr Ali for incompetence.
Contacted, Mr Ruto said he was in a meeting and by the time of filing the story he had not responded.
What’s up, its good article about media print, we
all know medja is a fantastic source of facts.