Anxiety as Ruto, Sang await ICC verdict on case

In less than 24 hours, the International Criminal Court (ICC) Trial Chamber will determine if Deputy President William Ruto and his co-accused Joshua Arap Sang have a case to answer in relation to the 2007/08 post election skirmishes.

And as the clock ticks towards the 5PM Hague time or 7PM Kenyan time deadline for the ICC verdict, its anxious moments for Ruto and Sang as they wait to learn whether they will be put on their defence or let off the hook in the case that has dragged on since 2011.

The 3-judge bench will not hold an open court session Tuesday, but will instead communicate its ruling through email to all the parties and the media. Ruto is seeking a no-case to answer verdict as well as an acquittal, while Sang’s defence team is pushing for a termination of the case. They each face three charges; murder, deportation or forcible transfer of population and persecution.

The Ruto-Sang defence teams argue that the ICC Prosecutor had failed to prove that there was an organised network that masterminded the 2007/08 Post Election Violence, and insist the skirmishes were spontaneous, after a contested presidential poll outcome. The defence teams also argue that the evidence of 6 key witnesses had been ruled inadmissible after they withdrew it.

The Trial Chamber will also have to consider the Prosecutor’s arguments that the chaos were pre-meditated and organised by a team headed by Ruto, that Sang was a member of. Bensouda, while dismissing the Ruto-Sang no case to answer motion, insisted youths were recruited, oathed and supplied with weapons to cause chaos, and thereafter cleansed.

Ruto’s allies have scheduled a series of meetings Monday evening and Tuesday, to strategise on how to respond to the ruling. And while hopeful of a favourable ruling, they are alive to the realities of a continuation of the case since the threshold for putting Ruto and Sang to their defence was low. Political and legal analysts, however, acknowledge Tuesday’s verdict has far reaching implications in the country’s political landscape, 490 days to the General Election.