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ICC witness recalls seeing severed heads on sticks

Deputy President William Ruto addresses the media at the Hague/DPPS

Deputy President William Ruto addresses the media at the Hague/DPPS

NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 15 – The third witness in the International Criminal Court (ICC) trial against Deputy President William Ruto and Joshua arap Sang has recalled the gory events she saw during the 2007-8 post election violence in the Rift Valley.

Witness P0189 who was being led in her evidence by the Prosecution, told court told that she saw human heads placed on sticks in Langas area.

“In Langas there were chopped heads and they were planted on a stick. Most of the houses were not burnt but there was looting like shops were broken into,” she told the court saying that Langas was mainly occupied by Kikuyus and Luos at the time.

The witness further told the court that she saw other nasty scenes of people killed and property destroyed at the Kiambaa church, Kimumu and Kahuhia villages.

“Upon arriving in Kiambaa, the church was a shell and we would see the mattresses and burnt bottles… and then there was that wheelchair where a woman perished. The mattresses were just at the entrance of the church. The mattresses were burnt completely,” she told the court.

The witness also recounted seeing bodies piled on top of each other at a hospital mortuary in Eldoret. At the same hospital, she also told the court that she saw dozens of people with burns, some with deep machete cuts while others had arrows stuck in them.

“People with arrows were mixed with the ones with deep panga cuts, the ones who had arrows, majority of them were Kikuyus. The ward was crowded… they were all in one room, they would share wards, they were so many others would sleep on the floor,” she recalled.

Witness P0189 further informed court of another incident in Kahuhia in which she said she saw many bodies of which had been eaten by pigs and dogs.

“In Kahuhia, there were bodies all over, rotten and eaten by pigs. The ones eaten by dogs were around five to six. The rest of the bodies were around 10-20. The buildings around were also burnt,” she said.

The witness also told the court that she witnessed other incidences in Kimumu besides the attack on the compound identified as Number 6.

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She said over 200 houses belonging to Kikuyus had been burnt in Kimumu while other property was destroyed.

“The rental properties had been broken into, there was scattered clothing all over. There was also a maize store, it was broken into, there was maize all over the place, and the house of the son-in-law of Number 6’s house had a car burnt,” the witness said.

The witness completed her evidence in chief within the one and half days the prosecution had said it would require before the defence started cross-examination.

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