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Witness got 460k from prosecution in five months

The witness admitted before the court that he made up evidence so that he could benefit from the 'goodies' offered to him by the prosecution/FILE

The witness admitted before the court that he made up evidence so that he could benefit from the ‘goodies’ offered to him by the prosecution/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 15 – The 22nd witness in the International Criminal Court trial against Deputy President William Ruto on Monday admitted that he received about Sh460,000 from the Office of The Prosecutor (OTP) as subsistence for five months.

Ruto’s lawyer Essa Faal illustrated to the court during cross-examination specific instances during which the OTP gave witness P0604 money to cater for his accommodation, transport, communication and food.

“We have put to the witness what has been disclosed to us by the prosecution that the sum total I recall was about Sh460,000 for subsistence for five months,” Faal told the court explaining that the money was provided by the OTP and not the Witness and Victims Unit (WVU) which is charged with the responsibility of taking care of witnesses.

The witness told the court that the prosecution did not ask him to submit any receipts to account for the money handed over to him.

Faal got the witness to admit that it was the money offered to him by the prosecution that induced him to fabricate evidence to fix Deputy President Ruto.

“This is kind of money you described as fantastic and wonderful monies that led you to tell lies against William Ruto,” Faal argued to which the witness concurred.

The witness said the prosecution promised him that he would be assisted if he came up with plans to develop himself financially.

“They told me they would assist me in any plan I would propose to them but I did not propose a plan to them,” the witness responded.

Sang’s lawyer Katwa Kigen also questioned the witness who confessed that he had not heard Sang inciting people during the post-election violence as he had alleged in his initial statement with the prosecution investigators.

He replayed Sang’s show in which former Prime Minister Raila Odinga was heard alleging that Administration Police officers had been deployed by government officials in President Mwai Kibaki’s regime to rig elections so that he (Odinga) could lose even as a Member of Parliament for Langata Constituency.

Witness P0604 who has been on the stand for eight days was the first witness to appear in the Ruto/Sang case under summon after he recanted his evidence and said he was no longer willing to testify.

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The witness admitted before the court that he made up evidence so that he could benefit from the ‘goodies’ offered to him by the prosecution.

Although the prosecution promised that it would not use the evidence to lead the witness to self-incrimination, giving false statement before the court is a crime.

The prosecution earlier made an application asking the judges that the initial testimony should be considered in instances where the witness recants his evidence.

The second witness under summons to appear is expected to take stand on Tuesday.

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