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ICC witness saw woman, newborn killed with machetes

The witness said the woman and her child were killed by demonstrating Kalenjin youths near Kapsaret/FILE

The witness said the woman and her child were killed by demonstrating Kalenjin youths near Kapsaret/FILE

NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec 2 – The 27th witness in the ICC case against Deputy President William Ruto and journalist Joshua arap Sang on Tuesday told the court that he saw a woman and her newborn child killed with machetes during the 2007 post-election violence.

The witness said the woman and her child were killed by demonstrating Kalenjin youths near Kapsaret.

“I saw a woman sitting down, in few seconds I understand she delivered a baby and after warriors confirmed it was a boy they said we don’t want any other Mungiki around here. Then the baby was killed on the spot because he was a boy and after that then the mother was killed on the spot. They were killed using machetes,” the witness explained.

The witness further told the court that he heard Sang advising a group of youths who were blocking roads during the Post Election Violence in the Rift Valley region to be careful as police would use live bullets.

“I could hear him telling people to take because he had heard from an inside source that police would use live bullets… so he was telling them not to go directly to the sites, as they would be killed,” the witness alleged.

Trial Attorney Lucio Garcia played several video clips in which people were singing in a local language which was said to be Nandi.

According to the witness, the song’s message was that Kikuyus should return to their homes in Nyeri.

The witness explained to the court that such songs are sung during circumcision times or preparing for things like war.

He said the songs were also being sung to demand for the rights of the Kalenjin people.

The witness who is a Kalenjin however said he could not understand all the words of some of the songs despite efforts by Garcia to play the video clips several times.

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Ruto’s lawyer Karim Khan expressed discontent over the translations that the prosecution had disclosed to them earlier saying that on Tuesday they had a different translation.

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