A lawyer for Kenya’s deputy president-elect William Ruto, who is charged with crimes against humanity, said a key prosecution witness had withdrawn, potentially complicating another case related to election violence five years ago.

Ruto is facing a trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) where president-elect Uhuru Kenyatta is also charged with orchestrating ethnic-fuelled violence after the 2007 vote.

Witness number 8 in the case , through his lawyer wrote to the ICC saying that he was withdrawing from the case facing Ruto at The Hague- based court.

Uhuru Kenyatta and Ruto

Through lawyer Paul Gicheru, the witness told the ICC that he was writing to withdraw any evidence attributed to him in the case facing Ruto.

The witness further called on the ICC to remove his name from the prosecution witness list.

According to the witness, he was a Party of National Unity (PNU) official but was induced and enticed to be a witness against Ruto at the ICC.

He withdrew all the evidence associated with him including claims he had made that the post poll chaos were pre-planned.

The witness further retracted an earlier statement that he had visited Ruto’s home in the wake of the deadly massacre.
By UP