Monday, October 21st 2013, The Hague, Netherlands
A witness Monday claimed that Deputy President William Ruto said that the Kikuyu community would be evicted from the Rift Valley region if ODM took power after the 2007 General Election.
The witness, in his evidence, said Ruto made the remarks at an ODM rally held at Eldoret’s 64 Stadium in December 2007.
Ruto allegedly told party supporters that the Kikuyu ‘land grabbers’ would be put in a pick-up and moved back to Central region. Here are excerpts of his evidence:
Prosecutor: (Referring to the period after the 2005 referendum) The referendum you refer to, is it the referendum in 2005?
Witness: Yes.
Prosecutor: Without revealing your identity, just answer yes or no, were you personally involved in politics during this period?
Witness: No.
Prosecutor: But can you help us, what was the issue for the referendum in 2005?
Witness: The issue of referendum was to change the Constitution.
Prosecutor: While you were residing in location two and even the wider surrounding areas including location one, what was the impact of this referendum on the people living there?
Witness: After the referendum, I remember President Kibaki (now retired) sacked the ODM people (ministers) who were opposing the referendum. After that sacking the relationship began to separate.
Prosecutor: In your area, which people predominantly supported the ODM?
Witness: They were Luo, Kalenjin, Luhya, those were the most supporters of ODM.
Prosecutor: And the Kikuyus? Do you know which party they predominantly supported?
Witness: The supported PNU in the Yes campaign.
Prosecutor: Do you know what the outcome of the referendum was?
Witness: Yes, it was defeated.
Prosecutor: And you said Kibaki then sacked certain people and this had impact in your area. What impact did this have?
Witness: The friendship which we had with our neighbours, the Kalenjins and Luos, started to sour because the Kikuyu people are regarded as people who rig elections and steal elections.
Prosecutor: Were you still living in location two in 2007?
Witness: Yes.
Prosecutor: Did you happen to attend any of the campaign rallies that took place in this period?
Witness: Yes. I attended one for Bii, one for ODM and the other was not a rally it was Uhuru (Kenyatta, now President) who was passing through Eldoret, so I went there to see.
Prosecutor: Who was Bii, do you know?
Witness: Yes. He was campaigning to be MP for Eldoret North constituency.
Prosecutor: Do you know on what platform he was seeking to become MP for Eldoret North? Under what political party?
Witness: Yes. He was in PNU but there were various parties which had come together to form PNU.
Prosecutor: Is it correct he was seeking to become the PNU MP for Eldoret North?
Witness: Yes.
(Changing discourse to the ODM rally at 64 Stadium)
Witness: It was close to election because it was the last meeting of ODM in that area.
Prosecutor: What is this stadium? What kind of stadium is it?
Witness: People go there to run. There is a football field. So is it a sports stadium where they also play football.
Prosecutor: On this occasion, could you give an estimate of the number of people that attended the rally?
Witness: There was a lot of people because it was packed.
Prosecutor: Would you say in the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, hundreds can you estimate?
Witness: Maybe tens of thousands.
Prosecutor: You said tens of thousands. This stadium has sitting capacity as well as room for people to stand, do you recall that?
Witness: The stadium itself has no seats. It is a small area where people come and are given seats to sit there…
Prosecutor: Do you recall what time of the day this particular rally took place or what time did you arrive there?
Witness: I arrived there between 2pm and 3pm.
Prosecutor: You said it was an ODM rally, how did you get to know about this rally?
Witness: During the past week it was advertised through posters, radio and other media. There was a lot of advertisement on the rally.
Prosecutor: You told us you were not involved in politics, what made you curious to attend this rally as well as the first rally for the PNU candidate?
Witness: Because of my friends, who kept insisting let’s go to this rally. It’s through friends that I attended because I don’t like politics.
Prosecutor: Back to the ODM rally at 64 Stadium, did you see any members of the ODM there?
Witness: Yes, they were there.
Prosecutor: Did you know any of the members of ODM before you attended that rally.
Witness: Yes, I knew them
Prosecutor: Do you know if any leaders of the ODM were present at this rally?
Witness: Yes, they were there.
Prosecutor: Do you know the names of those leaders that attended?
Witness: Yes, I remember there was Raila Odinga, there was Ruto, there was (Charity) Ngilu, I can’t remember whether (Musalia) Mudavadi was there or not.
Prosecutor: Did you say all the ODM pentagon was there?
Witness: Yes, all members of the Pentagon were there.
Prosecutor: Were all the members of the Pentagon there to your knowledge?
Witness: I can’t remember but I think they were there.
Prosecutor: In a stadium packed with tens of thousands, how is it that you were able to see these Pentagon members from where you were?
Witness: I was a bit high because the stadium is below and the place people stand is high.
Prosecutor: This raised area, are you saying this is where the Pentagon members were or where you were?
Witness: That is where I was.
Prosecutor: What part of the stadium were the Pentagon members?
Witness: There was a shed and they were inside that shed.
Prosecutor: Were you able to see those under the shed clearly from where you were?
Witness: Yes, I could see them clearly but since the stadium was packed there were media people with their cameras, there was that interference.
Prosecutor: What was the general atmosphere among those who attended the rally leave aside the Pentagon members?
Witness: It was attended by ODM supporters.
Prosecutor: Were the ODM supporters saying anything.
Witness: Yes, they were singing (chanting) ODM, ODM! Some calling… ‘We want to see Ruto, we want to see baba…referring to Raila.
Prosecutor: Did any of the Pentagon members speak in this rally?
Witness: Yes, they spoke.
Prosecutor: Which ones?
Witness: There were others who spoke then Mr Raila spoke and I did not wait for Raila to finish speaking before I left the stadium.
Prosecutor: How could you hear them speak from where you were?
Witness: They had public address systems with speakers.
Prosecutor: How could you tell who was speaking at a particular time?
Witness: I could see them speaking.
Prosecutor: You said Mr Ruto spoke, did you hear what Mr Ruto said?
Witness: Yes, I heard.
Prosecutor: Please tell us what you heard.
Witness: He started addressing people, telling people that we want peace, he went on giving the manifesto of ODM then before he finished he referred to the Kikuyu people as grabbers. I left when he said Kikuyu people would be put on a pick-up and taken back to Central.
Prosecutor: Just the first part of your response, did you say he refered to Kikuyu people as grabbers?
Witness: He referred to them as grabbers.
Prosecutor: Did you hear him say anything else?
Witness: I can’t remember what else but what touched me was that one. At some points he used what we can call riddles. He used to address his supporters in a different ways. Whenever he spoke, his supporters got a message which maybe other people could not get.
Judge Osuji: Did you say he used to speak in riddles?
Witness: Yes, sometimes when he spoke.
Prosecutor: What language was Mr Ruto speaking in on this particular occasion?
Witness: I remember he was speaking in Kiswahili but he spoke few words in Kalenjin.
Prosecutor: Don’t say which language you speak, but do you speak Kalenjin?
Witness: I can’t speak it fluently but I can hear, I can pick words in a conversation.
Prosecutor: Going back to this speech you said you heard, that Kikuyu people would be put in a pickup and taken back to Central after ODM won, what did you understand this to mean?
Witness: By then I didn’t understand anything because I was not interested in anything so I put it out of my head.
Prosecutor: What was the response of the crowd to Mr Ruto’s speech?
Witness: People started shouting, ODM, saying Kikuyus should go back to Central. As this was going on I became afraid and I decided to leave the stadium.
Prosecutor: What did you understand by Central?
Witness: Central is where Kikuyu s come from.
Prosecutor: You said you became afraid and decided to leave, why were you afraid?
Witness: Because of the behaviour of ODM supporters and impact of what Mr Ruto said during that time.
Prosecutor: How long in total did you personally stay at that rally?
Witness: An hour or less than an hour
Hearing continues.
-Compiled by Wahome Thuku.
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