NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 7 – The blame game over who fixed Deputy President William Ruto at the International Criminal Court took a new twist Wednesday after Jubilee Coalition MPs rallied to the defence of President Uhuru Kenyatta against accusations by CORD leader Raila Odinga linking him to the witness saga.
Majority Leader Adan Duale told a news conference held at Parliament Buildings that President Kenyatta did not play any role in fixing Ruto because he too was facing charges at the time.
“For the record, Moses Kuria never worked for Uhuru Kenyatta at the material time. He was an employee of Martha Karua who was by then an influential Justice Minister. For the record Uhuru Kenyatta is a victim of similar machinations.”
Duale led some 30 MPs in insisting that Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria was working with Karua who was then an influential player in President Kibaki’s Party of National Alliance (PNU).
“So today Martha Karua cannot disown her political orphan. Moses Kuria in 2008 to 2012 before he joined TNA and Jubilee belonged to Martha Karua, you breast fed him, took care of him, you gave him resources, you told him to fix witnesses. He has now confessed, he has seen the light. The prayers have worked,” he said.
The MPs have challenged Odinga to take any evidence he has to The Hague-based court instead of making remarks at press conferences.
Odinga on Tuesday claimed that President Kenyatta was at the heart of the plot to fix Ruto in The Hague because Kuria who started the narrative was his assistant.
“If Mr Odinga has information on the role of other people- he should take the information to the DPP or the ICC and stop politicking with it; people’s lives, freedom and expectations of justice are at stake. It is his duty as a citizen as a leader and a person who purports to be interested in truth and justice to come forward without delay,” Duale asserted.
Odinga charged that Kuria worked as an assistant for President Kenyatta who was at the time chairman of KANU, an affiliate party of PNU during the 2007 General Election.
“Moses Kuria was an employee and a political assistant to Mr Kenyatta when he arranged the procuring of witnesses to fix Ruto. Kuria worked for Uhuru Kenyatta from 2008. He worked at the UK Centre at Baden Powell House as Uhuru’s political assistant up to 2014,” Odinga alleged.
Kuria recently revealed he was involved in procuring witnesses who were later enlisted by the ICC to testify against Ruto.
The ICC prosecution has already closed its case against Ruto and Sang.
Kenya is waiting for a landmark appeal ruling on if statements of five witnesses who recanted their evidence will be allowed in court as evidence or not.
Defence teams are also expected to file a motion of-no-case-to-answer by November 20.
On the other hand, Kuria has agreed to be a defence witness in the Ruto-Sang case if the court partially or fully rejects the motion.
Officers from the Office of The Prosecutor are also expected to hold a meet with Kuria on Friday over his utterances regarding recruitment of ICC witnesses.
