Ocampo to two: You are not my witnesses

Two men, whose statements have been disregarded by the ICC, said on Thursday their communication with the court was only severed two weeks ago.

At the same time, the office of the chief prosecutor said they will not use witnesses highlighted in the media.

But the two men, Mr William Rono and Mr Ken Wekesa, claimed the International Criminal Court investigators were duplicating information from the Waki and KNHCR reports.

Court officials however said they will rely on their own witness information, and not that from any civil society, when prosecuting perpetrators of post election violence.

Mr Rono and Mr Wekesa said they were engaged by ICC investigators through phone calls, emails and visits by Kenya National Commission on Human Rights commissioner, Hassan Omar Hassan.

The office of the prosecutor said reports from secondary sources such as the Waki Commission and the human rights commission were only used in the preliminary investigations to confirm to the ICC that there were crimes committed in Kenya before formal investigation took off.

Chief Prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo has dismissed Mr Rono and Mr Wakesa, who claimed to appear on his witness list.

Mr Rono showed a phone allegedly given by Mr Omar which they used to communicate with the investigators. It has a Rwandan mobile service provider SIM card.

“I have never been to Rwanda, my number is +250782166978 and they used to call me from 0785619143 and a Ms Marie from Nigeria was calling me,” he added.

He also presented print out of E-mail communication between Mr Wekesa and the ICC investigator called John Langlois.

He further claimed that six other witnesses have been moved to Tanzania and “we communicate to them on daily basis. We should have been flown out of the country back in July 12, 2010 but kept giving excuses,” they said.

The ICC representatives added that “witnesses are taken through a rigorous tests to certify their credibility” and hence the elimination of witnesses from secondary sources. They aim to pin down the masterminds of the violence without targeting specific communities or political groups.

Mr Ocampo’s investigation team has been collecting information from witnesses and relevant evidence since March 31 to date, as it prepares to summon six individuals at The Court who will be charged with crimes against humanity.

Once the investigations are completed, the team will present its finding to the ICC judges who will then determine if it should go to full trial. Thereafter, the court will indict the six individuals and issue summons.

The International Commission of Jurists-Kenya Chapter Legal Officer Stella Ndirangu said: “While the said six, will be charged at The Hague, it is the responsibility of the Kenyan Government, as a signatory to the Rome Statute to set up a Special Tribunal to charge those found to have actually committed the offences.”

Reported by Lillian Onyango, Casper Waithaka and Timothy Kemei