ICC accepts Matsanga in Uhuru case 

A Ugandan scholar has been allowed to make observations to the International Criminal Court in the cases involving President Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto.

Dr David Matsanga is scheduled to appear before the Hague-based court on 5 July as a “friend of the court” or amicus curiae.

He said he was pushing for the case against President Kenyatta to be dropped because the prosecutor’s office had resorted to interrogating his financial records after key witnesses pulled out.

He said he would seek to show how the court had been misled by the office of the prosecutor on several occasions.

“The recent ruling on the financial statements of Mr Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta is, in my respectful submission, one most deleterious to the court’s standing. Hence my application for amicus curiae status in this case,” reads Dr Matsanga’s court papers.

According to him, chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda lost the cases when she said witnesses OTP4, OTP11, and OTP12 gave false testimonies.

“The same prosecutor who now seeks the financial records has called her own Mungiki witnesses liars. How exactly will the financial statements of Uhuru Kenyatta help the court when the source of information therefore has been discredited by the OTP?” says Matsanga.

CONFIDENTIAL CORRESPONDENCE

He says the ICC risks losing credibility if it continues pursuing the President’s financial records.

Dr Matsanga wrote to the chamber on 28 April, seeking to be enjoined as amicus curiae.

“My lords, my role as amicus curiae will be to assist the court secure and preserve its flagging credibility, save the court’s time and reputation and money,” Matsanga said in his application. “The money in question would be better utilised and should instead go a long way to do justice and help make reparations for victims in the Kenyan situation.

International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda is demanding extensive details of properties and financial records relating to President Kenyatta.

She is seeking the information to bolster her case after a series of disappointments with some witnesses who have either withdrawn or been dropped.

The details are contained in confidential correspondence between officers of the Court and the Kenya government.

When confirming the case, the Pre-Trial judges concluded there was sufficient evidence that Uhuru provided Sh3.3 million each to two former MPs to buy weapons and coordinate attacks in Nakuru and Naivasha.

“Witness OTP-11 asserts that Mr Kenyatta gave Sh3.3 million to a former MP and that part of this money was eventually used to buy guns for the attack in Nakuru. The witness further states that the former MP coordinated attacks in Nakuru under the direction of Mr Kenyatta,” the judges said then.

According to Matsanga, all these witnesses have been discredited by the  office of the prosecutor as liars and as such, all information they gave is fake.

“How can you accept to eat ffod that you yourself acknowledge has been poisoned ?” he told the Daily Nation.