Witness claims rally video altered

The ICC prosecution was Monday on the dock after witness 268 suggested it may have altered the videos of an ODM rally.

The Kapsabet rally is where Deputy President William Ruto is alleged to have referred to Kikuyus as “enemies”.

According to the witness, the video the Ruto defence had displayed last Friday was similar to the one he had provided to the OTP last year but “completely” different from the one he was shown during witness preparation.

“We looked at that video last week on Friday and which had been shown to you in July 2012. Is that right?” David Hooper, Mr Ruto’s defence counsel asked the witness.

“No, it’s not the one,” the witness responded.

“What video were you shown?” Mr Hooper asked.

“I was shown a video that wasn’t clear. It was inaudible and the images were disfigured,” the witness told the court of the video the prosecution had shown him.

According to the witness, he had raised the matter with the prosecution that the video they were showing to him was “not only clear but also not the one I provided”.

Hooper: So the Friday video was the correct one?

Witness: Yes your honour.

The witness added that OTP’s video was “out of place completely. It is not like the one I saw on Friday. What OTP provided was too blurred.

The witness also said the OTP and the defence videos were showing different events.

“Not only (was it) a better version, but I thought it was different completely,” the witness said.

During the prosecution’s examination-in-chief of the witness, he had claimed that he attended an ODM rally at Kapsabet’s Kipchoge Keino Stadium on December 5, 2007 where he heard Mr Ruto chide supporters of former President Kibaki as witches.

“I cannot remember everything he said, but basically I can remember the part he spoke in Kalenjin and chided (former President) Moi for supporting Kibaki and said Kikuyus were enemies and whoever supported Kibaki is a witch,” the witness had told the court during the second day of his testimony-in-chief.