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  by Bernice Mbugua

@BerniceMuhindi

The fourth witness in the trial of lawyer Paul Gicheru at the International Criminal Court in Hague was yesterday taken to task over his alleged meeting with the latter.

Witness P-0274, had claimed during his evidence that he was introduced to Gicheru by a close friend identified as Person 14, who was also an ICC witnesses in the trial of Deputy President William Ruto.

But during yesterday’s cross-examination, Gicheru’s lawyer Michael Karnavas, read parts of Person 14’s statement in which he denied taking the said witness to meet Gicheru.

Person 14, in his statement, accused the witness of lying so that he could testify against the Deputy President and secure asylum abroad.

Court heard that Person 14 stated; “He would like to be a witness so that he could leave Kenya. This is unfortunately the things that the young men… the youth of Kenya make to get further in life…. But I have to be truthful and say that indeed he was my friend and we met a lot of times and he even came to my house. Do you see that?”

Witness, however, stood his ground, insisting that Person 14 took him to see Gicheru. He also denied ever visiting Person 14’s house.

“I have never been to his house …he made it up, I never wanted to be a witness all along and I have never asked that I become a witness,” he replied.

The defense further grilled the witness on whether the two ever sat down to plot how to secure asylum abroad. 

“We have never talked with this particular person about how to leave Kenya. The only thing we talked about was how to be in a safe place. He is lying your honour and if I may, if you want to get out of the country you have to apply for a visa to the country you want to go, you cannot just fly,” replied the witness.

Technical knowledge

“Well, you are probably right. He does not know all the technicalities, but what we do know is that he asked the Office of The Prosecution (OTP) investigators if they could relocate him and 25 of his relatives to Canada. So maybe he does not have the technical knowledge of what is required to get out of the country and move to another place but he certainly had a plan,” stated Karnavas.

Witness at this point lost his cool, protesting that he was not given a chance to go through Person 14’s statement yet the said person was given a chance to go through his statement.  Judge had to calm him down and insist that he responds to the questions being asked.  

“Mr Witness calm down and let us just go through this process… try to answer the questions that counsel puts to you. If you have any concerns, when you are finished testifying for this court you may want to talk to  OTP…If you do not calm down, you are not going to get through the process,” said judge Miatta Maria Samba.

The defense further claimed that Person 14 had stated that they plotted with the witness to fix Gicheru.

 “Your honour I am surprised. He is saying that we never talked about that, we talked about meeting Gicheru so that I could receive the money he had promised,” replied the witness.

Defense further tabled in court an email the witness had written to OTP on April 9, 2015 where he claimed he gave his testimony for purposes of protection and not to give to the defense.

In the email, he claimed; “It is malicious and unprofessional. It is only aimed at informing the defense that I gave evidence to the prosecution against William Ruto, which is not true because I never wrote any statement with the prosecution.”

Case continues tomorrow with new witnesses expected to testify.