SHERRIF ARPAIO
JF-Expert Member
- Aug 25, 2010
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[h=1]Witnesses in Kenya ICC trial 'disappearing'[/h]
Jane Waruguru's missing husband Maina Diambo is presumed to be dead. As Kenya prepares for elections on 4 March and a month later a historic trial at The Hague over the violence that followed the disputed 2007 elections, the BBC's Karen Allen has heard powerful testimony about alleged disappearances of potential witnesses.
Jane Waruguru's husband was among those allegedly present at key meetings which form part of the prosecution case at the International Criminal Court.
Those meetings - allegedly hatched at State House in 2007 and 2008 - involved a criminal gang called the Mungiki. Jane's husband, Maina Diambo, was their second in command at the time.
"I saw big, large amounts of money," she recalls. "One day I came and I saw him washing guns and I was not used to seeing those things in my house."
'Tormented' His erratic behaviour, his coming and going, aroused her suspicions, but she says she knew her "place" as a wife and her husband gave little away.
Dozens missing
It is hard to independently verify Jane's extraordinary claims, but she is among dozens of women whose husbands have just vanished.
Paul Muite, a lawyer who represents many of these women, claims Diambo's disappearance matches those of other missing men.
"Each one of them was involved in the post-election violence in Naivasha and Nakuru... they all disappeared without trace," he says. He claims the disappearances bear "all the hallmarks of an extra judicial killing" but his allegations will have to be tested in court.
What is clear is that alleged tampering with witnesses or those who may offer important leads about Kenya's violent past, is worrying the chief prosecutor at International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague.
In a candid interview with the BBC, Fatou Bensouda has expressed her alarm at "attempts to interfere with the witnesses".
Investigations in Kenya are proving to be "quite a challenge" she confesses and though she stops short of apportioning blame. She warns of "attempts to publish the names of witnesses or perceived witnesses in the media or on the internet".
And she says that those who tell us their stories "deserve to be protected, not only by the court but by Kenyans themselves".
BBC 8 February 2013
Jane Waruguru's missing husband Maina Diambo is presumed to be dead. As Kenya prepares for elections on 4 March and a month later a historic trial at The Hague over the violence that followed the disputed 2007 elections, the BBC's Karen Allen has heard powerful testimony about alleged disappearances of potential witnesses.
Jane Waruguru's husband was among those allegedly present at key meetings which form part of the prosecution case at the International Criminal Court.
Those meetings - allegedly hatched at State House in 2007 and 2008 - involved a criminal gang called the Mungiki. Jane's husband, Maina Diambo, was their second in command at the time.
"I saw big, large amounts of money," she recalls. "One day I came and I saw him washing guns and I was not used to seeing those things in my house."
'Tormented' His erratic behaviour, his coming and going, aroused her suspicions, but she says she knew her "place" as a wife and her husband gave little away.
Dozens missing
It is hard to independently verify Jane's extraordinary claims, but she is among dozens of women whose husbands have just vanished.
Paul Muite, a lawyer who represents many of these women, claims Diambo's disappearance matches those of other missing men.
"Each one of them was involved in the post-election violence in Naivasha and Nakuru... they all disappeared without trace," he says. He claims the disappearances bear "all the hallmarks of an extra judicial killing" but his allegations will have to be tested in court.
What is clear is that alleged tampering with witnesses or those who may offer important leads about Kenya's violent past, is worrying the chief prosecutor at International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague.
In a candid interview with the BBC, Fatou Bensouda has expressed her alarm at "attempts to interfere with the witnesses".
Investigations in Kenya are proving to be "quite a challenge" she confesses and though she stops short of apportioning blame. She warns of "attempts to publish the names of witnesses or perceived witnesses in the media or on the internet".
And she says that those who tell us their stories "deserve to be protected, not only by the court but by Kenyans themselves".
BBC 8 February 2013
