Kenya's President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta (left) and former head of Public Service Francis Muthaura leaving the ICC building at a past event. Photo/FILE
Former head of Civil Service Francis Muthaura became the third prominent Kenyan to be dropped from the list of suspects facing crimes against humanity charges at The Hague.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said Mr Muthaura was removed from the list after the key witness withdrew part of statement that directly linked him to crimes against humanity.
“The key witness recanted part of his statement that linked Mr Muthaura directly to the crime after receiving bribe,” Ms Bensouda said.
“We have no other choice but to withdraw the charges against Mr Muthaura,” she said, adding that prosecution only received limited support from the government of Kenya.
The withdrawal of the case against Mr Muthaura comes after ICC dropped cases against industrialisation minister Henry Kosgey and former Police Commissioner Ali Hussein last year.
This leaves only President-elect Kenyatta, his designated deputy William Ruto and journalist Joshua Sang as the remaining suspects in the trials over the 2008 post-election violence.
The disturbance led to loss of about 1200 lives, displaced over 600,000 people and destroyed property worth billions of shillings.
Mr Muthaura was charged jointly with Mr Uhuru and Mr Ali while Mr Ruto, Sang and Kosgey also shared charges.
During his presidential campaign, Mr Kenyatta repeatedly pointed at crumbling cases of his co-accused as the signal that he would eventually be proved innocent and set free.
On Monday, Ms Bensouda was categorical as she let Mr Muthaura off the hook. “This decision (to withdraw charges) affects Mathaura’s case alone,” she said
Like his co-accused, Mr Muthaura faced five counts of crimes against humanity for alleged involvement in fuelling the wave of violence that plunged Kenya in chaos between December 2007 and February 2008.
At the time, the opposition led by Prime Minister Raila Odinga disputed the outcome of a presidential vote, setting off a wave of electoral unrest Kenya had never seen since it reintroduced multiparty politics in 1991.
The violence not only pitted Mr Odinga’s supporters against those of outgoing President Mwai Kibaki but also sucked in police force, leading to a spate of killings and destruction of property.
The prosecutors said the destructions which also saw mobs uproot part of Kenya-Uganda railway and block parts of northern corridor - were politically motivated.
The clashes ended Kenya's long standing claim to be the region’s island of peace, hurting its tourism industry and foreign direct investments that rode on positive international image
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