How lawyer Paul Gicheru interfered with ICC witnesses 

The International Criminal Court yesterday heard how lawyer Paul Gicheru allegedly bribed witnesses in Deputy President William Ruto’s case. 

The lead investigator said his team combed through witnesses’ mobile phones and established crime patterns which provided an overview on what led to a warrant of arrest against the lawyer. 

ICC deputy prosecutor James Stewart was told following the overwhelming evidence, the investigation team singled out Gicheru, journalist Walter Barasa, Philip Kipkoech and the late Meshack Yebei as the main suspects. 

“The assessment of evidence indicated the evidence was strong enough to apply for an arrest warrant for them,” stated the witness who was the lead investigator in the case. 

Yebei was touted as a star witness against Ruto and journalist Joshua Sang. 

Yebei was abducted on December 28, 2014, and found dead several months later. No arrests have been made since then. In 2015, the ICC denied Yebei was on the prosecution’s witness list but regretted that he had been killed. 

“Why were these four (Gicheru, Barasa, Kipkoech and Yebei) selected for a warrant of arrest?” Prosecutor Stewart said. 

The OTP investigator told the court of the obstacles they faced while investigating the bribery claims, saying there was lack of co-operation from Kenyan government. 

“I had three main concerns. The first one was the level of co-operation from Kenyan authorities. Second one is the ability to access the crime scenes and the third one essentially comes down to dishonesty, differentiating between true and not true statements,” he told the court. 

According to investigators, they were careful not to put the witnesses at risk by being in contact with them. 

“The issue that arises is that for me to conduct certain inquiries, I need to involve Kenyan authorities in those inquiries.

A simple example would be if I wanted to access telephone data for a witness or a suspect. To do that, I would send a request for assistance to the Kenyan authorities, asking them to provide me with that data but by making that request I will put somebody at risk because I will be identifying the witness,” he said. 

“And why would the identification of the suspects, potential suspects, to the Kenyan authorities be an issue to the investigation?” asked the prosecutor. 

“I have an obligation to look at the safety of all the people I contact that includes suspects and in this particular case, suspects could come to risk,” he replied. 

The witness narrated that the Kenya government declined to co-operate, while some witnesses had doubtful testimonies after being bribed. The investigators were also denied access to the crime scenes. 

Witness P-0730 told the court the government was non-committal about giving investigators a leeway to question suspects who were interfering with witnesses as the cases involved President Uhuru Kenyatta, Ruto and other senior government officials. 

The witness said it would have been dangerous to ask the authorities for help as that would expose witnesses. 

“For me to conduct certain inquiries, I need to involve the Kenyan authorities. A simple example would be if I wanted to access the telephone data of a witness or a suspect. To do that, I would send a request for assistance to the Kenyan authorities,” stated the witness. 

Gicheru surrendered to the authorities of The Netherlands in November 2020 pursuant to an ICC arrest warrant issued under seal on March 10, 2015. 

His first appearance before the Court took place on November 6, 2020. 

On February 1, 2021, he was released to Kenya with specific conditions restricting his liberty. 

On July 15, 2021, ICC Pre-Trial Chamber A confirmed the charges of offences against the administration of justice brought by the Prosecutor against Gicheru and committed him to trial. 

The witnesses Gicheru said to have improperly engaged with were in the case against Deputy President William Ruto, journalist Joshua arap Sang which terminated in April 2016, and Henry Kosgey in whose respect the court declined to confirm charges in January 2012. 

The case was terminated about a year after a similar suit against President Uhuru Kenyatta was discontinued in March 2015. 

Other Kenyans who faced charges of crimes against humanity at the ICC alongside Kenyatta, Ruto, Sang and Kosgei were Francis Muthaura and former Police Commissioner Mohammed Ali.