Walter Barasa is a man under siege,ICC has just issued an arrest warrant that if implemented and found guilty,he would spend a good time in the Hague cells together with likes of Taylor and Gbagbo.
The prosecution in issuance of the warrant alleges that he approached a witness that he thought was going to testify against Ruto and offered sh.1.2m to recant their testimony and they say a compelling evidence to ascertain this exists.
Also allegations of witnesses coercion,interference and intimidation has been labelled against him.
After the news going viral on Wednesday,Barasa hurriedly released a press statement addressing the elephant in the house.
From his statement however he seems to be tying himself up as he tries to clear his name to the public. From a layman’s point of view lets try and hallow up some of the obvious loopholes.
According to his statement he kicked off the journalism career in 1985,various sources indicates that the man was born in 1972. Simple calculation tells that he attained his diploma at 13,wow,what a genius we had there.
The prosecution particularly mentions his interference and coercing witness 536 and from his statement he seems to be admitting this fact
“…. She repeated
the same thing that she was fed up and wanted
me to assist her and her family back. I told her
I did not have money but if I get money I could
assist her but in the event that I could not
manage she had a right to protest, disclose the
truth and ask whoever was in charge to return
her into the country.”
The parts in bold itself incriminates him since its a pointer that he was playing a role in witness interference.
Rolling it back to how it all started,in his statement Barasa clearly states that he is the one who made the connection between Alani the ICC investigator and witness 536,he admits meeting her and certifies that she was going to give a moulded testimony. Despite all these facilitated for her temporary passport to Uganda knowing well she was going to give “false testimony”
“……. She also told me that she had left that
employment five years before but that she had
been forced to say that she was cooking and
serving food during the period the violence
occurred. I encouraged her to confirm to
whether she was ready to defend that position. I
asked her how as a Kikuyu she could be allowed
to get into a planning meeting and cook and
serve food to people who were going to kill her
relatives. She told me that she had been told to
say that so that the case would be strong.
I warned her that she faced the risk of
prosecution if it turned out that she was lying.
We ended our conversation and she told me
that Paul had sent her to tell me to get her a
passport. The investigators sent her a total of
Ksh 45,500 and a sum of Ksh 6,000 for
facilitation making a total of Ksh 51,500 which
the lady (536) withdrew and gave me.
We got the passports and she and her family
crossed over to Uganda.”
If true then i’m sure Ruto whom 536 was to testify against won’t be smiling. He facilitated for their exit having in mind she was to give an alleged false testimony. Why wouldn’t he have reported this to the authorities right on time to prevent the bomb from going off.
Already he has identified Mr Nick
Kaufmann a former ICC Prosecution lawyer to represent him,affording lawyer of such calibre must be quite costly.
All said and done,the battle is on and Barasa has given his side of story.
One thing is clear though,this man knows a lot about various witnesses and must have worked closely with the investigators,maybe a deal gone sour? Time will tell.
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