BENSOUDA vows to nail UHURU KENYATTA at despite dropping MUTHAURA’s case

  International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has said that her office plans to proceed with the case against Kenya’s President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta even though it dropped charges against his c0-accused Francis Muthaura earlier in the week.

Bensouda said that the case against Uhuru and that against Muthaura can be split up because the two had separate roles in orchestrating the violence;

"While Messrs Muthaura and Kenyatta were allegedly linked together as members of the common plan, they are alleged to have played different roles in that plan," she said in a written submission to the trial chamber.

"The distinct nature of their roles was summarised by the Pre-Trial Chamber in the following way: whereas Mr Kenyatta was allegedly “in charge of the provision of financial and logistical support to the direct perpetrators”, Mr Muthaura allegedly “secur[ed] the support of the Mungiki and direct[ed] the latter to commit the crimes in Nakuru and Naivasha”, as well as “provided institutional support for the execution of the crimes on behalf of the PNU Coalition."

Bensouda added that the insufficiency of evidence in the case against Muthaura does not apply to the Uhuru case;

"Because the two accused are alleged to have had different roles, the evidence against them is different, and any insufficiency of evidence with respect to Mr Muthaura’s particular role would not apply to Mr Kenyatta.”

Besouda added that the prosecution’s case against Uhuru has remained the same;

"Finally, the withdrawal of charges does not affect the Prosecution’s allegations regarding the nature of the common plan, Mr Kenyatta’s alleged role in the plan, or the evidence the Prosecution will rely upon to prove its case against him at trial. In sum, the Prosecution’s factual case against Mr Kenyatta is unaltered," she said.

Bensouda made the statements in response to the trial court’s request that she make written submissions on how the withdrawal of charges against Muthaura would affect the Uhuru case.