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THE HAGUE (AFP) – A former Kenyan minister faces a war crimes court
hearing Thursday to determine whether he and other officials should
stand trial for masterminding his country’s deadly post-election
violence in 2007-08.A potential presidential candidate in 2012,
William Ruto is due to appear at the International Criminal Court
with two other officials, two days after the court denied Kenya’s
appeal to have the cases declared inadmissable.Ruto, who served as
agriculture and then as higher education minister, faces charges of
crimes against humanity along with former industrialisation
minister Henry Kosgey and radio executive Joshua arap Sang in the
dock.All three men supported then opposition candidate Raila
Odinga, now Kenya’s prime minister, in the disputed December 2007
polls. While free, they are currently subjected to subpoenas.The
hearings, during which prosecutors will try to convince the court
they have enough evidence to go to trial, are scheduled to run
until September 12.Defence lawyers have presented a list of 48
witnesses.A second set of hearings will begin on September 21 for
three other former officials, including Uhuru Kenyatta, son of
Kenya’s founding president and the country’s finance
minister.Kenyatta was long seen as likely to run in next year’s
presidential election but he has refused to give up his ministerial
post although his chances of running a campaign from the ICC dock
look dim.Ruto, for his part, was suspended from his ministry on
unrelated graft charges last year and eventually dropped from the
ministerial line-up altogether in August.Kenyatta will appear
before ICC judges along with two other allies of Odinga’s rival in
the 2007 elections — Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki — public
service head Francis Muthaura and former police chief Mohammed
Hussein Ali.The charges against the six men include murder,
deportation, rape, inhumane acts, persecution and torture.Kenya was
plunged into violence after the December 27, 2007, general
elections in which then opposition chief Odinga accused Kibaki of
having rigged his way to re-election.What began as political riots
soon turned into ethnic killings targeting Kibaki’s Kikuyu
tribe.They launched reprisal attacks in which homes were torched
and people hacked to death in the country’s worst violence since
independence in 1963.Prosecutors said some 1,200 people were killed
during the post-election unrest and more than 300,000 were
displaced.© 2011 AFP