Narc Kenya Party leader Martha Karua has denied allegations by Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria that she falsely procured witnesses to fix deputy president William Ruto before ICC.
While testifying in court today, she denied meeting any officers from ICC who came to Kenya to investigating the happening of post election violence in the country in the 2007/2008 after a disputed general elections.
But she confirmed attending a fundraising held at Gallileo that was attended by the current president Uhuru Kenyatta which was to raise money for victims of post election violence.
The former Justice Minister said she has never met or interacted with Moses Kuria personally and he first heard of him when he was summoned by the National cohesion and Integration Commission.
She told Justice Joseph Sergon she was shocked while watching news at 9:00 P.M on Sunday 20 September ,2015 to hear Moses Kuria mention her name to the effect that she met him together with others and drafted a letter to the international Criminal Court implicating deputy president William Ruto for crimes against humanity .
She said upon watching Kuria making the scandalous and malicious statement against her, she called lawyer Gitobu Imanyara to seek legal advice.
“I called my lawyer Gitobu Imanyara with view of seeking his advice on Mr.Kuria’s statement which I deemed to be highly libelous, defamatory, scandalous and were geared to portray me as a corrupt individual who bribed people to masquerade as witnesses against the deputy president” Karua told the Court.
The Narc Kenya Party leader strongly denied any involved in any act acts that were geared towards recruiting and coaching of persons to testify against William Ruto, neither did she author any letter , by herself of jointly with Kuria as he alleged.
Despite demanding Mr Kuria to retract and apologize, the MP went ahead and issued a press statement from parliament building in which he reiterated what he had said during the political meeting that had been disyuised as a prayer meeting for deputy president william Ruto.
She said the legislator continued making the same malicious statement against her which was widely published both locally and internationally in the print which is injurious to her reputation globally.
Narc Kenya Party leader sued MP Moses Kuria through his lawyer Senior Counsel Gitobu Imanyara over remarks he made in a political rally linking her to witness soliciting in order to fix the Deputy President at the ICC.
The Narc Kenya leader said that on the evening of Sunday, she was shocked to hear her name being adversely mentioned by the MP at a Prayer meeting held at Kapsikwony, Bungoma County.
Mr Kuria said that, he with others and Ms Karua were involved in drafting a letter that was sent to the International Criminal Court implicating the Deputy President for Crimes against Humanity.
She in response contacted her lawyer Gitobu Imanyara who was of the opinion that Mr Kuria’s words were defamatory, libelous and actionable. Similarly, she held a press conference at her NARC KENYA offices where she demanded an apology from the MP.
She said that instead of apologizing, Mr Kuria held a press conference at Parliament buildings where he reiterated the same words he had spoken at Kapsikwony.
“In addition, he stated that I met him together with others at Club Galileo in Westlands where we devised a scheme to recruit witnesses against the Deputy President for the case against him,” Ms Karua said.
Following the disputed General Elections of December 2007, the ensuing Post Election Violence in 2007/2008 and mediation efforts led by Mr. Kofi Annan, Ms Karua was appointed Justice and Constitutional Affairs minister.
She would, in her stature as minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, extensively interact with the various efforts and commissions involved in investigating the events of the Post-Election Violence, the Victims of the said Post Election violence as well as investigators from the International Criminal Court as Government of Kenya representative.
Ms Karua stated that Kuria’s statements have highly injured her reputation implying that she was not a diligent and trustworthy public servant as a Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs and that she was involved in bribing people to testify against the Deputy President.
“Unless the Defendant is compelled by this Honorable Court to cease from maligning my name and further injuring my reputation, I stand to suffer irreparable harm from his reckless and unwarranted attack on my integrity on grounds which he cannot substantiate,” the Narc Kenya chair said.
Lawyer Imanyara in the same light said that the words were calculated to paint the Ms Karua in negative light as the person behind the Criminal Case against the Deputy President, which words were scandalous, malicious, unwarranted and defamatory in the extreme.
He said that the words implied that Ms Karua had a corrupt interest in the ongoing cases at the ICC and had obtained corrupt benefits or advantages during her tenure as a Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs.
The lawyer also said that Mr Kuria implied that, “The plaintiff was a part of a criminal enterprise gang comprising of among others, the Defendant whose principal purpose was to interfere with the administration of justice at the ICC in breach of the Statute of the International Criminal Court and the Kenyan penal laws.”
Mr Imanyara also cautioned the court that pending the hearing and determination of the suit, Gatundu south MP should be restrained from issuing any statement on any media platform that pertains to the Applicant and her reputation, or in any manner from mentioning the Ms Karua’s name in any forum as would be defamatory, libelous and injurious to her reputation.
“Today I want to state it as it is. Whoever gets annoyed is his problem. When we had election violence in Kenya we had PNU and ODM. Each party was seeking victory. I was in PNU with MP Serut. All of us rushed to the ICC… I was part of the team that wrote a letter to the International Criminal Court and this was political theatrics and we need to tell Kenyans the truth…. I am ready to call on Martha Karua…come and tell us that this was only a political game…”
Judgment date to be fixed.
