The prosecution and three of the accused — Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, Eldoret North MP William Ruto and radio presenter Joshua arap Sang — were in agreement that the trial should start after the Presidential election that will be held in March next year. The fourth accused, former head of public service Francis Muthaura, had indicated that he was ready to start as early as September this year.
However, the prosecution had requested that the case would not start before March 2013.
Uhuru Kenyatta is the son of Kenya's founding father Jomo Kenyatta. He and Ruto are both running for presidency against current Prime Minister Raila Odinga. However, the Kenyan electoral commission still has to decide if Kenyatta and Ruto can run for the presidential elections while indicted by the ICC.
Their cases relate to the worst inter-community fighting in Kenya's history, which killed at least 1,220 people and drove more than 300,000 from their homes after the 2007 poll.
ICC Prosecutor is expected to deliver in August a “confirmation of charges document”. A list of witnesses should be given to the defence before January 9, 2013.
So far, all the accused appeared freely before the Court. No decision has been taken yet regarding their status at the beginning of the trial.
SM/GF