Six Kenyans waiting for the ICC ruling have all proclaimed their innocence in the post election violence of 2008. Regardless of how the ICC judges will rule in each case, the lives of the persons involved in the trial has changed significantly.
The following are the profiles of the Ocampo 6 or the ICC six of the Hague vi: Henry Kosgey, Francis Muthaura, Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto, Joshua arap Sang and Mohammed Hussein Ali.
Henry Kosgey
Henry Kiprono Kosgey has spent most of his adult life serving as an MP and Cabinet Minister. From 1979 when he was appointed as a minister, it was only for less than ten years that Kosgey has stayed out of Cabinet, between 1988-1992 and between 2002 and 2007.
He is one of the longest serving political leaders in the country having won six successive parliamentary elections.
The Tinderet MP has only spent one term out of Parliament after he was tossed out in the infamous 1988 mlolongo election.
Henry Kosgey was born in 1947 and is chairman of the ODM party that opposed Kibaki in the last election. He quit his latest cabinet position over accusations of corruption. Has spent years in cabinet in a political career that spans decades.
He succeeded powerful and fiery Nandi politicians Jean Marie Seroney and former Senator Gerald Nathaniel Kalya after he rode on the whims of the then power brokers let by former nominated MP Ezekiel Barngetuny to become MP for Tinderet.
Despite the smooth ride he has enjoyed as an influential leader in local politics, Henry Kosgey’s influence in Rift valley has been waning since suspended Higher Education Minister William Ruto came on to the scene.
Francis Muthaura
As the head of the civil service, Muthaura has been the nerve center of Kenya’s public industry. He has held several senior positions in government before finally rising to the pinnacle of the public service.
Muthaura was born in 1946 and is from the Meru ethnic group.
Francis Muthaura has worked as District Officer in Mombasa district, Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kenya’s diplomatic missions in New York and Brussels, Under Secretary and Head of Economic division in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He has also been the Kenya’s Ambassador to Belgium, Luxemburg and European Community, Kenya’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN), New York, Secretary General of the East African Community.
He has served as the PS in the Ministry of Transport and Communication, Environment and Natural Resources, Provincial Administration and National Security in the Office of the President (OP).
He is one of those who received regular intelligence briefs on the possible violence that would break out. He is also accused of having attended a meeting at State House that planned retaliation in Naivasha.
Muthaura is one of Kibaki’s closest allies.
William Ruto
William Ruto political history can be described as meteoric, having risen from relative obscurity in the 1990’s to a position of significance within a short period.
Mr Ruto has formed the United Republican Party, URP and has stated his intention to run for presidency on the party’s ticket.
William Ruto came into prominence through the YK92 Moi-KANU lobby group.
Enjoying a near fanatic following among supporters from his ethnic Kalenjin community, William Ruto considers himself fit to be president.
The ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo says William Ruto, who was born in 1966, was the principal planner and organizer of crimes against supporters of Kibaki .
Ruto is accused of plotting for years to drive Kibaki supporters out of farms and towns in the Rift Valley using a network of politicians, media representatives, financiers, tribal elders and former members of the security forces.
Ruto was at the time a senior official in Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s ODM party.
Odinga and Ruto fell out after the coalition government was formed in 2008 and relations worsened after Ruto was sacked from the cabinet.
The deputy ODM leader is remembered for his vehement opposition to the plan by the chairman of the disbanded Electoral Commission of Kenya Samuel Kivuitu to announce the results for the presidential election in 2007 because ODM believed they were not true.
At one point during Kivuitu’s attempt to announce the final result at a media briefing at KICC’s Aberdare room, Ruto, who had got hold of a microphone, told Kivuitu: “We have a different tally of the results from Molo other than the one you have read. You cannot continue reading results which are not real!”
Mr Ruto then presented the Molo Electoral Commission returning officer who was later exposed as a fake.
Ruto’s name was linked to the post election violence, pev by a report that was prepared by the Kenya National Human Rights Commission.
The suspended Higher Education Minister has been fighting to exonerate himself from the accusations in the report.
Uhuru Kenyatta
Before 1997, Uhuru only claim to fame rested on the fact that he is the son of Kenya’s founding President, Jomo Kenyatta.
Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta was born in 1961. He is the only one of the six to take the stand to challenge accusations against him.
Kenyatta has said the ICC process would not affect Kenyan markets, the economy or his presidential aspirations.
Uhuru’s entry into national politics began in 1997 as the chairman of the Gatundu branch of Kanu, with the tacit approval of former president Moi.
In the General Election held in December of the same year, Uhuru contested the Gatundu parliamentary seat, which he lost to little known Nairobi architect, Moses Mwihia. Uhuru then quit politics and retreated to obscurity.
In 1999, Moi appointed Uhuru as the chairman of the Kenya Tourist Board, and in 2001 he was nominated to Parliament. He was subsequently made a Cabinet Minister, and later elected vice chairman of Kanu.
In the 2002 elections, Moi saw to it that Uhuru became the presidential candidate for Kanu. However, Kanu lost the elections. In the 2007 elections, he chose to support President Kibaki.
Uhuru Kenyatta is a succesful businessman in his own right having started several succesful companies, prominent among them being Brookside Dairy, the largest milk processing company in Kenya.
Uhuru was recently named as the richest Kenyan by Forbes magazine.
Mr Kenyatta has stated he will seek to become Kenya’s fourth president after Mwai Kibaki retires.
Maj-Gen (Rtd) Mohammed Hussein Ali
He is a former military commander who was moved to head the police force in 2004 while at the rank of brigadier.
Born in Eldoret in 1956, Ali, an ethnic Somali, joined the Kenya Army in 1977 finally rising to the rank of Brigadier in 2003, a year before he was appointed to head the Kenya Police force.
During his military career he served as a military attache in Zimbabwe and Uganda, and was commanding officer of the Western Brigade. He also at various times headed the Kenya Army Paratrooper Battalion, and the Air Cavalry regiment in Embakasi. He is also a former chairman of the Ulinzi Stars football club.
He was promoted to the rank of Major General in 2005.
It was during his tenure that the post election violence occurred resulting in the death of more than 1000 people. The police force is accused of killing at least 400 people out of the total number of those who died during the chaos.
He has never spoken publicly about the ICC trials or expected ruling but those close to him reveal that he has been closely monitoring the process.
Joshua arap Sang
Joshua arap Sang, a Kalenjin born in 1975, heads operations at the privately-owned radio KASS FM, which broadcasts mainly in the Kalenjin language, and is a presenter of a daily breakfast show dubbed lene met (what is the world saying).
Kass FM presenter Joshua arap Sang honed his journalistic skills in Eldoret. He first joined and worked for Christian Radio and Television network Sauti Ya Rehema (Sayare RTV) based in Eldoret for five years.
After Sayare, Sang then moved to Bibilia Husema Broadcasting from 2003 to 2005 before joining the newly established Kass FM media station in Nairobi. Apart from being presenter, Sang was appointed head of studio.
Sang, who hails from Cherangany constituency, attended Kitale Academy Secondary School and later joined the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication (KIMC).
In the 2007 General Elections, Sang had expressed interest to vie for the Cherangany constituency’s parliamentary seat currently held by Joshua Kutuny.
Sang, who made inroads into the constituency prior to the polls is said to have been prevailed upon to drop his bid for a later date.
The ICC prosecutor says Sang was a principal planner and an organizer of crimes against PNU’s Kibaki supporters, and used coded language on his Kalenjin language shows to signal attacks and broadcast the locations where attacks were to take place.
